History of the Batak People

My musings based on a YouTube documentary

Author’s note: Happy 4th of July everyone. This post has nothing to do with American independence, but it’ll be weird if I didn’t mention it since this blog is called “Indonesian and American”. I honestly didn’t expect to have this post go online on this very date, lol.

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Welcome back,

I know it’s been a while since I made a bona fide Indonesian and American post. While I hope you enjoyed my two cross-posts, I aim to fix that absence with this blogpost.

Anyways, I want talk about the history of the Batak People of Indonesia. To be more specific, I want to talk about a documentary I’ve watched which goes by that name¹:

Unfortunately for my non-Indonesian readers, this documentary is in Indonesian and YouTube doesn’t have any translation subtitles. That being said, I’ll be relaying in English some of the things found in the video.

As I have said before, I am of the Batak ethnicity. But being a deracinated Jakartan (and American), I know very little of the stories and whatnot. So that’s why I enjoyed the little tidbits I found in this documentary.

Follow me on this virtual journey to Lake Toba and Samosir Island².

First of all, I want to gush about the production value of this documentary. I love the music that they used here. Also, some of the graphics are pretty cool. Take a look at this one, for example:

Maybe it’s because I’m not exposed to Indonesian media all that much, but it’s not something that I would expect from an Indonesian production. I love ‘em.

In general, the documentary focuses on two aspects of the Batak people: the traditional and the modern. In terms of the traditional, the documentary covered how the Batak had traditionally seen themselves. This was seen about four minutes into the video.

Here, the documentary talked about the sites that the Batak people held to be sacred (sakral). To be honest, I have little idea about these things myself. But there are people who certainly held them in high regard.

Just look at the man in the above picture. He’s the guardian³ of one of the aforementioned sacred sites - a house containing the statues of the Batak ancestors. Growing up in a Protestant⁴ household, I am certain that some of Bataks are probably uncomfortable with what was going on here.

Take a look at when the man talked about his ancestors. Even if you don’t speak Indonesian, you can tell the reverence in his voice and body language. I can respect that, even if I don’t necessarily agree with his religion⁵.

So that’s the traditional account of the Batak people. It’s still alive and well, though the modern world being what it is, the Batak people have also been affected by modernity. This is where the documentary drew the contrast between the traditional and the modern.

Thus, we get into the part of the video where it talked about the archeological evidence regarding the origins of the Batak people.

This is an interesting topic because the origins of the Batak people seems to be an archeological mystery. Where did they come from? Thailand? Tibet? Taiwan? Somewhere else perhaps?

A theory on the movements of the Batak people before reaching Lake Toba

I’m not an archeologist, nor am I familiar with all the evidence. Regardless, I found all this to be very interesting. The idea that the Batak are descendants of the Mongols (like Genghis Khan⁶) would be cool, if true.

I’ll let those more informed than I to work out the traditional and modern aspects of the Batak people (including the origins).

Around the halfway part of the video is where the documentary talks about the story of Si Gale-Gale. Si Gale-Gale refers to a dancing puppet about the size of a man.

The story behind this (honestly) silly-looking puppet is very interesting. It concerns the relationship between a local king and his only son, Simangale. The king’s son was sent to fight in defense of his father’s kingdom. However, he was killed in battle.

Tragedy struck

In his grief, the king enlisted the aid of a witch doctor who then used his powers to transfer Simangale’s soul into a statue that was in his likeness.

While one should not enlist the services of a witch, the story of a father’s love for his son is very touching.

And that’s the story behind Si Gale-Gale. To this day, people come to see it dance.

I don’t know if this part of the documentary is intentional on the part of the filmmakers, but I found it ironic that we have a kid who has a Darth Vader t-shirt taking part in this traditional Batak dance. It sums up the mix of the traditional and the modern in the Batak Old Country.

With that out of the way, the video moved on to the tomb of a king called Raja Sidabutar⁷. According to the documentary, the locals believe that by being close to the king’s tomb, they are also close to their king.

Here’s a picture of the king’s sarcophagus. I like the artisanship. But I’m showing this picture because I want to direct the audience to what I assume to be a tombstone at the right edge of the picture. There’s a cross on the tombstone, which is a reminder that the Batak is a majority Christian ethnic group.

Afterwards, the documentary mostly covered the cultural quirks of the Batak people. They’re all interesting, at least to me. But I’m not going to get into that for two reasons: the first (and honestly the primary) reason is that this post is nearing Substack’s e-mail limit⁸, the other is because this blogpost is more focused on the history of the Batak people⁹.

That being said, I think it’s cool how the Batak flag (red, white, and black) is only one color removed from the Indonesian flag (red and white).

And that’s the video. I’m glad that I was able to watch it. If you understand Indonesian, I suggest you watch it for yourself because it’s informative - and it’s not even 20 minutes long.

Until next time,

Michael P. Marpaung

1. “Sejarah Orang Batak” is literally Indonesian for “History of the Batak People".

2. Which are located in North Sumatra.

3. That’s the English word which I think best describes what he does.

4. AKA the branch of Christianity where kneeling before statues and praying to the Saints are a big no-no

5. I assume he still held on to the Traditional Batak religion (Parmalim) though I don’t know for sure. Even to this day, you can still see syncretism at play amongst the Batak.

6. We’re all descendants of the Great Khan, after all - at least if you’re Asian and/or European.

7. Means “King Sidabutar” in Indonesian.

8. I put a lot pictures in this post, lol.

9. In other words, the past.