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Toba gets touted as Sumatra’s prettiest volcanic lake, a claim that detracts from its real appeal: the Batak people. Sure there is a backdrop of mountains and a cool, clear lake, but Toba’s relaxed atmosphere remains intact even when the day is hazy or the shore front overgrown with weeds.
And the Batak culture has modernized with grace despite tinkering from missionaries and tourists.
This is all the more reason to come, not out of some sort of traveling philanthropy, but because the beaten trail is now off the beaten track. Nice hotel rooms go for a song, the outgoing Batak are genuinely glad to see you and the crowds that make traveling feel like child’s play are being babysat somewhere else.
‘Horas’ is the traditional Batak greeting and it’s delivered with great gusto, as are a few glasses of jungle juice (most Toba Batak are Christians) to warm up the pipes for the music-loving Batak.
THE BATAKS
British traveler William Marsden astonished the ‘civilized’ world in 1783 when he returned to London with an account of a cannibalistic kingdom in the interior of Sumatra that, nevertheless, had a highly developed culture and a system of writing. The Bataks have been a subject of fascination ever since.
The Bataks are a Proto-Malay people descended from Neolithic mountain tribes from northern Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) who were driven out by migrating Mongolian and Siamese tribes.
When the Bataks arrived in Sumatra they trekked inland, making their first settlements around Danau Toba, where the surrounding mountains provided a natural protective barrier. They lived in virtual isolation for centuries.
The Bataks were among the most warlike peoples in Sumatra, and villages were constantly feuding. They were so mistrustful that they did not build or maintain natural paths between villages, or construct bridges. The practice of ritual cannibalism, involving eating the flesh of a slain enemy or a person found guilty of a serious breach of adat (traditional law), survived among the Toba Bataks until 1816.
Today there are more than six million Bataks, divided into six main linguistic groups, and their lands extend 200km north and 300km south of Danau Toba.
The origins of the name ‘Batak’ are unclear; one theory suggests it could come from a derogatory Malay term for robber or blackmailer. Another claims that it was an abusive nickname, coined by Muslims, meaning ‘pig eater’.
The Bataks are primarily an agricultural people and the rich farmlands of the Karo Highlands supply vegetables for much of North Sumatra, as well as for export.
Religion & Mythology
The Bataks have long been squeezed between the Islamic strongholds of Aceh and West Sumatra and, despite several Acehnese attempts to conquer and convert, it was the European missionaries who finally quelled the waters with Christianity.
The majority of today’s Bataks are Protestant Christians, however, many still practise elements of traditional animist belief and ritual. Traditional beliefs combine cosmology, ancestor and spirit worship and tondi - the concept of the soul that exists near the body and from time to time takes its leave, which causes illness. It is essential for Bataks to make sacrifices to their tondi to keep it in good humour.
The Bataks believe the banyan to be the tree of life; they tell a legend of their omnipotent god Ompung, who created all living creatures by dislodging decayed branches of a huge banyan into the sea.
Architecture
The most distinctive element of Batak culture is traditional architecture. Batak houses are built on stilts, up to 2m from the ground with a hipped (Karo) or saddle-back (Toba) roof ending in sharp rising points said to resemble buffalo horns. Houses are traditionally made of wood (slotted and bound together without nails) and roofed with sugar-palm fiber or, more often these days, rusting corrugated iron. The gables are usually extravagantly embellished with carvings of serpents, spirals, lizards and monster heads complete with bulbous eyes.
The space under the main structure is used for rearing domestic animals such as cows, pigs and goats. The living area, or middle section, is large and open with no fixed internal walls. A traditional village is made up of a number of such houses, similar to the villages of the Toraja people of central Sulawesi.
Culture
The strong Indian influence running through Batak culture is evident in the cultivation of wet-field rice, the type of houses, chess, cotton and even the type of spinning wheel.
A purely Batak tradition is the sigalegale puppet dance, once performed at funerals, but now more often a part of wedding ceremonies. The life-sized puppet, carved from the wood of a banyan tree, is dressed in the traditional costume of red turban, loose shirt and blue sarong. The sigalegale stand up on long, wooden boxes where the operator makes them dance to gamelan (percussion orchestra) music accompanied by flute and drums.
One story of the origin of the sigalegale puppet concerns a widow who lived on Samosir. Bereft and lonely after the death of her husband, she made a wooden image of him and whenever she felt lonely hired a dalang (puppeteer-storyteller) to make the puppet dance and a dukun (mystic) to communicate with the soul of her husband.
Whatever its origins, the sigalegale soon became part of Batak culture and was used at funeral ceremonies to revive the souls of the dead and to communicate with them. Personal possessions of the deceased were used to decorate the puppet, and the dukun would invite the deceased’s soul to enter the wooden puppet as it danced on top of the grave.
Arts & Crafts
Traditionally, the Bataks are skilled metalworkers and woodcarvers; other materials they use are shells, bark, bone and horn. Their work is decorated with fertility symbols, magic signs and animals.
One particularly idiosyncratic art form developed by the Toba Bataks is the magic augury book, pustaha. These books comprise the most significant part of their written history. Usually carved out of bark or bamboo, the books are important religious records that explain the established verbal rituals and responses of priests and mourners. Other books, inscribed on bone or bamboo and ornately decorated at each end, document Batak myths.
Porhalaan are divining calendars - 12 months of 30 days each - engraved on a cylinder of bamboo. They are used to determine auspicious days on which to embark on certain activities, such as marriage or the planting of the fields.
Music
Music is as important to the Bataks as it is to most societies, but traditionally it was played as part of religious ceremonies rather than for everyday pleasure. Today the Bataks are famous for their powerful and emotive hymn singing.
Most of their musical instruments are similar to those found elsewhere in Indonesia - cloth-covered copper gongs in varying sizes struck with wooden hammers; a small two-stringed violin, which makes a pure but harsh sound; and a kind of reedy clarinet.
Orientation
Danau Toba is the largest lake in Southeast Asia, covering a massive 1707 sq km. In the middle of this huge expanse is Pulau Samosir, a wedge-shaped island almost as big as Singapore that was created by an eruption between 30,000 and 75,000 years ago.
Well, Bahasa Indonesia calls it an island, but those visiting the west of Toba will discover that Samosir isn’t actually an island at all. It’s linked to the mainland by a narrow isthmus at the town of Pangururan - and then cut again by a canal.
Directly facing Parapat is another peninsula occupied by the village of Tuk Tuk, which has Samosir’s greatest concentration of tourist facilities. Tomok, a few kilometers south of Tuk Tuk, is the main village on the east coast of the island; Pangururan is the largest town on the west coast.
Information
BOOKSHOPS
Better load up on reading material in Toba, because the rest of Sumatra is a desert for the printed word. Gokhon Library and several other sundries shops nearby have used and rental books.
INTERNET ACCESS & TELEPHONE
Internet access (25,000Rp per hour) is available at Samosir Cottages. A wartel is located across the street from Rumba Pizzeria & Homestay.
MEDICAL SERVICES
Health center (Small) 24-hour place close to the turn-off to Carolina Hotel, at the southern end of the peninsula; is equipped to cope with cuts and bruises and other minor problems.
MONEY
Be sure to change your money before you get to Samosir. Exchange rates at the island’s hotels and moneychangers are pretty awful.
POST
Samosir’s only post office is in Ambarita, but several shops in Tuk Tuk sell stamps and have postboxes.
Sights & Activities
You’ll see more Christian paraphernalia in Toba than you will in the American Bible Belt. In Batak communities, homes are typically decorated with tapestries of a long-haired Jesus and gold cross necklaces adorn cleavage. The rice paddies and villages are cultivated around sober Protestant-style churches and tombs merging traditional Batak architecture and Christian crosses.
This was once the ‘heart of darkness’ from the perspective of the European and American missionaries and the first evangelists met their makers by the tips of spears.
Good timing brought survival and fame to a German missionary named Nommensen. His arrival preceded a bumper crop and in return the Batak king traded in a few animistic beliefs for the lucky charm of Christianity.
The resulting blend of traditional culture and imported religion, observable in the Batak countryside, puts a realistic face to those exotic tales of mannered missionaries and cannibalistic natives.
The following sights and activities are located around Danau Toba.
KING SIDABUTAR GRAVE
The Batak king who adopted Christianity is buried in Tomok, a village southeast of Tuk Tuk. The king’s image is carved on his tombstone, along with those of his bodyguard and Anteng Melila Senega, the woman the king is said to have loved for many years without fulfillment. The tomb is also decorated with carvings of singa, mythical creatures with grotesque three-horned heads and bulging eyes. Next door in death is the missionary who converted the tribe, the career equivalent of boy band stardom. Next in the row is an older Batak royal tomb, which is used as a multilingual fertility shrine for childless couples, according to souvenir vendors.
The tombs are 500m up a narrow lane lined with souvenir stalls. Tomok is only 5km from Tuk Tuk and is an easy bike ride.
STONE CHAIRS
More traditional Batak artistry and legend is on view in Ambarita, 5km north of Tanjung Tuk Tuk.
The 300-year-old stone chairs (admission 2000Rp; h8am-6pm) is where village matters were discussed and wrongdoers were tried.
A second set of megaliths in an adjoining courtyard was where the accused were bound, blindfolded, sliced and rubbed with chili and garlic before being beheaded.
Guides love to play up the story and ask for volunteers to demonstrate the process. It is customary to pay a small fee for the tale.
There is a small market in Ambarita on Thursday (7am to 10am) to the right of the T-junction.
MUSEUM HUTA BOLON SIMANINDO
At the northern tip of the island, in Simanindo, there’s a fine old traditional house that has been restored and now functions as a museum ( h10am-5pm). It was formerly the home of Rajah Simalungun, a Batak king, and his 14 wives. Originally, the roof was decorated with 10 buffalo horns, which represented the 10 generations of the dynasty.
The museum has a small but interesting collection of brass cooking utensils, weapons, Dutch and Chinese crockery, sculptures and Batak carvings.
Displays of traditional Batak dancing are performed at 10.30am from Monday to Saturday, if enough tourists show up.
The village of Simanindo is 15km from Tuk Tuk and is accessible with a hired motorbike.
SIMANINDO TO PANGURURAN
The road that follows the northern rind of Samosir between Simanindo and the town of Pangururan is a scenic ride through the Bataks’ embrace of life and death. In the midst of the fertile rice fields are large multi-storey graves decorated with the distinctive Batak-style house and a simple white cross.
Reminiscent of Thai spirit houses, Batak graves reflect much of the animistic attitudes of sheltering the dead. Cigarettes and cakes are offered to the deceased as memorials or as petitions for favours. Typical Christian holidays, such as Christmas, dictate special attention to the graves.
In Pangururan, a simple warung (Jl Danau Toba), across from the police station, looks more like a bus stop than a restaurant, but it does a busy lunch-time trade of Batak dishes, such as sassang (stewed pork) and nila (fish stew).
SWIMMING
Danau Toba reaches a depth of 450m deep in places and is refreshingly cool. But only a few of the hotels in Tuk Tuk maintain weed-free swimming spots.
Across the isthmus, just before Pangururan, there are some mata air panas (hot springs) that the locals are extremely proud of. Most foreigners look around at the litter and decide that the waters are
too hot.
TREKKING
If you don’t fully succumb to Samosir’s anesthetizing atmosphere, there are a couple of interesting treks across the island.
The trails aren’t well marked and can be difficult to find, but ask any of the guest-houses for a map. In the wet season (December to March) the steep inclines are very muddy and slippery and can be quite dangerous.
The central highlands of Samosir are about 700m above the lake and afford stunning views of mist-cloaked mountains on a clear day. The top of the escarpment forms a large plateau and at its heart is a small lake, Danau Sidihoni. Samosir’s vast tracts of jungle have long since vanished and the only forest you will pass through on either walk is pine, and even this is only in small areas. However, there are many interesting cinnamon, clove and coffee plantations and some beautiful waterfalls.
Most people opt for the short trek from Ambarita to Pangururan. It can be done in a day if you’re fit and in a hurry, though it’s best to stay overnight in one of the villages. The path starts opposite the bank in Ambarita.
Keep walking straight at the escarpment and take the path to the right of the graveyard.
The three-hour climb to the top is hard and steep. The path then leads to Partungkaon village (also called Dolok); here you can stay at Jenny’s Guest House or John’s Losmen. From Partungkaon, it’s about five hours’ walk to Pangururan via Danau Sidihoni.
The road between Tomok and Forest House 1, an interior guesthouse, is now paved and many visitors steer motorbikes up the escarpment to Danau Sidihoni.
Bring along wet-weather gear and some snacks. There are no warung along the way but you should be able to buy cups of coffee or even arrange accommodation at villages en route.
Festivals & Events
The week-long Danau Toba Festival is held every year in mid-June. Canoe races are a highlight of the festival, but there are also Batak cultural performances.
Sleeping
The eastward-facing coast of the Tuk Tuk peninsula is chock-a-block with more multi-storey hotels than there is demand, creating a near ghost town. Some people visit temple ruins, others prefer the solitude of tourism ruins. But if emptiness equals eeriness for you, you’ll be better off on the north and south coasts, where little guesthouses are tucked in between village chores: washing the laundry on the rocks and collecting the news from neighbors.
All of the places listed here are located in Tuk Tuk.
Vandu. One of the cheapest on Tuk Tuk, and it shows.
Horas Chill Out Café & Home-stay. A half -dozen birdhouse bungalows are perched on the cliff, with good views and a steep descent to the water below.
Christina’s Guesthouse. Cheap and laid-back, Christina’s is comfortable like a well-worn pair of jeans.
Bagus Bay & Restaurant. Next door to Tabo Cottages, Bagus is the recovering professional’s choice, a bit more hip for midlife wanderers. Rooms in traditional Batak houses overlook avocado trees and a children’s playground.
Samosir Cottages. Travellers who get stranded in Parapet over-night typically get escorted to Samosir Cottages, a package-type hotel that discounts its rooms to suit budget tastes. A nice sun and swim area keeps those travellers put.
Liberta Homestay. A chill universe is created here by a lazy-day garden and arty versions of traditional Batak houses. Crawling around the balconies and shortened doors of the rooms feels like being a deck hand on a Chinese junk. In the evening, Liberta is a local hot spot for guides and guitars.
Tabo Cottages & Vegetarian Restaurant. The professionals’ choice, Tabo Cottages has modern rooms set in a beautiful garden. Lots of expats from Jakarta and Aceh bring the family here for a weekend getaway.
Carolina Hotel. Considered Tuk Tuk’s swankiest (a relative term), Carolina is neat and orderly, perhaps too much so for dishevelled types. But its economy rooms are an eagle’s eyrie with a hilltop perch in a polished Batak-style building. Carolina’s swimming area is the best on the island.
Feel free to poke around what is not listed here, as there are often deep discounts for pioneers. If you’ve come for swimming, take a good look at the hotel’s water access; everyone claims that they have great swimming holes but fail to mention the docking boats or drown-able weeds. Touts from various guesthouses often scoop up travelers at the Parapat pier, taking the guesswork out of the shelter search.
Some other perfectly comfortable options include:
Anju Cottages Waterfront complex.
Romlan. Popular with a German clientele.
Eating
There are dozens of half-open restaurants, so surprised to see a customer that the neighborhood kids have to fetch the proprietor.
Vegetarian menus prevail, with homemade bread and tempe sambal (tofu with chili sauce). We entrust you with the task of foraging for yourself in this wilderness.
The guesthouses tend to mix eating and entertainment in the evening. Most restaurants serve the Batak specialty of barbecued carp (often appearing as ‘goldfish’ on menus), sometimes accompanied by traditional dance performances.
The following restaurants are all located in Tuk Tuk.
Bamboo Restaurant & Bar. A stylish place to watch the sun slink away, Bamboo has cosy cushion seating, a down-tempo mood and a reliable menu.
Rumba Pizzeria & Home-stay. Sometimes Rumba’s is full of energy cranking out Toba music and side dishes of cheerfulness. But even if it’s deserted, the pizzas are divine after the monotony of nasi Padang.
Drinking
Brando’s Blues Bar (Tuk Tuk) There are a handful of foreigner-oriented bars, such as this one in between the local jungle-juice cafés. The local tipple is palm wine, known as tuak.
Entertainment
Today the parties are all local - celebrating a wedding, new addition on a house or the return of a Toba expat. Invitations are gladly given and should be cordially accepted. On most nights, music and spirits fill the night air with the kind of camaraderie that only grows in small villages. The Toba Bataks are extremely musical and passionate choruses erupt from invisible corners.
Check around Tuk Tuk to see if any of the tourist restaurants are hosting Batak dancing.
Shopping
Samosir’s souvenir shops carry a huge range of cheap and tacky cotton T-shirts. For something slightly more original, local
Gayo embroidery is made into a range of bags, cushion covers and place mats.
Around Tuk Tuk there are numerous woodcarvers selling a variety of figures, masks, boxes and porhalaan, as well as some traditional musical instruments.
Getting There & Away
BOAT
Ferries between Parapat and Tuk Tuk operate about every two hours from 9.30am to 7.30pm. Ferries stop at Bagus Bay; other stops are by request. The first and last ferries from Samosir leave at about 8.30am and 4.30pm; check exact times with your hotel. When leaving for Parapat, stand on your hotel jetty and wave a ferry down.
Five ferries a day shuttle vehicles and people between Ajibata, just south of Parapat, and Tomok. There are five departures per day between 8.30am and 8.30pm.
BUS
See Parapat, the mainland transit point, for information on bus travel to/ from Danau Toba.
On Samosir, Pangururan has a daily buses to Berastagi via Sidikalang, which is also a transfer point to Kutacane and Tapaktuan (on the west coast).
Getting Around
Local buses serve the whole of Samosir except Tanjung Tuk Tuk. A helpful service is the regular minibuses between Tomok and Ambarita , continuing to Simanindo and Pangururan. The road between the neck of the peninsula is a good spot to flag down these minibuses. Services dry up after 3pm.
You can rent motorcycles or Bicycle in Tuk Tuk.
