exotic asia

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Tha Batak Chair at Ambarita

Lake Toba is situated about 4 our drive from Medan, the gateway to north sumatra.

In the days when the transportation was limited, the interaction between the tribes were limited. Thus the Batak people from the surrounding Lake Toba had developed their own way of like.

One of the Batak group is the Ambarita tribe, living in the Samosir Island in the middle of the lake.  The stones chairs of Ambarita where tribal elders Council place.

Ambarita is an old Batak tribal village on Samosir island in Lake Toba. It is located an hour’s walk Northwest of tuk tuk or 20 minutes by boat. What makes Ambarita interesting, from an anthropological point of view is that in ancient times the Toba Batak people in Ambarita practiced a form of Carnibalism. What is still the stones chairs, where the village elders Council place. Whenever an enemy was captured, the fate of the victim would rest on the decision of the conference of the rulers.

The victim were kept behind bars in one of the houses near the councils meeting place. If it is established that the victim deserves death, he is brought to a dining table, where he is beaten to death. The stone chair was used to behead the victims. Then he is hacked, its meat is cooked with Buffalo meat and Council, served the tribal with the food and complete the menu with the drink of victim’s blood!

You will reach Ambarita by boat. As walk away from the jetty, you will come across the graveyard of Laga Siallagan, first Raja of Ambarita. The road will take you to the compound of the old Batak village where rows of traditional Toba Batak architecture were built. However the sign of modern of interference has shown. Many of the houses are using the zinc roof, when the tradition houses are still using the thached. Many visitors are hoping that the villagers retain the traditional roofs rather than the modern metal roofs.

The visit include the house where the victims are kept. We hope the old custom has ended. Nobody want to end up in the bowl of soup.

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