The Oldest Civilization at Lake Toba

The largest lake in Indonesia which located in North Sumatera Indonesia i.e lake Toba is not only give an interest natural view. Here, in the vulkanic lake of lake Toba was saved a civilization of the ancient Batak before the arrival of missionaries Nommensen 1862. The lake Toba has 200 metres in depht. The trail of this civilization is easy to found in samosir island, an island which located amid lake Toba. if you want to reach this island is so easy, it can be reached by ferry boat from Aji Bata harbor in Parapat. If you depart from Medan(The Capital of North Sumatera), it will spend 4 hours.

The adventure of the old village civilization at Samosir can be easier with transportation rental from Parapat. Because the public transportation in Samosir is still rare and limited, so that the children on the island should be piles on the roof of the vehicle during the hours go out or go home from school.

if you take a ferry boat, you should bring a float by yourself while you was sailing the lake. Because it will be feared if in boat there are not floats. The adventure destination in Tomok village is begin.

Tomok village

Tomok is the village with population 6.000 souls.This village had built by King Sidabutar in hundreads time ago. In a centuries ago, the Samosir island is controlled by some small king that lead in several village area. The kings are imagined like the head of village in nowdays. They often doing wars, thes way they are build bastion or citadel to save their village themselves which indeed is the king's family and his descendant. This ancient villages are funcionate to be museum now.

In Tomok, there are original house of the king Sidabutar. It is the stage house made from iron wood, the house is still look so sturdy, supported by large wooden pillars that serve as the main pillar. The Batak traditional houses are built with peg system which Wooden rods to interlock with pegs its carved directly on the wood.

Not far from the house is tomb of the descendants of King Sidabutar, and in front of tomb complex stands a large gate with a rich ornamentation carved in red, black, and white. The three colors that became the spiritual symbol of the Batak. In the gate carved lizard is facing four breasts. According to the customary head of Tomok village said that the lizard is mean that the Batak people should be life like as lizard, it mean they can life anywhere and easy to adaptation. Then the breast is symbol of mothers, so that while the Batak people going anywhere they should have remember their mothers and so does their homeland.

While we entrance to the tomb complex, there are stone coffin carved human head which not buried underground but on the land, there are inside the coffin was King of Sidabutas and his descendant buried.

The Old Village of Huta Bolon Simanindo

"Huta Bolon" is the large village in local translation. This village had built by King Simanindo. The Huta Bolon located at 20 km from Tomok. While we entrance to the village we are greeted by the gate with dull paint it mean the gate is so old. In the gate wrote the name of the village. Then we see the tombs of King Simanindo and family in line on the road.

If Tomok village built the stone rail to protect the village, but the Huta Bolon built the land rail to protect the village from the enemies. That rail was be planted by a grass over the rail closely. In the village there are two rows of houses were built facing each other. One series is home to the king and his family, while the other is a row of houses barn, home guards, and family room king.

In the central pillar of wood stuck to tie the buffalo that are used in ritual offerings. days when tourists are still a lot of visiting Lake Toba, in Huta Bolon Simanindo often held traditional arts, like dance sigale-Gale and single-tor-tor panaluan. The show was a reconstruction of a ritual that held ancient Toba Batak society.

The Oldest history of Batak
It is in the old village of Huta Siallagan Ambarita, Samosir, North Sumatera, Indonesia. In there, before Batak people knew Christian religion, the King Siallagan use to lynch his enemies as a punishment.

The village was surrounded by a wall built of natural stone composition. In the middle of the village, there is a table of stone with stone seats arranged in a circle. That site is called a stone court. It was already more than 200 years old. In the past, before punishing criminals or enemy, King Siallagan and village elders held a hearing on a stone court. After the trial, the enemy or criminals brought to the place of execution which is behind the village.

The place of execution's layout is similar to the stone court. It's just that there is a large rock and boulders elongated shape with a hollow in the middle. Large rock that extends it to lay the enemy king before her body slashed to eliminate immunity of his enemies bodies. After slashed, the head of enemies were decapitated in a hollow stone.

In the end of the adventure you still can enjoy the beautifull natural view of lake Toba, the largest lake in Indonesia. Happpy Journey.