The Sacred Edifices of The Batak of Sumatra 9781949098594 9781951538590 Compress

OCCASIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF
ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

NO.4
THE SACRED EDIFICES OF

THE BATAK OF SUMATRA
BY
HARLEY HARRIS BARTLETT
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
UNIVERSITY OF lVIICHIGAN PRESS
July 5, 1934
© 1934 by the Regents of the University of Michigan
The Museum of Anthropology
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CONTENTS
PAGE
PARSOEROAN (PARDEMBANAN AND SrMELOENGOEN) • 1
DJORO (ToEA), DJERAT (PARDEMBANAN, SrMELOENGOEN,

AND KARo),PENDAWANEN AND GERITEN (KARo) 11
PANTANGEN (KARo) 16
ANDJAPAN (PARDEMBANAN), BEBEREN AND ANDJAP-

ANDJAP (KARO), LANGGATAN (ToEA) 17
NoTEs oN RELATED MATTERs
UNBURIED CoFFINs 21
EQUESTRIAN FIGURES 21
STONE SARCOPHAGI AND GRAVESTONES SHAPED LIKE

SARCOPHAGI 26
REFERENCES • 29
PLATES I-XXXI WITH DESCRIPTIONS facing 31

THE SACRED EDIFICES OF THE BATAK
OF SUMATRA 1
T HE chief object of this article is to make a record of

certain sacred and ceremonial structures that were for-
merly characteristic of the Batak region of Sumatra, namely,
the parsoeroan (temple) of Asahan and Simeloengoen, the
djoro (grave shrine) of Toba, and the djerat (grave house)
of Simeloengoen. Secondarily, there are short notes on sar-
cophagi, ceremonial and magical inclosures, and ceremonial
apparatus (such as altars) that are of such bulky or tempo-
rary nature as not to be represented in ordinary ethno-
graphic collections. Of these a photographic record must
take the place of museum specimens. The chief of these are
the langgatan of Toba, the beberen and andjap-andjap of
Karoland, and the andjapan of Asahan.
PARSOEROAN (PARDEMBANAN AND SIMELOENGOEN)

The parsoeroan is the temple of the pagan Pardembanan
Batak of Asahan and the Timoer Batak of Tano Djawa,
Simeloengoen. As has elsewhere been pointed out ( 4 ), this
region is characterized by the type of symbolic grave-post
known as the anisan and by the grave house known as the
djerat. The anisan does not extend farther north into Sime-
loengoen, so far as the writer has been able to discover, or
south of the Asahan River, or into the highlands of Toba. It
is a surviving element of an intrusive culture, possibly from
the eastern coast of Middle or South Sumatra, and evi-
dently pre-Islamic, that merged with the culture of the
1 Paper from the Department of Botany, University of Michigan, No.
419. Presented at the thirty-third annual meeting of the Michigan Academy,
in 1928.
2 HARLEY HARRIS BARTLETT
highland Batak as the latter spread into the lowlands with

colonizing groups from Toba.
In lowland Asahan not much of either the true Batak
culture or the putative intrusive culture has survived the
impacts of Islam and the European plantation system dur-
ing the last couple of generations. The vestiges of sacred
inclosures containing permanently maintained sanctuaries
are disappearing rapidly or may have even disappeared in
the last few years. These equivalents of temples, together
with certain characteristic grave structures, constitute the
most obvious features of what the writer has termed the in-
trusive element in the paganism of the Pardembanan region
of Asahan and the adjacent Simeloengoen district of Tano
Djawa.
In speaking of a Batak temple, one immediately lays
himself open to a charge of faulty interpretation or super-
ficial observation. Warneck (24 ), the chief student of Batak
religion, came to the considered conclusion that the Batak
have no temples. Even for the mountain people there is
evidence that he should have qualified his statement. As to
the lowland peoples of the East Coast, generally quite dis-
regarded by writers on the Batak, the Pardembanan group
in Asahan and part of the Timoer or Simeloengoen Batak
(those of Tano Djawa) had the parsoeroan, a house for
the spirits within a permanently maintained parhordjaan
(sacred inclosure), served by a priest, and certainly the
equivalent of a temple. In a previous paper referring to
the Batak of lowland Asahan, it has been shown that beating
the drums at the parsoeroan to summon the spirits was one
of the established duties of the datoe (magician-priest).
The diminutive parsoeroan was not itself a place of
assembly, for it was too small to hold more than six or
eight adults. It was never entered except when the datoe
put it in order in preparation for ceremonies, placed offer-
ings within it, or removed the latter after the spirits were
SACRED EDIFICES OF SUMATRA 3
supposed to have consumed the tondi (soul stuff) of the

offerings.
It was therefore the sacred inclosure, in conjunction
with the sanctuary, that made up the equivalent of a temple.
The inclosure itself was never violated by non-ceremonial
uses. It was not trespassed upon, and before it was used
as a place of assembly for ceremonies, the datoe took pre-
cautions to purify the people as they entered, in order that
they might not be accompanied within the inclosure by evil
spirits. He also carried out an elaborate preliminary purif-
icatory ceremony in order to exorcise any uninvited evil
spirits that might have entered in spite of such magical pro-
tective devices as hanging fringes and the crossed sticks
known as silang.
The parsoeroan contained no permanent furniture ex-
cept a parasapan (censer) and a pinggan (big plate). In the
former gum benzoin was burned on ceremonial occasions,
when offerings of food were placed upon the plate. The
entrance was veiled by a hanging cloth, which was kept in
order by the datoe. The parsoeroan was placed at right
angles to the house of the chief and its entrance faced east.
In construction it was a small replica of the middle room
of a chief's great house.
Underneath it were benches on which ancestral spirits
and gods were believed to rest. Here were frequently
stored the sacred gongs and drums (Pl. VIII, Fig. 1), the
ones used for ordinary festivities being kept in the house of
the chief. North (always?) of the parsoeroan but within
the sacred inclosure was erected the andjapan (altar, Pl.
IV), which was renewed each time that important cere-
monies were to be held. The andjapan has been discussed
and figured in a former article ( 5). So mewhere near or
under the parsoeroan was a hollowed stone called the batoe
paranggiran (Pl. VII, Fig. 2), in which were placed por-
tions of the purifying liquids and the peelings of the puri-
fying limes, used upon occasions of ceremonial purification.

An account of such a ceremony has been given elsewhere
(5, pp. 14-18; 16, pp. 16-17). It seems that in general
the offerings placed in the batoe paranggiran were fragrant
or strongly odorous. When the stone was not in use it was
covered over with earth or with palm leaves, or mats, and
it could be uncovered only by the datoe.
The parhordjaan (place of ceremonies) around the
parsoeroan was either inclosed by a permanent stockade
(Pls. I, VI-VII) or a light fence (Pl. III), which was not
allowed to fall into complete disrepair in the intervals be-
tween ceremonies, and was invariably restored and pro-
vided with new gaba-gaba (fringes) made of the still yel-
low, not yet unfolded, leaflets of the sugar palm, whenever
ceremonies were to be held.
There was not necessarily a parsoeroan in the district of
each chief. Even some of the more important chiefs built
a temporary inclosure around the big house when there
were to be ceremonies. Within this inclosure the altar was
built and beside it a structure of palm thatch under which
the gongs were hung and beside which the borotan ( sacri-
ficial post) was erected.
Not the least interesting feature of the permanent cere-
monial inclosure surrounding the parsoeroan was that here
were planted the various sacred and protective plants, such
as the generally odorous or highly colored (red or yellow)
herbs known as roedang, the aromatic plants known as hosea,
and the narcotic plants pining (betel-nut palm), demban
(pepper vine), and tembaho (tobacco). Some of these
plants were not always sacred and when grown in the sacred
inclosure were, therefore, specifically dedicated to the gods.
Here also were fruit trees and coco palms dedicated to the
gods, and the curious little palm, andoedoer (Caryota fur-
furacea), from which palm wine is prepared only to be
offered to the spirits. For human beings it is made from
Arenga, the sugar palm ( 3).
The change in native customs that has come about in

the last few years is quite astonishing. In 1918 there were
very few parsoeroan left, and the writer made it somewhat
of a hobby to visit and photograph, if possible, each one of
which he heard. Most of the photographs presented with
this article date from 1918. By 192 7 so great had been the
change that only one parsoeroan was seen. It was in a little
village reserve (Kampong Taratak) surrounded by the
great Tindjoan oil-palm concession in Tano Djawa. The
natives refused to tell where it was, but by hunting dili-
gently, fording a deep river, and finally subsidizing a small
boy, the writer found it. The fence was gone, but a hen
had been sacrificed under the building within a day or two,
showing that it was still used.
If there is scientific value in making a record of fast
disappearing ethnographic details, the notes and photo-
graphs of the parsoeroan herewith presented are indeed
precious. They prove the existence of a Batak temple,
which has been said not to exist, and for the East Coast
region there will presumably never be any addition to this
record. The pagans of the lowland are about gone. The
writer has taken great pains to see all he could that is of
ethnological importance in Asahan, and nothing more inter-
esting or distinctive than the parsoeroan has been found.
The statement that the Batak have no priests, no tem-
ples, and no idols was made by Waitz (22) in his popular
Anthropologie der Naturvolker and gained wide acceptance
from this source, which was not, of course, original. He
merely quoted Junghuhn ( 10, p. 249), one of the first to
visit the Batak, who in 184 7 had said:
Aerzte iibrigens haben sie ebenso wenig wie Priester, Tempel
ebenso wenig wie Hospitaler, und von einer Religionsdoctrin
eben so wenig eine Spur, als von einem Kultus odor von einem
Idol, das sie verehrten.
The first more accurate statement was made by Hagen
(7), who in 1883, on a scientific trip to the northeastern
extremity of Toba Lake, made observations at Naga Sariboe,

where he stayed, just within the border of the Simeloengoen
region. Here he found two kinds of religious structures,
one of them a small house similar to a grave house but rising
on four posts, like an ordinary dwelling, some fifteen feet
above the ground. It stood near the bale-bale (guest
house and men's social center) and was dedicated to the
protective spirit of the village. It was in bad repair, and
not carefully maintained. This record of Hagen's appears
to be the only definite mention of such a structure in the
literature, and there is no reason to doubt its entire authen-
ticity. Whether or not a structure dedicated to a protective
spirit is to be regarded as a temple depends upon one's
definition of a temple. At any rate Hagen's observation has
been neglected.
In 1894 Pleyte ( 14, p. 45) wrote:
Temples with images of the gods one seeks in vain in the
Bataklands. Only Si Singa Mangaradja, one of the forefathers
of the present chief of this name, seems to have possessed in
olden times a sort of sanctuary in which the faithful assembled
in order to serve and worship him. However, the reports
regarding this structure are so vague that it is impossible to
establish at a later date anything regarding the arrangement
and appearance of it. It can only be ascertained that now it no
longer exists. For the gods as well as for the spirits there have
never existed true temples, certainly not, it would seem, since
the Hindu period. The few ruins from that period found
scattered here and there in the Batak lands suggest both by
their measurements and form, prayer chapels, and not churches
in any sense.
The grave houses which are commonly found in

Simeloengoen, Asahan, and Toba are not usually given the
status of temples by writers on Batak religion. Since they
are places where the ancestral spirits are worshiped, and
where offerings are made, it would seem that their small
size and restricted importance (each djerat or djoro being
resorted to only by the relatives of the person buried there),

and the fact that they are not regularly attended by a priest,
may well exclude them from the category of temples. With
regard to this point, however, the most thorough student
of Batak religion has held two opinions. In 1906 Warneck
(23) defined djoro as "a house that is not inhabited by
human beings, but has a specified purpose"; bagas dj oro as:
A house of the dead, such as they like to build on the graves
of outstanding chiefs, also a temple, for the use of making
offerings;
and djoro ni onan, as "a little house for offerings which
stands at the market place." Later, in 1909, he wrote (24):
Djoro, a little house that is erected on the market place and at
stem festivities as a temporary abode of an ancestor. Moreover
the little structures exactly similar to a Batak house are so
named, that are erected over the graves of notable chiefs.
Both, however, are not temples, but temporary media of wor-
ship. There is no temple among the Batak.
So much for the positive statements that are prominent
in the literature. They refer to T oba and Simeloengoen and
to Bakkara, the former seat of the Batak priest kings ( Si
Singa Mangaradja) in the northwestern part of the Toba
region. Since the southern Batak lands (Padang Lawas,
Mandailing, and Angkola) have been so largely Muham-
madan for a long time, it can hardly be expected that pagan
religious structures will still be reported from that region.
Joustra ( 9) mentions that there are peculiar religious schools
in the southern Muhammadan Batak lands known as soero.
The word base is of course the same as in parsoeroan. Is
such a school perhaps a survival from pagan days-a sacred
inclosure with its building appropriated to the propagation
of Islam? Joustra says that the soero in the southern Batak
lands is a sleeping place for the young men and boys, as
well as a religious school, which fact would seem to indi-
cate that it is now of a very different nature from the
parsoeroa.n even if formerly the same. Its present sig-

nificance may have been derived, with Islam, from the
Minangkabo people to the south. In this connection it may
be remarked that the word also persists in the Malay
Peninsula as surau, "a private chapel, in contradistinction
to a mosque of general assembly" (26, p. 647). Is the
Peninsular surau also a relic of the pre-Islamic religion of
the Malay, anciently propagated from Middle Sumatra?
Among the Minangkabo of Sumatra there is the same use
of soerau in the sense of "school or private chapel" ( 17,
p. 57). Commonly, the soerau in Middle Sumatra per-
tains to a hadji who there gathers the youths about him to
teach them to write. Many chiefs have soerau where they
pray and sometimes offer opportunity for religious instruc-
tion. The larger ones are hardly to be distinguished from
mosques.
That in Middle Sumatra, the cradle of Malay culture,
Islam may have found and appropriated a preexisting
religious structure, the soerau, to its own use is perhaps
indicated by the following facts: ( 1) In both the mosques
and soerau of Middle Sumatra, according to Van Hasselt
( 17, p. 57), the call to prayer is by drum. He says that
the minaret, from which in other Muhammadan countries
the faithful are called to prayer, is lacking, but in place of it
one sees in the Padang Highlands and in Rawas great drums,
called bedoek or taboew, from which the calls to prayer are
issued. (2) Sometimes, at least, drums used only for sum-
moning important assemblies were kept in special small
structures, carved and ornamented, one of which, at Alahan-
pandjang, is beautifully illustrated by Van Hasselt (18, p.
25, Pl. LXIV, Fig. 5). Such a structure in size and archi-
tecture reminds one strongly of the parsoeroan. ( 3) It is the
tradition in Asahan ( 5, p. 3 8) that one of the chief duties of
the datoe or pagan priest was to beat the drum at the parsoe-
roan as a call for the assembly of the gods and ancestral
spmts to whom offerings were to be made and prayers

addressed. One can hardly avoid the strong suspicion that
the soerau, as a place of ceremonial drumming, was an ele-
ment of pre-Islamic Middle Sumatran Malay culture, that
it came to Asahan and Tano Djawa from the Malays, and is
one of the elements of an old intrusive culture which reached
and affected especially the lowland Batak of the Pardem-
banan and Simeloengoen groups.
Negative evidence does not have the value of positive,
but it is at least indicative of the rarity of religious build-
ings in the northern Batak lands that in well-known Karo-
land nothing that can be called such has been described
except the geriten (ancestral skull house), at which there
are religious ceremonies consisting of prayers and offerings
to the ancestors. The pantangen of the goeroe (teacher) or
datoe (magician) seems to be magical rather than primarily
religious.
A long discussion of what a temple is or is not would
hardly be profitable here. In considering the parsoeroan
of Asahan and Tano Djawa as the equivalent of a temple,
the writer wishes to emphasize these points: ( 1) It was a
place for the greater religious observances that concerned
all the people subject to the chief in whose village it was
maintained; ( 2) it was a permanent structure; ( 3) it was
holy and was not desecrated by any common use; ( 4) it
was dedicated to the gods and deified ancestors; (5) it was
under the care of the chief datoe; ( 6) although the small
building itself was not a place of assembly, being more in
the nature of a holy of holies, to be entered only by the
datoe, it was generally surrounded by a permanent sacred
inclosure which was a place of assembly for the participants
in ceremonies. Surely there are here some points of contrast
to the conception voiced by Pleyte ( 14) as follows:
In the past as well as now the Batak has worshipped his gods
in the open air or in his dwelling; the open field, the village
street and his house were and are still today the places where
he offers to them. Only the sombaon was reverenced in its
wide wood.
An objection to such unqualified statements as these should
be made because the religion of the Batak has been used
in the Quellen der Religions-Geschichte (24) as a "para-
digm for the animistic religions of the Indian Archipelago."
If there are wide variations of religious theory and practice
among the Batak themselves, as in the matter of the idea
of the multiple soul versus unformed soul stuff, for
instance, and the maintenance of a temple, these deviations
from the paradigm should receive due consideration, even
though the deviation (as in the example of the parsoeroan)
may possibly indicate ancient pre-Islamic influence from the
Minangkabo region.
The word parsoeroan, from the word base, soero, means
place of invocation. S aero has been considered Common
Indonesian, and extends beyond Indonesia at least to
Fiji ( 11 ). With the coming of Islam, Arabic words were
used for things pertaining to the new religion, and the per-
sistence of surau in the sense of "a religious edifice" is a good
indication that there was a pre-Islamic pagan structure to
which the word applied. The structure sometimes lingers in
regions that have gone over to Islam as a pagan survival
side by side with the mesdjid ("mosque"), and the name
for it still persists, but rarely, in old tales.
Aside from presumably Indonesian surau, Malay has
the word surah in the sense of "pray," "ask aid," or
"demand." Javanese has the same word. It seems to be an
adoption of the Arabic word for the Muslim confession of
faith, only accidentally similar to soero and its cognates,
unless there is really some truth in the theory several times
advanced that there is a large, pre-Islamic, Semitic element
in the Oceanic languages.
In Asahan three variations of Indonesian soero are

heard, namely, soero, soeroe, and soeroeng, the last being
the peculiar attention-compelling vocative form which is
used in the invocations to the pagar and pangoeloebalang,
by which the datoe compels the captive spirit to exert its
protective or destructive power. (Scores of inscribed bam-
boo joints in the writer's collection of Batak manuscripts
are such invocations, beginning with the powerful word
soeroeng.) Sundanese has sarah, Old Javanese, sereh, Karo,
soero; and many other equivalents could be brought for-
ward. The Fiji sora is exceptionally interesting because it
is used in a country so far to the east. It means "to beg
forgiveness," "an atonement." Kubary ( 11 a) described with
:fine colored plates structures similar to the Batak parsoeroan
as far from Sumatra as the Palau Islands. Hernsheim ( 7,a)
Pl. 5) shows a fine example in one of his colored lithographs.
Matsumura (lza) describes a shrine at Koror, Palau, as:
.... a club house in miniature, being about 1 by 2 mm. It has
simple carvings on the outside, but has no idol or image of a
deity, though it is a place of worship. (Plate XXXI.)
Some of the parsoeroan observed were in villages where
no dwelling house constructed according to the Batak tra-
dition still existed. The sacred nature of the temple
demanded, however, that it follow the old type of architec-
ture, and Plates I-VIII show how careful the construction
was.
DJORO (TOBA), DJERAT (PARDEMBANAN, SIMELOENGOEN,
AND KARO), PENDAWANEN AND GERITEN (KARO)
The two types of ceremonial djoro of the Toba Batak
have already been mentioned. One, the temporary cere-
monial house erected at a market place, the writer does not
happen to have seen. 2 The other, a miniature house erected
2 One of the important Dairi ceremonies which involved the erection of
this :first type of djoro is described by Ypes (2 7, p. 171). His book is a
over the grave of an important man, used as a place for

making offerings to his spirit, is still characteristic of the
Toba landscape in pagan neighborhoods, but, notwithstand-
ing the extensive literature on Batak ethnology, it has never
had more than casual mention. In a former paper ( 4, p. 3)
the writer alluded to the Toba word djor'o as being possibly
related to Simeloengoen djerat (Arabic ziarat), but also
noted the similarity to Balinese djero (house). It appears
that the latter word is a true cognate of djoro, and that the
verbal resemblance to djerat, striking because both words
refer to a structure built over a grave, may be accidental. 3
We may infer, from the fact that djerat is a word used by
Muhammadans for the graves of unbelievers, and also by
the pagans themselves without any feeling that it is an
undignified term, or one that casts any reproach upon them,
that it was introduced by Arabic contact in the pre-Islamic
period. 4 The pre-Islamic Batak word for a shrine over the
grave of a distinguished man is parsimangotan (the "place
of the simangot" or deified ancestral spirit). Djerat is, to
be sure, a more general term, but spirits were classified into
more categories by pagans than by Muhammadans, and the
nomenclature of the abodes of spirits was correspondingly
more precise.
mine of valuable information about matters which are insufficiently treated
by other writers. Dealing as it does with the Dairi, about whom too little
has been published, it fills an especially great gap in the literature.
3 Another verbal similarity which may be more than accidental, and
which will bear looking into, in connection with the linguistic evidence of
early cultural borrowings by Sumatra from India, is between djerat, djirat,
and jira, in Sikhim the name of the two emblematic umbrellas on a temple.
See L. A. Waddell, in Gazetteer of Sikltim, Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press,
1894, p. 260).
4 Maass (12, pp. 153-212) gives two examples of the persistence of the
grave house and of the word, in the form djire', in Central Sumatra, where
the Malay (not Batak) population has long been entirely Muhammadan.
In one instance the term is used to refer to the elaborate and beautiful little
grave house, in the Minangkabo style of architecture, on the grave of an
uncle of the Sultan of Siak at Goenoeng Sahilan. The other is at Boekit
Sa-baleh, and also has the complex horn-gabled roofs which are best known
in the Padang Highlands of West Sumatra.
The djoro (Pls. IX-XIV) is a Toba structure and

resembles a house in every detail. It has house carvings
and painting in red, white, and black, and is elevated on
posts. The djerat is its equivalent in the Pardembanan and
Tano Djawa districts. Of the illustrations that have been
published one ( 4, Pl. XIV) is altogether typical. Another
( 4, Pl. VI) represents a structure more elaborate than
usual, with greater height above the floor, and a third
( 4, Pl. XVI) is elevated on the top of a granary in order
that the harvest may have the immediate protection of the
ancestral spirits. Only one such elaborate structure was seen.
A typical djerat (Pl. XV, Fig. 1) looks houselike on
account of the sloping swaybacked roof, but the only
inclosed chamber with vertical walls is at the ground level.
It has posts which serve as corners into which the horizontal
railings that make up the walls are mortised, or to which
they are tied if, as is usually true, the horizontal poles or
rails inclosing the graves are laid in alternate pairs, a pair
of side rails lengthwise crossed by a pair of end rails cross-
wise, and so on. There is only height enough to clear the
grave-posts. Then a floor of poles or rails is laid crosswise,
each piece being tightly tied into notches in the uppermost
pair of side rails. Directly above this floor is the sloping
roof, that is, there is no upper chamber with walls, cor-
responding to the elevated house. The ordinary djerat is
merely a strongly built cratelike structure of crossed rails,
protecting the grave furniture, and covered by a roof. One
finds that whenever the relatives of the dead have gone to
the trouble of making a djerat, there will be a correct grave
with one or more carved grave-posts within it. The djerat
is most common in Tano Djawa, where frequently the male
and female forms of the grave-post are found on the same
grave (Pl. XV, Figs. 2-3 ). In Asahan it was used rarely,
and only for chiefs' graves; the distinction between male
and female posts was always observed. In those parts of
Toba where the djoro, a complete miniature house, is built

over the grave, the writer has not seen it used in conjunction
with any post whatever, unless a small post sometimes
placed at the center of the roof (Pl. XII, Fig. 2) repre-
sents the grave-post.
In the Pardembanan district (Asahan) the grave may or
may not be near the dwelling house. If it is not, the location
is often that of other, older graves, near which a dwelling
once stood. In Tano Djawa the graves are frequently in
the village, among the houses and at right angles to them.
In Toba the burial place is outside the village, often on a
hill, where the newer graves of important people are
marked by djoro, in all stages of disrepair, and the older
graves only by clumps of lemon grass-in Toba an almost
invariable accompaniment of a grave (see Pl. IX, Fig. 2).
More particular details of both djoro and djerat
may be found in the descriptions of Plates IX-XVI.
There is much about the accessories and ornamentation of
the djoro that needs elucidation, but the writer has never
stayed long enough in the Toba districts to get dependable
information. Others who might have done so have dis-
regarded the structures almost completely. There is decided
interest among Europeans in Batak ethnographica which can
be collected, but very little in larger things such as houses,
graves, etc., which can be only described and photographed.
The mortuary customs of Karoland are more diverse
than those of the other Batak districts. The merga Sem-
biring burns its dead, and, at intervals of years, festivals are
held during which the bones remaining are placed in pera-
hoe ngombak (miniature boats) and floated down the Lao
Biang. A goeroe of this merga is not burned, however, and
members of other merga are burned under some circum-
stances, although no one seems to have made inquiries to
find out exactly when and why. Ordinarily a body is buried,
and the pendawanen (burial place) is surrounded by a bam-
boo fence, within which are grown many kinds of sacred

plants, always including kalindjoehang (Cordyline fruti-
cosa). The grave is covered by a very neatly made little
house ( roemah-roemah; djerat), which, for an ordinary
man, resembles the djerat of Simeloengoen or the djoro
of Toba in that the roof has a single lengthwise gable, like
the roemah galoeh of the village. The grave house of a
sibajak (chief) is frequently built with crossed gables, and
with a pajoeng or an andjoeng-andjoeng (an umbrella- or
a steeple-like structure) surmounting the center, so that it
resembles the roemah tersek, the most elaborate house type
of the village (Pl. XVI, Fig. 1). The roemah tersek is
generally, as are also some of the single-gabled houses (Pl.
XIX, Fig. 1), surmounted by a miniature house, which is
also called andjoeng-andjoeng. Beside the grave is a tall
bamboo pole with a magical device of bamboo or pleated
palm leaves hanging from it. This serves as a pandji
("flag") by which the spirit of the deceased recognizes his
place.
It is customary to open the graves of chiefs, after the
bodies have decayed, and to remove the skulls. These are
carefully cleaned, decorated with gold and silver ornaments,
wrapped in cloths, and then preserved in the village in a
special building called the geriten. The geriten at Kaban
Djahe, containing the skulls of the ancestors of Pa Melga,
a: former chief, was opened for Adam ( 1) so that he might
photograph the skulls. It is built like a small roemah tersek
(see Pl. XVI, Fig. 2). It was, in 1918, surrounded by a
low woven fence of split bamboo, which has since disap-
peared, but will doubtless be renewed on the occasion of
further ceremonies. The fence marked off the area sacred
to the ancestral spirits, and corresponded to the parhordjaan
of Asahan and Tano Djawa, which has been referred to in
the discussion of the parsoeroan. It was constructed in just
the same manner as that of the be beren ( bereberen) of
which a description follows (p. 17). After being preserved

a number of generations the skulls are said to be cremated.
Although at Kaban Djahe the geriten is a structure of
considerable size, it is in many instances, according to Von
Brenner (20), a diminutive model of a dwelling house,
about four feet in length. Within is a wooden coffin, usu-
ally boat-shaped, beautifully carved and painted, in which
the exhumed skull and larger bones of the dead man are
preserved. Such small bone houses were seen by Von Bren-
ner in 18 8 7 singly or in groups in any part of the Karo
villages. One which he figures (20, p. 28) has the form of
an ordinary parpagaran (conical receptacle for offerings,
made by splitting into several sticks and spreading out the
end joint of a bamboo pole), except that it is covered by a
conical roof. At Kampong Keling there was in 1918 a very
small geriten, in the form of the simplest house type.
PANTANGEN (KARO)
Joustra (9, p. 120) merely mentions the Karo pan-
tangen as the place where the goeroe studies and gives les-
sons. He supposes it to be the equivalent of the Simeloe-
ngoen structure known as anggoenan. The writer has not
seen the latter, but had the interesting experience of visiting
a fine Karo pantangen, that of Goeroe (Datoe) na Bolon,
at the foot of Deleng Koetoe near Kampong Goersinga
(Pl. XVII). It is a square inclosure surrounded by a double
hedge with a maze entrance, so as to be entirely private.
It is pantang ("forbidden"), the Batak equivalent of tabu,
to all except those whom the goeroe invites to enter. The
house is only large enough for the goeroe to occupy along
with his magical and ceremonial apparatus. It is guarded
by a stone pangoeloebalang and a large stuffed snake. The
pantangen is not dedicated to the gods and ancestral spirits
as is the parsoeroan in Asahan. Its use is magical rather
than religious, and of course, it is not in any sense a temple.
It is kept scrupulously neat and tidy. The little house con-

tains drums, gongs, the masks for the topeng-koeda-koeda
dance, perminaken (containers for magical mixtures), and
various other paraphernalia of the magician.
ANDJAPAN (PARDEMBANAN), BEBEREN AND

ANDJAP-ANDJAP (KARO), LANGGATAN (TOBA)
The several Batak districts have somewhat similar types
of altar on which, or within which, offerings are made to
the spirits. The andjapan of the Pardembanan group in
Asahan has already been described and illustrated ( 5, Pls.
V-VII). It varies in elaborateness according to the impor-
tance of the spirits invoked, the number of persons par-
ticipating in the ceremony, and the nature of the ceremonies.
It has a counterpart in the other Batak districts. In Karo-
land the simplest possible type of a small table-like support
(often of bamboo) serves for the offerings of fruits, sirih,
etc., and is known as andjap-andjap. In places supposedly
haunted by wild spirits, where man is a trespasser, no
inclosure is built around it. A visitor to the crater of the
volcano Deleng Sibajak will nearly always find at the rim
above the crater lake a fresh andjap-andjap (Pl. XXI) on
which are offerings, and old broken down ones are always
to be seen.
In the Karo kampongs one of the most frequent sights
is a little square or round sacred inclosure, the fence of
which is made of pleated split bamboo or similar material.
It is only eight or ten feet across, and is known as the
beberen (bereberen, "place for making offerings"). Within
this inclosure (Pls. XVIII-XX), the andjap-andjap is gen-
erally erected. If a visitor asks about it he is usually told that
it is tempat tendi ("a place for souls"). Ypes (27) has
recently shown, in one of the finest contributions to the
ethnology of the East Indies ever made, that the Pakpak
subdivision of the Dairi Batak, who are neighbors of the
Karo on the west, and their closest relatives, also have a

soul place in their villages. It is located in the center of the
village site, and is called the toenggoeng, the dwelling place
of the tendi (soul) of the village. When the village was
founded a suitable place was chosen and a ceremony carried
out to ascertain that the omens were auspicious. A bamboo
receptacle :filled with water was set up in the ground, and
next to it a penalepen (summoner of spirits) consisting
of a wand, cleft at the top to hold a sirih leaf. (See Pl.
XX, Fig. 2 for the corresponding Karo device, called
persembahen.) Next to it was placed a piece of banana leaf
with an offering of beras bani (rice) upon it. After prayers
were offered to the spirits to favor the establishment of the
new village, the apparatus was left until the next morning.
If the bamboo was still full the omens were good. If it
had run over (by condensation of dew) the omens were
especially good. Then the spot where the bamboo had been
was set aside for the toenggoeng, which was henceforth con-
sidered to be the habitation of the soul of the village. The
Karo beberen is undoubtedly closely similar to the round
Pakpak toenggoeng, as its frequently circular shape would
seem to indicate. Although the beberen may be either round
or square, every other ceremonial structure seen in the Batak
lands by the writer was rectangular, and the Dairi Batak
(Simsim group especially) seem to be the only Batak group
in which a round ground plan for a village or large struc-
ture is ever seen.
The toenggoeng, like the beberen, is planted with cere-
monial or sacred plants. Y pes names, for the toenggoeng,
banana, silindjoeang ( C ordyline fruticosa), sangka simpilit,
and babar semah. (Some plant or other called soma or
semah is especially important in the ceremonies of each
Batak group, and probably it is reminiscent of the Indic
homa.) The beberen may have a considerable variety of
plants in it and if so kalindjoehang (Cordyline fruticosa)
is nearly always most conspicuous. There may be a banana

plant, a collection of diverse Codiaea with brightly colored
leaves, and a variety of roedang (aromatic plants or plants
with red flowers). The best discussion of the b.eberen is
that of Neumann ( 13 ), who does not, however, illustrate it.
In the Toba districts the altar is called langgatan. It is
becoming rare because of the influence of Christianity, but
may still be found in Habinsaran, where most of the Batak
are still parbegoe (spirit worshipers). A langgatan found
beside a path near Hoeta Godang, Habinsaran, was essen-
tially the two-storied andjapan of Asahan, except that it
was simpler in construction. The lower compartment had
only a sparse fringe of shredded palm leaflets for side walls.
The upper compartment was the usual high-peaked, dense
thatch of palm leaves, but was altogether open at the front.
Leading up to it was the belatoek dopak toroe (notched-pole
ladder), with the notches upside down (as in Asahan-
see Pl. XXXI, and also 5, Pl. XI), indicating that it was to
be visited by upside-down spirits. Since the structure was
small, the larger pinang (betel-nut palm) inflorescences
which were exposed as offerings hung, not on the langgatan
itself, but on a little frame at the left side of the front (the
observer's right as he faced the langgatan). The offerings
within the upper compartment were as follows (names
given in the sub-T oba dialect of the locality) :
pinang tikiltikilan (young Areca inflorescence)
demban tikiltikilan (unripe Areca nut)
pege (ginger)
sanggoel (a bouquet of leaves made up as if to be worn
in the hair, but used in some ceremonies to asperge
a purificatory liquid)
tambis (branches of a plant especially attractive to spir-
its. It is said that the spirits of Toba will not visit
an altar which does not contain tambis, or favor a
locality where it does not grow)
parboewe (rice)
The lower compartment contained the following offerings:
pinasa (the fruit known in Malay as nangka, often pro-
nounced nakka)
atsimoen (cucumbers, called timoen in Malay)
pira ni manoek (hen's eggs)
halas (edible aromatic rhizomes of a relative of the gin-
ger plant known in Malay as langkoeas, or lakkoeas)
oeras (purificatory sand, piled neatly in a mound and
serving as a base for a coconut-shell cup containing
the lemon water used for ceremonial purification)
Both the upper and lower compartments were neatly
floored with leaves of a species of Ficus called motoeng/
in which the lower leaf surface is white. In making the
flooring, called lapik boeloeng motoeng, the white surface
is kept uppermost. It gives a very beautiful and neat effect.
In front of the langgatan there hung from a forked stick
mange-mange ni pinang (a betel-palm inflorescence) and
from the altar itself, two bamboo water tubes {inganan ni
aek}. Behind the langgatan was a boeloeng ni bagot, a cut
frond of the sugar palm (cf. 3, p. 3; 5, Pl. XX) planted
obliquely in the earth with a mombang (magical basketry
construction, in this instance a tray) suspended from it, the
latter bearing an offering of sugar cane, and in addition,
small portions of all the offerings found in the lower com-
partment of the langgatan.
From Ypes ( 2 7, p. 119) we learn that the langgatan
appears in the Dairi region, where the word is lenggaten,
as a hanging tray on which palm sugar and grated coconut
are placed at the rice-harvest ceremonies as an offering to
the soul of the rice. Here it seems equivalent to the mombang
of the Pardembanan and the antjak of the Malays.
5 M otoeng leaves are also important in the chief Dairi ceremonies, and
their use in Toba has previously been noted by Winkler in Die Toba-Batak
auf Sumatra (see Ypes, 27, p. 183).
NOTES ON RELATED MATTERS

UNBURIED COFFINS
In Karoland as in the other Batak districts a body is
sometimes kept at the house in an elaborately decorated
coffin pending the ceremonies which must precede perma-
nent disposal of the body. Such a coffin, kept under the
eaves of a house at Serbakti, was opened for Adam ( 1) ; it
contained a skeleton from which the flesh had disappeared.
Adam's photographs are of exceptional interest in that they
show the coffin to have the form of a rhinoceros bird (horn-
bill) with the head carved at one end and the tail at the
other. The hornbill is somehow important in Batak cere-
monial, being more or less interchangeable with the horse,
as shown by the fact that the so-called koeda-koeda ("some-
thing like a horse") mask of the funeral dance (see 6, Pis.
I, V) in reality represents a hornbill.
A former article ( 4, Pl. XV) has given a photograph
and description of an unburied coffin containing the corpse
of a chief in the Simeloengoen country. The custom of leav-
ing the coffin and corpse of a chief in the house pending
certain ceremonies is also found in Toba. Plate XXX shows
such a coffin in the chief's house at Palianan, at the top of
the mountain near Parapat. Palianan had all the appearance
of a purely Toba kampong although located at the edge of
the Simeloengoen country. The coffin was carved and
painted with black, red, and white, but had at each end a
structure resembling a bird's tail. It was roughly suggestive
of a canoe as seen from the side.
EQUESTRIAN FIGURES
The writer has never been in the Dairi district northwest
of Toba Lake, but has seen one of the curious graves sur-
mounted by an equestrian statue in that part of Toba (south-
west of the lake) which has been most influenced by Dairi
customs (Pis. XXII-XXIII). The first illustration of such
a grave was published by Van der Tuuk ( 16, Pl. XXI)

from a sketch by Von Rosenburg, and Von Rosenburg ( 21,
p. 61 ) later figured one at Lobang Tungkung in the Dairi
district, stating that such images, called hoda-hoda bakku-
wang, were more common among the Dairi than the Toba.
They do not occur east of the lake, so far as the writer's
observations indicate.
An interesting anonymous note ( 15), included without
title in an administrative report and therefore likely to be
overlooked, gives illustrations of the Dairi hoda-hoda bak-
kuwang. The photographs and notes are presumably by
J. H. G. Schepers. At Talangalan, in the Pakpak region
west of T oba Lake, on the way from Sidikalang to Dolak
Semponan (not far from Kampong Salak) a surveying party
found a burial place with five closely grouped equestrian
statues, of which two excellent illustrations are published.
Since the chief at Talangalan was noncommunicative regard-
ing them, a coolie hired at Salak gave what information was
obtained. Of the five statues all but the central one had
two riders, interpreted as representing a deceased chief with
his principal wife in front of him. The central statue, with
one rider only, is interpreted as the monument to a chief
who was survived by his wife. Behind the horses was a
stone bird, said by the chief of Talangalan to have no special
significance and to be an ornament only. (The anonymous
author suggests that it is connected with the widespread
belief that a bird takes the souls of the dead to the realm
of shadows.)
When a radja died, his body was kept six days in a
coffin in the house until a funeral feast was organized. Then
the coffin was placed shallowly in the ground at the burial
place, the rooflike lid above the ground. When the body
had decomposed, the coffin was exhumed and the remains
were burned. The ashes, tied up in a white cloth, were laid
in the arms of the deceased's image, or placed in a stone urn
before the statue. (Only the monument with a single rider

had an urn for the ashes.) vVhen these truly remarkable
monuments were discovered, on the march of the surveying
party to Dolak Semponan, they appeared to be entirely
neglected and were so hidden by the tall grass that they
could not be photographed until the return trip when the
place was cleaned up. It seems, therefore, that the living
pay relatively little attention to the graves. The horses were
said to indicate that the deceased were chiefs.
A striking similarity of the equestrian grave carvings
with smaller ones commonly found on magical apparatus
in the Toba and Karo lands suggests probable similarity of
purpose. Figures on horseback are often found as finials on
the tiny spirit houses which are perched on the roof trees of
the dwellings of important chiefs in Karoland. They some-
times form the roof apexes of the dwellings of important
Karo chiefs or of the Karo geriten or bone houses in which
bones, especially skulls, of the Karo chiefs are preserved
(See Pl. XVI, Fig. 2). Similar equestrian figures are carved
at the apex of the toengkat malekat (magic staff; in Toba,
toenggal panaloewan), as stoppers of the containers for
magical mixtures ( perminakht), on sheaths and handles of
swords and ceremonial knives (the upper part of the sheath
being the horse and the handle being the rider), and as pro-
tective carvings in relief on the doors of granaries. Since in
general the symbol most frequently associated with the
mounted figure is the lizard, these two motives may be taken
to symbolize the deified ancestors and the beneficent gods
of field and house. It is to be supposed that when the horse
was first introduced into the Batak lands it was brought by
immigrants of great distinction, who presumably had the
status of chiefs and magicians and in time were deified.
The riding figure at the apex of a magic staff collected
by the writer for the Raffies Museum was said in Karoland
to represent Si Donda Katik Oetan. In front of him, sitting
24- HARLEY HARRIS BARTLETT
on the horse's head, is a female figure, Si Beroe Tapian

Radja Binoeasa. Other female figures, represented behind
the chief rider, all represented Si Beroe Tiang Manik.
Below the horse are figures named Goeroe Pakpak Pertan-
dang, said to be the first magicians to make a magic staff.
(These legendary demigods and others were also identified
in the carvings of the magic staff called the toengkat peni-
kat, and of some of the more elaborate perminaken.) The
animals carved on the toenggal panaloewan were the lizard
( bindaoran, Karo) and snake ( nipe). When the riding fig-
ure is carved on doors or walls of granaries it is associated
with the lizard. The Angkola Batak have a tradition that
when Gabriel blows his horn (the Angkola Batak have
become Muhammadan) those who have asserted their right
to a horse by breaking off a lizard's tail will be reviewed on
horseback at the throne of grace. A lizard thus mutilated
will become a horse at the resurrection, but will not recog-
nize his would-be master unless he was politely addressed
as Radja Odang and his pardon asked when his tail was
broken off.
The association of a horseback rider with a lizard, and
the almost equally frequent use of each as a motive in Batak
art, would seem to indicate that some rider was particularly
sacred, as we know the lizard is ( 6, pp. 18-2 0, and Pl.
XIV). The lizard is the symbol of beneficent gods of soil
and house, and is associated with the culture heroine who
introduced mat making. Horses are presumably not indige-
nous to Sumatra. When first introduced centuries ago, their
possession must have brought great distinction, and the first
horseman would naturally have become one of the legen-
dary heroes, and when deified would have been represented
on horseback.
There are traces of horse symbolism at ceremonies and
on graves far south and east of the Dairi region. The matter
has been alluded to elsewhere ( 4, p. 4-9; 6, p. 1 0).
The equestrian grave monument illustrated (Pls. XXII-

XXIII) is near the main highway from Balige to Taroe-
toeng, and was said by the local Batak to mark the burial
place of Radja Pangalitan marga Namaban of Djonggi ni
Boeta. In Boetagaloeng's fine collection of Batak pedi-
grees (8) the Nababan ("Namaban") line of descent is car-
ried to Ama ni ("father of") Pangalitan, whose descendants
are said to have lived at Nagasariboe, which is in the vicinity
of this statue and burial mound. According to the tradi-
tions, Radja Pangalitan was the seventh in line of descent
from the stem ancestor of marga N amaban, and the twenti-
eth generation from the gods. A rapid search of the per-
sonal names in the Batak genealogies, in the hope of finding
some that might indicate the possession of horses, turned up
the name Parhoda Onggang ("Bornbill-Horse-Rider") in
the same general line of descent (seventh cousins twice
removed) as Radja Pangalitan, but two generations earlier.
Parhoda Onggang belonged to the seventh generation
descended from a certain Toga Si Bombing and to the
eighteenth generation from the gods, whereas Radja Pan-
galitan belonged to the ninth generation from Si Bombing
and twentieth from the gods. The horse is much earlier
than this particular monument.
Batak graves are places of offering and supplication.
The images placed upon them are tenanted by the spirits
of the departed. The same idea is carried over to certain
magical carvings resembling the statues on the burial places.
All of these were provided with tondi (soul stuff) by being
fed with poepoek (a mash made of certain parts of human
sacrifices) and were tenanted by protective spirits. These
were represented as chiefs on horseback. In the region west
of Toba Lake the carving for an especially powerful pro-
tective spirit, whether naturally such, that is an ancestral
spirit, or a captive spirit secured as a protector by means of
magic, took the form of a rider, and the magical carvings
spread far from the center of origin. The writer supposes

that many of the older equestrian grave images originally
implied the sacrifice of a horse at the grave, and that the
topeng-koeda-koeda dance, found throughout the Batak
lands, remains as the equivalent of the former sacrifice of
horse and of slaves, or retainers. The dance with the horse
mask spread far down into the East Coast jungle, where
presumably, in the old days, there were no horses, or at
least very few of them. We may be reasonably sure that
in the Batak lands the horse came by way of the West Coast
or the regions to the north (Atjeh), and became important
(as it has remained until the present) in the high plateau
around Toba Lake, where it was associated with chiefs and
with ancestor worship, especially among the Dairi and Karo.
It was probably in the Dairi region that the symbolism of
the horse in the ancestor cult was transferred to magic or
religious apparatus such as the magic staff, the receptacles
for magic oil, and the masks for funeral dances. The latter
apparatus spread somewhat to the lowland East Coast peo-
ple who had no horses, and their ancestral graves did not
have equestrian statues, which belong, quite distinctively, to
the region west of Toba Lake. It has already been men-
tioned in connection with the discussion of the Batak coffin
and funeral dances ( 6, p. 1 0) that there is a close association
of hornbill and horse in Batak symbolism. Some of the
ceremonial significance of the hornbill may have been taken
by the horse after it was introduced.
STONE SARCOPHAGI AND GRAVESTONES SHAPED LIKE
SARCOPHAGI
In addition to the stone equestrian figures which are
most typical of the Dairi graves and the cross-legged, seated
figures known from the Pardembanan region in Asahan,
there are also stone sarcophagi in the Toba region, as well
as stones, marking burial tumuli, which have the form of a
sarcophagus but are solid. These structures are sphinxlike
but have the form which is common to most Batak struc-

tures, and which some writers derive from a boat. It is
remarked by many observers that the typical narrow Batak
house with its curved roof tree has the lines of a boat. The
stone monuments in question resemble a covered boat, high
at prow and stern. The "prow" is a gigantic human head,
called singa ("lion"), and the suggestion given by the struc-
ture is that it may have some relation, even if a remote one,
to the Egyptian sphinx. The most impressive of these mon-
uments were found and photographed by Tassilo Adam in
the west of Samosir, the region near Poesoek Boekit where
myth locates the origin of the Batak race from the gods.
Unfortunately the local traditions regarding these truly
remarkable sculptures do not seem to have been recorded
by any of the writers on the Batak. Mr. Adam, with the
consent of the Colonial Institute of Amsterdam, has allowed
me to reproduce his photograph (Pl. XXIV). The human
head is called singa, but nevertheless has hornlike orna-
ments that suggest a bull (Siva's bull?) rather than any
other non-human creature.
The heads on the fine monuments shown in Mr. Adam's
photograph are more human than several less elaborate ones
seen by the writer in the part of the Toba region south of
the Lake. In Balige there are at least two similar but sim-
pler carvings, one of which (Pl. XXVI, Fig. 1) suggests
the Siva bull quite as much as or more than the lion or
sphinx. The other (Pl. XXV), which appears to be the
older, is distinctly human in its suggestion, and shows no
horns.
The largest sarcophagus-shaped monument seen by the
writer (Pl. XXVI, Fig. 2), located on a large artificial
burial tumulus at Loemban Koeala, Toba, has a face so con-
ventionalized that it is difficult to say what it suggests. Volz
( 19, pp. 331-35 3) has been more interested in Batak sculp-
ture and symbolism than any other author, and the reader
is referred to his valuable discussion of the geographical

distribution and possible meaning of the si11ga and other art
motives.
MODERN CONCRETE SARCOPHAGI
The only evidence of any new flowering, or even sur-
vival, of native art in the T oba region was shown a few
years ago in the construction of a considerable number of
concrete sarcophagi by the natives. They followed their
own art forms exclusively, which seems remarkable in view
of the complete collapse of their material culture, which
has quickly followed contact with the white race. Toba, the
former center of Batak culture, is fast becoming utterly and
depressingly nondescript, as the remaining Batak houses fall
into ruin and are replaced by atrocious styleless imitations
of European buildings. The newer places such as Porsea, or
those which have grown so rapidly that the new dominates
the old, such as Balige, have little of interest for the traveler
unless he has time to seek for it away from the main roads.
The recent concrete tombs to which the writer referred
were built up of rubble and then plastered over with
cement. Cement "lion" heads and other architectural orna-
ments were apparently cast (or chiseled out of cement blocks)
and built into place as the surfacing with cement proceeded.
One can have only admiration for the remarkably good
design and execution of these structures, and for the con-
servation of the old artistic spirit which they show. Between
1918 and 192 7 few of these new tombs seem to have been
erected; and some of those that antedate 1918 have suffered
at the hands of vandals. It is seldom that one has an
opportunity to see what effect the introduction of an entirely
unfamiliar material (such as concrete), requiring a new
technique in working, will have on the art expression of a
primitive people. These concrete tombs show very con-
clusively that, in spite of the disintegrating effect of Euro-
pean contact, the Batak retained for a time the capacity for
development of their own peculiar art through the adoption

of materials and technical processes from outside. It appears
that the movement to create a new art in the spirit of the
past was abortive. The forces bringing about cultural dis-
integration are too strong. These few pictures of the con-
crete tombs (Pls. XXVII-XXIX) may already, therefore,
have an antiquarian interest.
REFERENCES
1. ADAM, T ASSILO, Battak Days and Ways. Asia, XXX ( 19 3 0),
118-125.
2. ANDERSON, JOHN, Mission to the East Coast of Sumatra in
MDCCCXXIII under the Directions of the Government
of Prince of Wales Island. Edinburgh and London: W.
Blackwood, 1826.
3. BARTLETT, H. H., The Manufacture of Sugar from A.renga
saccharifera in Asahan, on the East Coast of Sumatra. Ann.
Rep. Mich. Acad. Sci., XXI (1920), 155-165.
4. The Grave-Post (A nisan) of the Batak of Asahan. Papers
Mich. A cad. Sci., Arts, and Letters, I ( 1923), 1-5 8, pls.
I-XXV. .
5. The Labors of the Datoe: Part I. An Annotated List of
Religious, Magical, and Medical Practices of the Batak of
Asahan. Ibid., XII ( 1930), 1-74, pis. I-XXX.
6. The Labors of the Datoe: Part II. Directions for the
Ceremonies. I bid., XIV ( 1931), 1-34, pis. I-XX.
6a. BouRLET, P. A., Funerailles chez les Thay. Anthropos,
VIII ( 1913), 40-46, plate.
7. HAGEN, B., Rapport iiber eine im Dezember 1883 unternom-
mene wissenschaftliche Reise an den Toba-See. Tijds.
Ind. Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde, XXXI ( 1886), 328-
382.
7a. HERNSHEIM, FRANz, Siidsee-Erinnerungen (1875-1880).
Berlin j A. Hofmann und Comp., [ 18 83].
8. HoETAGALOENG, W. M., Poestaha taringot toe tarombo m

Bangso Batak. Lagoeboti, I926.
9. J ousTRA, M., Batakspiegel. Uitgaven van het Bataksch Insti-
tuut, No.3, Leiden: Van Doesburgh, I9IO.
I 0. J UNGHUHN, FRANz, Die Battalander auf Sumatra. Zweiter
Theil. Volkerkunde. Berlin: G. Reimer, I847.
11. KERN, H., De Fidji-taal vergeleken met hare verwanten in
Indonesie en Polynesie (Verbeterd en bijgewerkt) (I886).
Verspreide Geschriften's-Gravenhage: Mart. Nijho:ff, IV,
243-343; v (I9I6), I-I41.
II a. KuBARY, J. S., Ethnographische Beitrage zur Kenntnis des
Karolinen Archipels. Leiden: P. W. M. Trap, I895. (See
Plates XXXIII-XXXIX for illustrations of shrines.)
I2. MAAss, ALFRED, Durch Zentral-Sumatra. 2 vols. Berlin: B.
Behrs, I9I 0.
I2a. MATSUMURA, AKIRA, Contributions to the Ethnography of
Micronesia. Journ. Coli. Sci. Tokyo Imp. Univ., XL
(19I8), Article 7, I-I74, pl. I-XXXVI.
I3. NEUMANN, ]. H., Karo-Bataksche O:fferplaatsen. Bijdr.
Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde v. Ned.-Ind., LXXXIII
(1927), 5I4-551.
I4. PLEYTE, C. M., Bataksche Vertellingen. Utrecht: H. Honig,
I894.
I5. [ScHEPERS, J. H. G.], De ho:ffd- en secundaire Driehoeksmet-
ing van de Residentien Oostkust van Sumatra, Tapanoeli,
Riouw en Djambi. Jaarverslag van den Topographischen
Dienst in Nederlandsch-Indie over 19I4, pp. I5-28.
Batavia, I9I5.
I6. VAN DER TuuK, H. N., Bataksch-Nederduitsch W oorden-
boek. Amsterdam: F. Muller, I 861.
I 7. VAN HAssEL T, A. L., V olksbeschri jving van Midden-Sumatra.
Leiden: E. ]. Brill, I882.
I8. Ethnographische Atlas van Midden-Sumatra, met verklar-
enden Tekst. Leiden: E. J. Brill, I8 81.
I8a. VERGOUWEN, J. C., Het Rechtsleven der Toba-Bataks.
's-Gravenhage: Mart. Nijho:ff, 1933.
I9. VoLZ, W. T. A. H., Nord-Sumatra. Band I, Die Batak-
lander. Berlin: D. Reimer, I909.
20. VoN BRENNER, J. FREIHERR, Besuch bei den Kannibalen

Sumatras. Wiirzburg: L. Woerl, 1894.
21. VoN RosENBERG, H., Der Malayische Archipel. Leipzig: G.
Weigel, 1878.
22. WAITz, THEODOR, Anthropologie der Naturvolker. Leipzig:
F. Fleischer, 1859-77.
23. WARNECK, J., Tobabataksch-Deutsches \Vorterbuch. Bata-
via: Landsdrukkerij, 1906.
24. Die Religion der Batak, ein Paradigma fiir die animistischen
Religion en des indischen Archipels. Gottingen: Vanden-
hoech und Ruprecht, 1909.
25. Das Opfer bei den Tobabatak in Sumatra. Archiv. f.
Religionwissensch., XVIII (1915), 333-394.
26. WILKINSON, R. J., A Malay-English Dictionary. Singapore
[etc.]: Kelly and Walsh, Ltd., 1901-3.
27. YPEs, W. K. H., Bijdrage tot de Kennis van de Stamver-
wantschap, de inheemsche Rechtsgemeenschappen, en het
Grondenrecht der Toba- en Dairibataks. 's-Gravenhage:
Mart. Nijho:ff, 1932.
PLATES I-XXXI, WITH
DESCRIPTIONS
PLATE I
Parsoeroan (temple) and the strongly stockaded parhor-
djaan (sacred inclosure) at Ihat Pane, Asahan. The peo-
ple of this place have entered Islam, and have allowed
animals to destroy the sacred plants. Probably the structure
no longer exists, since this photograph dates from 1918.
PLATE II
Underneath the parsoeroan at I hat Pane, Asahan. The
platform is a resting place for spirits.· The lower jaw and
horns of the water buffalo remain from the initial sacrifices
at the dedication of the parsoeroan.
PLATE II
PLATE III
Parhordjaan (ceremonial inclosure) and parsoeroan (tem-
pIe) at Boentoe Pane, Asahan. In the old days Boentoe
Pane was one of the important little pagan "kingdoms" of
the Pardembanan Batak, but it has now been reduced to
insignificance. The cannibal feasts at this place over a cen-
tury ago were described by Anderson (2) . Some of the
kabosaran (insignia) of his pagan forebears were still in the
possession of the Radja in 1918. The inclosure at Boentoe
Pane was open to animals, but had the hanging fringe of
palm leaves over the entrance which prevented the ingress
of evil spirits.
PLATE IV
The andjapan (altar) beside the parsoeroan at Boentoe
Pane. It is of much simpler construction than one of those
previously illustrated ( 5, pl. V), but has the .essential fea-
tures: ( 1 ) a lower offering place, set off by a fringe of
shredded palm leaves; (2) the platform for the main offer-
ings; (3) the tall posts at the front corners, where hang
the inflorescence and half-ripe infructescence of the pining
(betel-nut palm) ; and ( 4) the two bamboos split at the top
and splayed into parpagaran (conical receptacles for con-
taining special offerings). It lacks the boeloeng ni bagot,
which would almost certainly be set up anew for each
ceremony.
PLATE V
Detail of the parsoeroan at Boentoe Pane, showing espe-
cially one of the two carved naga (mythical snake) heads
which are represented with a curious excrescence under the
throat. On the front wall is a painting of a tiger; along
the side an elephant, a cobra, and a water buffalo (the
latter not showing in the photograph).
PLATE VI
The parhordjaan (sacred inclosure), porlak ni debata
("garden of the gods"), and parsoeroan (temple) at Radja
Meligas, Tano Djawa, Simeloengoen.
PLATE VI
PLATE VII
FIG. 1 FIG. 2
PLATE VII
FIG. 1. Parsoeroan (temple) within permanent parhor-
djaan (ceremonial inclosure) at Rad ja Meligas, Tano
Djawa, Simeloengoen. The plants within the inclosure are
dedicated to the gods. Among them the pining (betel-nut
palm) and pepper vine are most prominent, but there are
also the red-leaved Cordyline fruticosa and variegated-
leaved Codiaea of several sorts.
FIG. 2. Datoe Goenoeng standing beside the batoe parang-
giran (sacrificial stone) in the ceremonial inclosure at
Goenoeng Meligas, Tano Djawa, Simeloengoen (1918).
PLATE VIII
FIG. 1. Underneath the parsoeroan at Radja Meligas,
shown in Plate VII. The benches are said to be resting
places for spirits. The gongs are used only for ceremonies,
and the horns are those of the water buffaloes sacrificed at
the dedication of the parsoeroan.
FIG. 2. The parhordjaan (ceremonial inclosure) and par-
soeroan at Goenoeng Meligas, Tano Djawa, Simeloengoen.
PLATE VIII
FIG. 1
FIG. 2
PLATE IX
Ftc. 1
FIG. 2
PLATE IX
FIGs. 1-2. Views of the djoro ("spirit house") of "Pati
Lebanus marga Pangariboean, mate [deceased] 9 Augus-
tus 1926," near Balige, Toba. The curious structure on
the ridge of the roof suggests a boat or possibly a bird. At
the front is a human figure. At the center is an image
representing manoek-manoek (some sort of bird). Each
wall of the djoro has crude pictures painted upon it, some
purely magical and others apparently in substitution for
offerings. The mound outside the inclosure is an old burial
tumulus planted with lemon grass.
PLATE X
FIG. 1. One of the drawings on the wall of the djoro
shown in Plate IX. It represents things which it is hoped
the spirit may be able to use: at the top, a soeling (flute) ;
upper left, a sugar-palm tree and implements for collecting
palm juice for wine or sugar-making; upper right, the
always useful domestic fowl; middle, a blunderbuss (of
which a good many examples still remain in the Batak
lands), for defense; below, a net for fishing.
FIG. 2. Paintings on the djoro shown in Plate XI. Noth-
ing can be made of some of the figures, but others repre-
sent a sugar palm, horses, a fowl, fish, and a dog (for
food).
PLATE XI
Frcs. 1-2. Two views of a djoro at Loemban Silambi, near
Parsambilan Djae, Toba. The architecture here resembles
that of the djoro shown in Plate IX; it is the less typical
form. The resemblance of the roof to a boat is very strik-
ing. The birds, presumably representing protectors of the
spirit, have curious forward extending appendages which
seem to represent a second position of the wings, and to
indicate that the birds are in flight.
PLATE XII
FIGs. 1-2. Two views of a typical djoro at Tangga Batoe,
near Balige, T oba. The ceremonial inclosure still persists.
This structure was nicely made, with good wood carvings
exactly like those of a dwelling house and with a painted
(red, white, and black) frieze. The post at the middle of
the roof suggests somewhat vaguely the grave-post ( anisan)
of Asahan ( 4), also the barotan (sacrificial post) which
is seen in the larger Toba boats, but most of all the spirit
ladder shown on the Simeloengoen coffin ( 4, Pl. XV).
PLATE XIII
Djoro at Porsea, Toba. The one at the left of the sacred
hariara tree was especially ornate, well carved, and painted,
and altogether worthy of a detailed study which there was
no time to make. The figure at the front of the gable and
the curious tail-like structure at the back suggest the Toba
boat. The intermediate figures ate the manoek-manoek
(birds) so familiar as protective devices in Toba magic and
religion, and in old days as characteristic of the dwelling
house architecture as of the spirit houses.
PLATE XIV
Roof of the second djoro shown in Plate XIII (at the
right of the hariara tree). The four birds ( manoek-
manoek) are tied with long cords to the figure at the front
(or prow, if the gable here represents a boat). Most of
the djoro seen had this same feature.
A book by V ergouwen ( 18a), just received as this article
goes to press, has a reference (p. 83) to earlier illustrations
of the djoro and also of the modern cement grave monument
(called "simen," from "cement") in a work that quite es-
caped the attention of the writer: D. W. N. de Boer, "Het
Toba-Bataksch huis," Meded. Encycl. Bureau, afl. XXIII.
Vergouwen states that the djoro of Toba Holboeng (the
district bordering the southern end of Toba Lake and ex-
tending eastward) is built according to recent custom on the
grave of a childless person, whose spirit is of negligible im-
portance, whereas a "simen" is built as the home of a spirit
who will grow in importance as the number of his descendants
increases.
PLATE XV
FIG. 1. Typical djerat of the Simeloengoen Batak of Tano
Djawa. Photographed at Kampong Riah na Poso, 1927.
This structure has the same general resemblance to the
Simeloengoen house that the Toba djoro has to the Toba
house. The djerat in Tano Djawa always has under it
anisan (grave-posts) quite like those which are commonly
used in Asahan without the djerat, a structure which is very
rare in Asahan. Under each djerat in Tano Djawa one
usually finds a pair of posts of the forms which in Asahan
are used separately to indicate male and female burials, but
which in Tano Djawa are found on the same grave.
FIGs. 2-3. The two grave-posts under the djerat shown in
Figure 1. One (Fig. 2) is of the form which in Asahan
would be male, ending in a water bottle, whereas the other
(Fig. 3) ends in a bowl and miniature house, and would
in Asahan indicate a female burial. Either the sex dis-
tinction is not observed in Tano Djawa, or a single djerat
is used for more than one burial.
Kubary ( 11 a) found in the Palau Islands and illustrated
with beautiful plates not only diminutive shrines showing
much similarity to the parsoeroan, but also still smaller ones
strikingly like the "female" type of Batak anisan in that they
had the form of a post with a miniature house carved at the
apex. The djerat of Simeloengoen would appear from a plate
published by Bourlet ( 6a) to have an almost' exact counter-
part in Anam.
PLATE XVI
FIG. 1. Djerat pajoeng in pendawanen (burial inclo-
sure) at Gad ja, Karoland. More ornate than the djerat
of the East Coast lowlands (i.e. Simeloengoen and Asa-
han), even as the house architecture is correspondingly
more ornate, it has for finial a pajoeng (umbrella) and at
the ends of the four gables the horns of the water buffaloes
sacrificed and eaten at the funeral feast. The sacred plants,
kalindjoehang (red-leaved C ordyline) and lemon grass, are
grown abundantly around the djerat, the former showing
against the lower slope of the roof. In Karoland, the first
funeral, when the body is placed under the djerat, may or
may not be followed by exhuming and cleaning the skull
for preservation in the geriten, depending upon rank and
merga of the deceased.
Frc. 2. Geriten (ossuary) at Kaban D jahe, Karoland. In
this house are placed the skulls of the ancestors after a
preliminary burial of the bodies has made it possible for
them to be cleaned and adorned for preservation. Note
the sacred inclosure (the picture dates from 1918) which
was later (by 1927) allowed to fall into disrepair, but
would doubtless be replaced on the occasion of new cere-
monies. An interesting story of events connected with this
geriten is told by Adam ( 1 ) . The reader will observe that
the finial is an equestrian figure, a frequent art motive in
religious and magical structures.
PLATE XVII
Pantangen ("forbidden place") at the foot of Deleng Koe-
toe ("Louse Mountain") near Kampong Goersinga, Karo-
land. This is the only Karo pantangen known to the
writer. It is the inclosure where Goeroe na Bolon was
photographed ( 6, Pls. IV-V) in the costumes of the
topeng-koeda-koeda dance.
PLATE XVIII
Fig. 1. Beberen ("place for making offerings") at Kam-
pong Raja, Karoland. It is one which has been newly estab-
lished or repaired, and contains only small plants. It was found
in the same village in which the usual square type is also to be
seen. Note on the right a bamboo joint set firmly in the
earth, to serve, with a corresponding one on the inside, as
a style by which to enter the beberen when an andjap-
andjap (altar) is to be set up or furnished with offerings.
FIG. 2. Beberen in one of the semi-wild gardens in the
outskirts of the village of Raja, Karoland. It contains a
Ficus tree, an Areca palm, a pepper vine, plants of banana,
and kalindjoehang ( C ordyline). The same garden in
which this beberen was located contained also a stone
pangoeloebalang, similar to those illustrated in a former
article ( 6, Pl. X), the function of which was to guard
the fruits and vegetables.
PLATE XVIII
Ftc. 1
FIG. 2
PLATE XIX
FIG. 1. Beberen ("place for making offerings") at Kam-
pong Gadja, Karoland. This sacred inclosure contained
for the most part kalindjoehang (a red-leaved ornamental
variety of Cordyline fruticosa), which is by far the most
important ceremonial plant of the Karo Batak.
FIG. 2. Beberen at Kampong Raja, Karo Plateau. Note
the banana plants, dedicated to the spirits, and the pole with
an offering of maize ears. On this pole some of the maize
ears of the new crop are hung to dry just as the bulk of the
harvest is hung, on large frames, elsewhere in the village.
The drying frames for maize are one of the conspicuous
features of each Karo village.
PLATE XX
FIG. 1. Beberen ("place for making offerings") at Kam-
pong Keling, Karo Plateau. It is the small square inclosure
at the left side of the picture, containing plants of banana
and kalindjoehang ( C ordyline), and a small three-legged
altar. The small structures in the middle and right fore-
ground are granaries. On the platforms under them the
women and girls gather to weave cloth and mats.
FIG. 2. Persembahen (cleft wand made of palm stem, in
which is placed a sirih leaf as an offering to spirits) photo-
graphed at the summit of Deleng Baroes, Karoland. Sev-
eral of these offerings were set up by the writer's native
companions to propitiate mountain spirits who might have
been annoyed by the disturbance caused by botanizing!
The persembahen is identical with the Dairi penalepen,
mentioned by Ypes (27).
·~-..1 . '
...... ~ "· ... ~. ,
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~ .......
~'-~~--~
~
.
"'
"'
-~ '
~~·
, ~ ..
'
I' ......
PLATE XXI
A ndjap-andjap (temporary altar) of the Karo Batak,
erected on the crater rim at the summit of Deleng Sibajak.
The offerings consist of a coconut and sirih leaves, with
the other constituents for betel chewing. The altar itself
has three legs, made of two-pronged sticks, which support a
lattice of sticks on which a covering of leaves is placed.
The three slender upright sticks at the left of the altar are
persembahen (cleft wands), each of which holds a sirih
leaf.
PLATE XXII
Burial tumulus and equestrian statue of Radja Pangalitan
marga Namaban, at Djonggi ni Hoeta, near the main high-
way between Balige and Taroetoeng (see also 15, with a
fine plate showing similar graves). Note the Ficus trees
(called haoe hariara), which are planted at burial sites, and
are then esteemed as sacred to the spirits. Descendants of
a stem forefather are buried, if possible, at a place where
cuttings of the original hariara are planted, and the Batak
are able to give the line of descent of the sacred trees just
as they know the descent of the chiefs buried under them.
If the author may venture a guess, it is that the sacred banyan
trees of the Batak lands derive their name from Hari and
Hara-Vishnu and Siva (haoe hariara, "tree of Vishnu and
Siva").
PLATE XXIII
PLATE XXIII
Equestrian grave image of Radja Pangalitan marga Nama-
ban, at Djonggi ni Hoeta between Balige and Taroetoeng.
The statue has been recently painted by the natives, so that
details such as jacket and bridle have no antiquarian sig-
nificance.
PLATE XXIV
Stone sarcophagi of the T oba Batak on the west side of the
Island of Samosir, photographed by Tassilo Adam and
reproduced by kind permission of the Colonial Institute of
Amsterdam. The sarcophagus on the right has an obviously
detachable lid. The one on the left appears from the photo-
graph to be a solid monolith, the ossuary proper in this
instance being the large stone urn in front of it. Adam
found these structures filled with skulls, presumably those
of the chiefs, cleaned for preservation in the sarcophagus or
urn after the preliminary burial or laying away of the
corpse in a coffin kept in the house (see Pl. XXX and 4,
PI. XV; also 1, text fig.).
These great Toba sarcophagi are interesting as showing
no trace of the horse motive. The general form might be
interpreted as houselike or boatlike (every architectural form
of the Batak has the upwardly curved ridge line) and the
great sphinxlike head is exactly that which occurs as the
chief among the carvings on the front of the traditional
Toba house. As a house carving it is called takal singa
("lion charm") or singa ni roema ("lion of the house").
The name, of course, indicates that part of the Batak had
ancient origin from, or contact with, people who had some
tradition of the lion, an animal which the Batak have even
less reason to know, except by tradition, than the Cingalese,
who derive their name from it. Study of the varying forms
of the singa or sinha as an art motive in India, Ceylon,
and Persia might enable the geographical distribution and
focus of one of the old cultural waves which reached
Indonesia to be traced. The sphinxlike Batak lion of these
Samosir graves has nothing in common with the doglike
Chinese lion, the tradition of which reached China over-
land by way of Central Asia, whereas the Batak lion tradi-
tion must have reached Sumatra by way of the coast of
India.
PLATE XXV
Fro. I
FIG. 2
PLATE XXV
Fws. 1-2. Two views of an ancient sarcophagus at Balige,
Toba, said to belong to Radja Pangabing marga Pardede.
This monumental carving, although in bad repair, shows
the same essential features as the sarcophagi photographed
on Samosir by Adam (Pl. XXIV). The marga Pardede
is one of the well-known Toba families, but the position
of Radja Pangabing in the line of descent from the stem
ancestor is not shown by Hoetagaloeng (8) or Ypes (27).
PLATE XXVI
Fig. 1. The gravestone of Radja Djoeara Monang marga
Siahaan, at Balige, Toba. The genealogical tables of
Hoetagaloeng (8) place Radja Djoeara Monang in the
fifteenth generation from the gods, and in the second
generation from the stem ancestor of the marga Siahaan
(a grandson). This monument would appear to be recent
as compared with that shown in Plate XXV.
FIG. 2. An ancient monolithic gravestone shaped like a
sarcophagus, located on a burial tumulus at Sitorang Para-
loangin, Pandjaitan Sitorang, Loemban Koeala, Toba. It
is known as the Batoe ni Djai Hoetan ("Stone of the Forest
Lord"). Djai Hoetan is said to have been one of the early
chiefs of the marga Pandjaitan at Sitorang, but his place
in the genealogy is not indicated by Hoetagaloeng ( 8).
The most massive of the ancient stones seen by the writer.
PLATE XXVII
Modern concrete tombs at Balige, Toba. These follow
very closely the tradition of the old stone sarcophagi. The
one on the right is interesting in that to some extent it
shows the lines of the Toba house, having imitations in
concrete of the great timbers which terminate in the
sphinxlike "singa ni roema."
PLATE XXVIII
FIGs. 1-2. The most artistic of the cement tombs near
Balige. If the lower chamber is hollow, the construction
is probably mechanically defective, but the artistic effect as
seen from the side (Fig. 1) is very good. The singa
heads are well executed, and the scroll ornamentation of
the "tail" end of the ridge is very well proportioned and
graceful.
PLATE XXVIII
FIG. 1
FIG. 2
PLATE XXIX
A modern concrete tomb at Tangga Batoe, near Balige,
Toba. This tomb is interesting in that there have been
incorporated into the modern composition various older
stone carvings, two of the singa ni roema, the pangoeloe-
balang ( cf. 5, Pls. XVI-XVII) in front, and the curious
phallic (? ) stones. Part of the stones are of the form
which some writers, perhaps correctly, would interpret as
the yoni, whereas the others are the lingga. (See discussion
of this matter in an earlier paper, 4, pp. 50-52.)
PLATE XXX
Coffin of a dead Toba chief, kept in the house at Kampong
Palianan, on the mountain near Parapat. Hanging from
the gallery are the five smaller drums, which always consti-
tute the set beaten on great ceremonial and festive occa-
sions ( cf. 4, Pl. VII), together with a large one, at the
left. Drumming and playing of the saroene (see 5, Pl.
XXX) are all-important in Batak ceremonies, since certain
beats and tunes (lagoe) are used to summon the spirits.
As noted in the text, the ceremonial summoning of the
spirits by drumming at the sacred inclosure is believed to
have been retained by the Muhammadan Malays of Central
Sumatra, after they had been converted from paganism,
as the call to prayer, which is certainly an anomaly in Islam.
PLATE XXX
I
/
I ..
0 I .
1-
.· . ~'" ,{'n /
I' 1\ s . /
,··~·
)(
PLATE XXXI
Sketch explaining the Batak (Pardembanan) andjapan
(altar) made in 1918 for the writer before he had seen
one. It is interesting as an example of the drawing of an
unschooled native (Bidin marga Sirait Holboeng of Silo
Marad ja, Asahan). He has labeled the datoe (priest) ;
the boeloeng hotang bane (rotan leaves forming the super-
structure); the toenggal panaloewan ("magic sta:ff,"-
near the ladder); the tanggah debata ("ladder of the
gods," with its notches upside down, as they are always
made, since certain spirits are upside down) ; the boenga
sijala "of which the Malay name is palang'' (the tall,
massive, clublike inflorescences of Phaeomeria magnifica, a
member of the ginger family, shown at the side of the
altar) ; and boeloeng ni bagot (the graceful tail-like frond
of the sugar palm, drenga saccharifera, which is interpreted
as the pathway of those spirits who arrive at the altar from
the air). The whole drawing is labeled andjapan tempat
makan debata ("the altar, eating place of the gods").

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OCCASIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF

ANTHROPOLOGY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

THE SACRED EDIFICES OF

HARLEY HARRIS BARTLETT

ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

UNIVERSITY OF lVIICHIGAN PRESS

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PARSOEROAN (PARDEMBANAN AND SrMELOENGOEN) • 1

DJORO (ToEA), DJERAT (PARDEMBANAN, SrMELOENGOEN,

ANDJAPAN (PARDEMBANAN), BEBEREN AND ANDJAP-

NoTEs oN RELATED MATTERs

STONE SARCOPHAGI AND GRAVESTONES SHAPED LIKE

PLATES I-XXXI WITH DESCRIPTIONS facing 31

T HE chief object of this article is to make a record of

PARSOEROAN (PARDEMBANAN AND SIMELOENGOEN)

highland Batak as the latter spread into the lowlands with

supposed to have consumed the tondi (soul stuff) of the

fying limes, used upon occasions of ceremonial purification.

The change in native customs that has come about in

extremity of Toba Lake, made observations at Naga Sariboe,

The grave houses which are commonly found in

resorted to only by the relatives of the person buried there),

parsoeroa.n even if formerly the same. Its present sig-

spmts to whom offerings were to be made and prayers

In Asahan three variations of Indonesian soero are

over the grave of an important man, used as a place for

The djoro (Pls. IX-XIV) is a Toba structure and

Toba where the djoro, a complete miniature house, is built

boo fence, within which are grown many kinds of sacred

which a description follows (p. 17). After being preserved

It is kept scrupulously neat and tidy. The little house con-

ANDJAPAN (PARDEMBANAN), BEBEREN AND

Karo on the west, and their closest relatives, also have a

is nearly always most conspicuous. There may be a banana

NOTES ON RELATED MATTERS

a grave was published by Van der Tuuk ( 16, Pl. XXI)

before the statue. (Only the monument with a single rider

on the horse's head, is a female figure, Si Beroe Tapian

The equestrian grave monument illustrated (Pls. XXII-

spread far from the center of origin. The writer supposes

but have the form which is common to most Batak struc-

is referred to his valuable discussion of the geographical

development of their own peculiar art through the adoption

8. HoETAGALOENG, W. M., Poestaha taringot toe tarombo m

20. VoN BRENNER, J. FREIHERR, Besuch bei den Kannibalen

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