Batak Arts in the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Batak Arts in the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen
Curated by Steven G. Alpert
For those who have not yet discovered or been to Sumatra, a journey there ought to include a visit to Lake Toba (Danau Toba), the world's largest crater lake. The lake was formed from volcanic activity that began over a million years ago, culminating in an Ultra-Plinian eruption some 74,000 years ago that nearly rendered humanity extinct. Samosir island, home of the Toba Batak, rises majestically from the lake's depths. This environment and Danau Toba's surrounding highlands are the ancestral homelands of the Batak, comprised of the Toba, Simalungun, Karo, Papak, Angkola, and Mandailing peoples. They are closely related to each other through language, customs, and shared cultural knowledge. Their tales of gods and ancestors, coupled with an abundant material and ritual culture, have always been imbued by the heartbeat of Lake Toba, a remarkable natural wonder in a country that abounds in beauty.
Much of the Bataks' traditional territory remained in relative isolation until around 1825. Over time, various Batak entities have been noted or acknowledged for their sense of fierce independence, literacy among their ritual specialists, and, as our Batak gallery ably asserts, impressive skills as craftsmen and artisans of the highest order. These attributes flourished within a system of deeply-rooted rules of pronounced kinship (Dalihan na Tolu) that continues to inform and energize Batak society. In contemporary terms, Bataks are recognized for their strong focus on education and prominence in many fields, including writing, teaching, medicine, and the law.
In the spirit of presenting unfeigned excellence, Art of the Ancestors features seventeen additional items from the Batak peoples of North Sumatra that are currently being stewarded in the Netherlands' Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen. Artistically, the Batak are renowned for their carving skills in wood, stone, and buffalo horn, as well as for inscribed bone charms, able skills at smithing and metal casting, and their grandly ornamented traditional houses. Old colonial-era photographs routinely depict the village's most prominent personage, its ritual specialist or priest (datu or guru). He is often posed, holding, or surrounded by important paraphernalia associated with his position. These items might include a long magic staff, a medicine horn container slung over one shoulder, and his books or pustaha that recorded ritual knowledge and were sometimes accompanied by bold pictographs. Many of these books have survived. Their construction consists of folding pages of pounded bark paper made from the alim tree that were then bound and tucked between two wooden covers. The finest pustaha were elaborately carved. Batak writing, derived from ancient Kawi and Pallava-based script, was primarily consulted for divinations, incantations, and recipes that ensured successful agricultural and ritual cycles. Above all, they are handbooks for the mastery of both 'white' and 'black' magic, which was thought to aid a ritual specialist in influencing events, curing patients, or beckoning an enemy's soul or tondi to follow his dictates.
Individual works of early Batak manufacture were most often created by the datu as part and parcel of their skillset. Here, beauty is traditionally not simply a frippery or fashion or an affectation. Rendering something properly and finely was an integral part of its maker's path toward gaining a desired result or outcome. In this realm, form and function and what we might call 'beauty' are generally based on their purposefulness. Arguably, the greatest single skill of the Batak, especially the Toba contingent, in wood carving was their ability to carve particularly well-defined human figures amid an ark of natural and supernatural creatures, all in minutiae. Perhaps the most singular and classic examples of this talent can be seen carved on the finest Batak staffs (known as tunggal panaluan or tongkat melihat, depending on their area of manufacture, type, and character), or small carved stoppers for containers of potions and unguents (guri guri). Illustrated here is an excellent example of a Toba Batak datu's tunggal panaluan that was collected before 1883. Staffs were used in ceremonial rituals and varied forms of augury that might include foiling curses cast by others, creating rain, or influencing martial outcomes. They could also be used to send messages or serve as a proxy to the extent that they could even represent a bridegroom in absentia. The line of vertical figures is repeatedly referred to as representing one's lineage of teachers. Each 'teacher' was due his portion of food, drink, and sacrifices. In the days before the introduction of Christianity, the oldest and finest, the most efficacious staffs, while owned by individuals of prowess, were also considered grand heirlooms that were handed down only within a clan or house's patrilineal descent group or marga.
As mentioned, many of the items in our Batak gallery, such as the inscribed books, charms, small containers with carved wooden stoppers for storing medicinal remedies and powerful potions, as well as larger apotropaic statues, were once all part and parcel of the lexicon of a ritual specialist. Three unusual apotropaic statues or conglomerations of figures are reproduced here. The first is a protective Toba shrine depicting three women with mesmerizing hand gestures as they 'clear the path' with movements that recall an ancient sacred dance, the tortor, originating in North Sumatra. The second shrine depicts a white figure clasping his bent knees, riding atop a mythical figure or singa. The last apotropaic composition depicts seven figures in a horizontal row: six males and one female with some clutching weaponry or displaying their large oversized hands while dancing or moving in the act of either casting a spell or repelling malevolent forces.
In the realm of memorializing the departed, three items stand out. The first is a model of a 'soul ship' for the spirit of the departed. The second is a fine funereal mask, of which there are six other examples of Toba and Simalungun workmanship in our Batak gallery. For whatever reason, only the earliest masks seem to possess what we might call an elite or high level of artistic excellence. Mortuary masks were also commonly made in male and female pairs. These were co-utilized with the use of theatrically exaggerated hands. The masqueraders would dance and stroll along with the funeral cortège that included the departed's remains, further continuing to dance at the gravesite. Their purpose appears to be twofold. First, masked dancers were employed to create a decoy or antidote for any evil spirits that might try to interfere with the soul's journey to another realm. Secondly, they are part of an elaborate system of mourning that, while reaffirming familial bonds, creates a well-orchestrated separation between the living and the tondi of the deceased.
This care for the memory of the departed is perhaps best epitomized by a Karo Batak statue illustrated this month that depicts an imposing maternal figure standing behind a much smaller effigy. Both have movable arms. In the Tropenmuseum notes, these figures correspond with the Toba Batak's si gale gale puppets. Such figures were played two months after the death of a wealthy person who was childless. Collected prior to 1910, this statue is said to represent the deceased with a surrogate child. Without a male heir, even wealthy aristocrats assumed a low position in the spirit world. To ease them and in a customary sign of empathy, it was hoped that such creations accompanied by offerings and dances soothed the childless one's soul so it would not come back to haunt or exact revenge upon the living.
From realms of magic to the bidding of adieus to the departed to celebrating life with artistic flourishes, the more venerable Batak arts espouse technical skill and are often animated with spirit. In the personification of beauty, the Batak wore an array of ornaments, including large spiraling silver designs suspended in a woman's headgear (padung) to cast earrings, pendants, and impressive bracelets (gelang). The latter also served as a protective amulet for men of high rank. The one shown here includes the rare depiction of a female figure in addition to the usual rendering of a singa. Another example of life-affirming ornamentation is the beaded simata godang that were worn as sashes or around the necks of the wives of village chiefs and other high-ranking women during ritual dances, marriages, and greeting ceremonies. A number of these beaded sashes or girdles are preserved in the Dutch museum system. Celebrating such diverse items enhances our appreciation of the Batak peoples' ability to create a varied array of material culture expressed through many mediums.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
1
Three Figures on a Pedestal | Panihat
Toba Batak peoples
Before 1910
Wood, cotton
TM-137-624
2
Noble Bracelet | Gelang Gajah Dompak
Toba Batak peoples
19th century
Brass
RV-Liefkes-4
3
Mourning Mask | Topeng
1875-1918
Wood, silver fittings, copper, monkey teeth
7082-S-460-1
4
Priest’s Staff | Tunggal Malehat
Toba Batak peoples
Before 1912
Wood, animal hair, hide
TM-118-32
5
Priest’s Staff | Tunggal Panaluan
Before 1883
Wood, rooster feathers, human or horse hair, cotton
RV-344-7
6
Facade Ornament of a Rice Barn | Singa
Simalungun peoples
Before 1921
Wood
TM-137-19
7
Belt of a Ritual Specialist or Medicine Man | Simata Godang
Toba Batak peoples
Before 1932
Cotton, beads, copper bells
RV-2256-1
8
Carved Bone Amulet | Sarang Timah
Karo Batak peoples
Before 1940
Animal bone
TM-1772-39
9
Top Ornament of a Priest’s Staff
Brass, lead
WM-30158
10
Gun Powder Horn | Porpanggalahan
Toba Batak peoples
Before 1921
Water buffalo horn, brass, tin, wax
TM-137-312
11
Pair of Female Ancestor Figures
Karo Batak peoples
Before 1910
Wood, animal hair, cotton
TM-137-626
12
Figurative Horn for Magical and Medicinal Paraphernalia | Naga Morsarang
Toba Batak peoples
Before 1921
Wood, horn, animal hair, hide, iron, plant fiber, rattan
TM-137-607
13
Seven Protective Figures on a Pedestal | Pagar
Toba Batak peoples
Before 1937
Bamboo, wood, cotton
TM-1167-1
14
Model of a ‘Soul’ Ship
Karo Batak peoples
ca. 1924
Wood, cotton, plant material
TM-241-2
15
Human Figure Astride a Mythical Creature
Wood, paint
WM-17248
16
Ancestor Figure on the Door of a Rice Barn
Before 1940
Wood
TM-10000937
17
Book of Magical Divination | Pustaha
Toba Batak peoples
1852-1857
Wood, iron, cloth, tree bark, rattan
TM-A-1389
All artworks and images presented in this feature are the property of Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen.
© Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen