People

The Batak people live in the north of Sumatra, in the hilly region of lake Toba. At the beginning of this century the last Batak were placed under the authority of the Netherlands. Most of them were christianized. The Batak form the largest protestant community of Asia. Nevertheless a lot of old traditions were preserved. More than 4 million people are Batak; it is one of Indonesia's largest population groups

Actually Batak is a general name for 6 groups with different cultural and linguistic characteristics, but they believe in a descent of a common ancestor. The house model you've just seen, is for instance typical for the Batak. However, all Batak have in common that they live on the growing of rice and have the same wedding system. The Batak are organized in 'margas', large family groups. The members of one marga can only marry a person of another marga. Upon her marriage the wife passes over into the husband's marga. The Batak Toba and Batak Simalungun people live around Parapat. The Batak people composed of Batak Toba, Simulungun, Pak-Pak, and Karo, are known for their expressiveness, which is often materialized in lively and sentimental love songs. If every person in Bali can carve, every person in Batak can sing of play the guitar.