The rich sculptural, architectural, and textile traditions of the Toba Batak in northern Sumatra have served, for generations, as potent tools for harnessing spiritual power that was central to religious and social life before Christianity was introduced in the nineteenth century. The Toba are one of six Batak subgroups of northern Sumatra in Indonesia. They are descendants of Austronesians who originally migrated from Taiwan and Southern China as early as six thousand years ago, settling in the Philippines around 2500 BCE before spreading to Indonesia.
The Toba creation story begins with the world divided between the heavens (where the gods dwelled) and the ocean (ruled by the naga, or serpent dragon). The middle realm, where humans live, was created when Si Boru Deak Parujar, the granddaughter of the first god, Mula Jadi Ni Bolon, ran away from her home in the heavens to avoid marrying her cousin. After trapping Naga Padoha, the serpent lord of the watery underworld whose repeated attempts at freedom are felt to this day in the form of earthquakes, she created land on the surface of the ocean with a handful of soil provided by her father.
This cosmic organization is reflected in Toba art and architecture. Communal houses are composed of three levels: the floor is raised above the ground, creating space beneath, where livestock is kept; humans inhabit the main house; and the roof is associated with the heavens. Customarily, Toba houses were embellished with elaborate wood carvings. One such ornament of a horse head is painted in red, white, and black (1988.143.68)—three colors associated with divine power that further reinforce the tripartite division of the cosmos. Horses were costly prestige items owned by high-ranking families, but they were also believed to enable humans to safely move between earthly and ancestral realms.
Other architectural carvings served to ward off malevolent forces and spirits. Many of these ornaments depict the head of a singa, a mythical creature that figures prominently in Toba Batak art (1988.143.56, 1988.143.70, 1988.143.28, 2013.1137.16). Often represented as a composite of a naga, a water buffalo, and a horse, the singa is associated with fertility, abundance, and protection. Carvings of the singa are attached to the exposed beams of Toba houses, with beam and carving together resembling a reptilian, snakelike being that is identified with Naga Padoha, the god of the underworld whose body supports the earthly realm above. Despite this association with the malevolent naga, the singa was considered so powerful that it could ward off evil.
Often such carvings were used to protect from the angry souls of deceased ancestors. According to the Toba Batak, each person has two souls: the tondi, which is attached to a person during life but disappears upon death, and the begu, which continues to exist in the afterlife and remains in the earthly realm near the deceased’s home and village. Just as life in Toba villages was stratified—with a ruling class who kept slaves—the afterlife was believed to be similarly hierarchical. It was said to contain seven levels through which a person’s begu could progress over time as long as their living relatives conducted the appropriate burial rites. The living would make offerings in order to increase their ancestors’ prestige in the heavenly realm.
Elaborate mortuary ceremonies also involved life-sized puppets called si gale-gale (1987.453.6), which are some of the most complex examples of puppetry in the world. The hollow interior contains a series of cables that pass through the entire body, which are then pulled by a puppeteer. During the funeral ceremony, the si gale-gale is richly adorned with textiles, head ornaments, and jewelry such as the ear ornaments in the example from The Met’s collection. The face is carved with an alert, lifelike expression, featuring high eyebrows, wide eyes, and a prominent mouth. Dressed in the same textiles and adornments that individuals would wear during the funeral ceremony, the puppet appeared extremely realistic. In fact, the si gale-gale acted as a surrogate child for individuals who passed away without having had children or for those whose children died before them. If a person did not have descendants to conduct the necessary mortuary rights and offerings, their spirit would be unable to advance to the upper levels of the afterlife. The si gale-gale fulfills this role during the funeral processions and prevents a begu from becoming angry and spiteful after death.
A begu could act on the living in benevolent, benign, or harmful ways depending on how fully and faithfully their descendants conducted these ceremonial protocols. If a person became ill, for example, it was often attributed to a spiteful begu. To seek healing, the afflicted would turn to a ritual specialist called a datu who acted as intermediary between the human and ancestral worlds. Although datu are often called magicians or priests in European writing on Batak culture, more fundamentally, they were the custodians of oral traditions, sacred texts, and the medicinal, scientific, and ritual knowledge that was vital to Batak life and society. This knowledge was recorded in a pustaha, a richly illustrated book made from the inner fiber of the alim tree. The front cover of one pustaha (1988.143.133) features a lizard—a manifestation of the agricultural deity Boraspati Ni Tano that is often carved onto the doors of rice granaries (1988.143.3). The interior pages, folded like an accordion, feature depictions of various beings that impact Toba life. Here, snakelike creatures become entangled with one another, often with fanged jaws opening wide to consume the tail of another creature; other figures resemble horses, crocodiles, and anthropomorphic beings standing on two legs with large horns protruding from their heads. The illustrations are replete with cross-hatching, stripes, and geometric designs in red and black to create a powerful visual accompaniment to the neat columns of writing. The text provides instructions for performing rituals, preparing medicines and other potent mixtures, and manufacturing ceremonial objects. It also includes methods for divination, stories used in oratory, strategies for agricultural production, lunar calendars, and the names of previous datu through whom this knowledge passed.
Much of a datu’s responsibility involved his ability to protect the community from malicious forces that might cause illness, death, and misfortune. Using the knowledge recorded in the pustaha, the datu could diagnose and treat illnesses. For example, the pustaha contained instructions to make pagar, which can refer to either a powerful substance one might ingest or an object that would hang near a sickbed or outside a house to repel evil. An ingredient often used by the datu in these instances was lime juice, whose acidity was considered to possess an animating quality that increased the ritual efficacy of an object, substance, or ceremony. Two Toba lime squeezers (1988.143.161, 1988.143.113) take the form of human figures, one adorned with an intricate foliate pattern on the chest, and the other holding a vessel. The artistry of these delicately carved objects demonstrates that these were not mere tools but were considered to be important ritual objects in and of themselves.
Once a datu mixed a powerful substance such as pagar, he would carry it in an intricately carved water buffalo horn called a naga morsarang. The opening of the horn was fitted with an elaborate wooden stopper carved by the datu. One example depicts successive generations of datu riding on the back of a large singa (1987.453.1). The creature has a gaping mouth and three large horns on its head. The central horn is decorated with sinuous forms that echo the designs carved into the body of the singa. Four figures ride on the back of the singa’s head, and a fifth sits at the other end of the container.
Singa appear in another group of objects used to hold powerful substances that aided the datu: a series of ceramic vessels in a range of shapes, sizes, and glazes obtained through exchange with traders from China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Japan (1988.143.41, 1988.143.38a, b, 1988.143.40). Most of these containers are relatively plain, but others feature figurative designs such as horses (1988.143.39a, b). While the containers were obtained through trade, the elaborate wooden and horn stoppers were carved locally. Most depict a male figure mounted on a singa (1988.124.2a, b), though some lack a rider (1988.143.37). Folded wings decorated with geometric motifs suggesting feathers are common features of such figures. These avian elements derive from the chicken, an important sacrificial animal that figured prominently in many Batak rituals, and the hornbill, an indigenous bird understood to be a spiritual guardian and guide. The coupling of bird and singa—creatures associated, respectively, with the upper and lower worlds—may represent the union of the two realms, mediated through the middle world of the living.
These ceramic containers were primarily used to hold pukpuk, a powerful substance typically derived from ritually prepared human and animal remains. The datu applied pukpuk to the surface of sacred objects or inserted the mixture into small holes that were later plugged, activating the object by sealing the power within. One such object depicts a human figure with a cavity carved into the chest where pukpuk would be inserted (1988.143.6). Another—called a pangulubalang—served as a guardian that was stationed at the perimeter of a village in order to protect the community (1988.143.79). Pukpuk would also be applied to the hilts of ritual swords called piso sanalenggam. Carved from water buffalo horn (1988.143.23, 1988.143.112) or cast from brass (2000.160.3), these hilts depict a kneeling figure adorned with an elaborate headdress, where a cavity at the top held pukpuk. Similar features appear on other objects associated with Toba Batak ceremonial customs, as in the seated figure adorned with an ornate silver and gold headdress atop the stringed instrument known as a hasapi (1999.47.44)—an apt example of the metalworking skills of Batak artists.
Among the most important of these pukpuk-powered implements were ritual staffs called tunggal panuluan or tungkot malehat, which served to fend off malevolent spirits and aided in fortune-telling, diplomacy, and healing (1987.447.16, 1988.143.90, 1988.143.84, 1988.124.1, 1988.143.141). During ritual ceremonies, the datu would stake the staff into the ground or swing it around while moving to music in a trancelike state. While all of these staffs share common features, each one reflects the individual datu’s artistic choices. One superb example (1988.143.89) is carved from a dark hardwood and has a patina from the repeated application of animating substances such as betel juice, macerated rice, blood, palm wine, and raw eggs. In addition to the standard mounted figures and singa, the wood is carved with curvilinear designs and embellished with metalwork, a cotton turban, and horsehair. Within this one object we find all the elements that transform artworks of the Toba Batak into potent spiritual tools able to thwart malevolent forces. The tripartite division of the cosmos (suggested by the three sacred colors of the turban), the equestrian figures riding the mythical singa, and the apotropaic power of the pukpuk hidden within combine to facilitate the dangerous and vital process by which people, spirits, and ancestors cross between the realms of the living, dead, and supernatural.
Today, nearly all Toba are Christian owing to the conversion efforts of the Rhenish Missionary Society, a Protestant organization established in the region in 1866. Along with the annexation of northern Sumatra by the Dutch in 1908, conversion to Christianity led to a decrease in the spiritual art and religious practices that had previously structured Toba Batak society. Many Toba leaders and artists resisted this development, however, and some elements of pre-Christian life endure to this day through local contemporary artists and cultural practitioners who continue to hold Indigenous knowledge.