11Story

07 May 2009

The world of the Dead

The Batak

Contents - The history and western discovery of the Batak - Social and political life - Religion and rituals             * The beliefs             * Tondi and begu - The objects of the priest: the datu items - The Death - Synopsis of the exhibition             * The Workd of the Dead             * Singa             * Musical instruments             * The Toba House             * Enclosing the world             * Weapons and associated objects             * The datu items             * The protection - Bibliography

 

The World of the Dead

 

To understand Batak art and society requires leaving aside Western concepts of interpretations, in order to approach a mental universe fundamentally different from ours. The World of the Dead is a case in point. Before his/her birth a Batak person receives from the supreme divinity Mula Jadi Na Bolon a tondi – spiritual and life force – which will determine the course of his/her life. Plants, animals and certain objects can also be invested with a tondi. Tondi fluctuates and can move from a thing/person to another. The living’s actions is thus to maintain whole the strength of their tondi. When a person dies, it is said that the begu – the soul – is freed while the tondi goes back to the upper worlds to serve as a life-giving substance to another living being. Everyone who dies becomes a begu. With the appropriate amount of offerings and animal sacrifices, a respected ancestor’s begu can become sumangot, first, and then sombaon, i.e. a semi-divine ancestor. The soul of a man without descent or who died prematurely can disturb the order set by the adat, the customary law. Then, a puppet si gale gale, animated and dressed up, constitutes a vessel for the defunct’s begu during the funerals.

 

 

Funeral effigy with a magic staff. This staff have been sculpted by the datu panggana (the sculptor magician). © musée du quai Branly, photo Patrick Gries, Bruno Descoings, 70.2001.27.484.

 

 

Toba Ancestral effigy © musée du quai Branly, photo Patrick Gries, Valérie Torre, 70.2001.27.338.1-2.

 

 

 

Toba marionette si gale gale. © musée du quai Branly, photo Patrick Gries, Bruno Descoings, 70.2002.13.1.13.

 

 

 

Stone sarcophagus, pharholian, in the Samosir plain. The toba sarcophagus can cointain the bones of several persons after their second funeral. To the left, several rumbi cylindrical urns. © Tropenmuseum, inv. 10030234.

 

 

 

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