THE OLD RELIGION OF THE BATAKS

The old religions of the inhabitants of Indonesia are essentially of the same type. Though the number, the names and the myths of the Gods differ, ancestor worship and the cult of spirits are to be found among all the Malayan peoples, that is to say, their religions are based on an animistic notion of the soul. The core of all the ancient religions is the cult of souls and fear of spirits. The description we intend to give here of the old religion of the Bataks holds well universally. It applies to the old religion of the Dayaks in Borneo and of the people in Nias as well.

Three different conceptions and religious motifs intertwine in the old Batak religion. Their conception of the gods, the notion of the tondi or power of the mind as a definite entity, and the third one, the fear of ghosts, demons and ancestors. Each of these three ways of conceiving things has its own cult and its own rich religious tradition.

The ancient Bataks acknowledge five upper gods, the Batara Guru, Soripada, mangala Bulan, ompu Mula jadi Nabolon, and Debata Asiasi. The father of the gods and lord of creation was Ompu Mula jadi nabolon. There was hardly any difference between these five gods. Sometimes they were interchanged.

The human race, sometimes called ‘the gods of the middle-world’, was conceived of as a true image of the world of the gods. Life in heaven was much the same as life on earth. The difference between gods and humans was only a matter of degree. Gods were higher than men, as a chief is higher than his tribe. Powerful kings were called gods, and the other way round, gods were called Ompu, grandfather. The title ompu is used to address important personalities.

The ancient Bataks believed that the universe consisted of three parts. The upper-world was abode of the gods and their families. Mankind inhabited the middle-world. The under-world was dwelling place of the ghosts of the dead and the demons.

Nevertheless, some ghosts lived in the middle-world and the spirits of deceased persons of importance dwelled in the upper-world.

The life of the gods in the upper-world as we said earlier was very much the same as life in the middle-world. The gods had wives and children, gambled, made war, persecuted one another and loved one another.

The Bataks had no statues, images or symbols that were worshipped as gods; it was not the statue that was worshipped, but the speaking image of the forefather that was seen in it. Animists never adore statues. The Bataks had no temples or holy place to worship their gods.

Little structures that look like temples, which one sees here and there, are just places where the ancestor used to be worshipped.

The ancient Bataks never turned to the gods by themselves. The Mediators did not pronounce any oracle of the gods, as they did in ancient Greece. They mediated between the dead and their descendants. The datus or wizard too had little to with the gods. They took care of relations between the living and the souls of the dead.

Besides the higher gods, the old Bataks had a few lower or lesser gods. These too had little to do with one another.