Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of ethnic tribes found in the highlands of North Sumatra Indonesia. Their heartland lies to the west of Medan centred on Lake Toba. In fact the "Batak" include several groups with distinct, albeit related, languages and customs (adat). While the term is used to include the Toba, Karo, Pak Pak, Simalungun, Angkola, and Mandailing groups, some of these peoples prefer not to be known as Batak.

Before they became subjects of colonial Dutch East Indies government, the Batak had a reputation for being fierce warriors, and possibly practiced cannibalism, as noted by Thomas_Stamford_Raffles when he was appointed as Governor of Sumatra. Afterwards Christianity was embraced widely, and the HKBP (Huria Kristen Batak Protestan) Christian church is presently the largest Christian congregation in Indonesia.

Batak societies are patriarchal. The Batak culture(s) stands out in weaving, wood carving and especially in its ornate stone tombs. Their burial cultures are very rich and complex, and includes a ceremony in which the bones of one's ancestors are reinterred several years after death (mangungkal holi).

The Bataks themselves today are one-fifth Muslim, half Christian, and the rest Animist. Most of current dominant Christian introduced by the arrival of Lutheran German missionaries in 19th century. One of the most famous German missionary is Ludwig_Ingwer_Nommensen.

Bataks speak a variety of (closely related) languages, all members of the Austronesian language family.

See also

• Batak alphabet

External links

• The family tree of the Batak languages, from Ethnologue.com