Batak House Ornament

One of batak's traditional house ornament. Chicken. This symbol almost found in every traditional house in Sumatra and Sulawesi.

Batak Toba Houses (up till 20th century)

from http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/


The Batak Toba are one of six Batak tribes that inhabit northern and central Sumatra. Each tribe has a distinctive culture and architectural style. Two Batak tribes are Muslim, while the the Toba and another tribe are Christian. The Batak Toba people are concentrated around Lake Toba, the world's largest caldera lake. Their houses are among the most distinctive in Indonesia, with their famous boat-shaped roofs and finely-decorated carvings.

Batak Toba houses are found in groups of ten or less, constituting small villages. Because of frequent warfare among the other tribes in the past, the houses are built close together, often side-by-side (though rarely connected). Since much of the area is wet year-round, the Batak place their buildings on stilts to avoid flooding and dampness. A typical village consists of a row of houses flanking a corresponding number of small rice granaries, one for each house. Between the two rows of buildings runs a street called an "alaman", which used to serve as a workyard and as a place for drying out rice in the hot sun. Nowadays, most of the granary buildings have been converted into houses, but their original purpose remains recognizable since the granaries were always built on six pillars, while houses had more.

The Batak Toba house is organized vertically into three distinct zones. The lower zone--the area beneath the house raised on piers--functioned as a work area and as an open-air pen for animals. The next zone—the floor of the house—is a living area where as many as four different families crowded together (nowadays there is usually one family per house). Ladders were once used to access the living area from the ground, so that in times of war the ladder could be quickly retracted and the opening sealed. At present, many families have installed stairs for convenience.

The highest and most important level of the house is the upper storey, which extends about 1/3 of the depth in from the front of the house. In this area family valuables and ancestral shrines are located. In front of this area, facing the street, is a verandah used for open-air storage. The roofs of the Batak Toba houses are formed of sugar palm fiber thatch, held together with rattan cords. However, many houses have abandoned the labor-intensive thatched roof and have converted to zinc metal roofs, which are far more durable in the humid climate.


Facade of a Batak Toba house, with the characteristically steep rooflines.













Closer view, showing the intricate wood carvings on the outside of the storage area on the main floor of the house.
















Note how the house is about 2 1/2 meters above the ground.

















Profile of the house, showing the characteristic boat-shaped roof.















Facade of another Batak Toba house.

















Closeup of the entrance and the storage space above.



















Ridge of the house.


















Batak Toba house in context, along a road in a village.








Corner of the house. Note the small window.








Another typical Batak Toba house .

The Karo Batak village

The Karo Batak village of Serdang near Kabanjahe in North Sumatra. In the background is a small longhouse which accommodates several families.

The roof of the longhouse is covered with ijuk fibre.

In the foreground is a village warung complete with satellite dish.

Bangunan Tradisonla Batak

Promosi Doktor ITB: Pribadi Widodo
Kamis, 12 - Oktober - 2006



Jumat siang, 6 Oktober 2006, Program Studi Pascasarjana ITB mempromosikan Pribadi Widodo memperoleh gelar Doktor dalam bidang Ilmu Seni dan Desain. Staf pengajar jurusan Desain Interior Fakultas Seni Rupa dan Desain (FSRD) ITB semenjak 1984 ini mengajukan disertasi bertajuk "Mengungkap Estetika Tersembunyi pada Bangunan Tradisional Batak untuk Menemukan Sistem Perbandingan Ukuran." Pribadi menggunakan studi kasus pada grup etnis Batak Toba dan Batak Karo. Pribadi meneliti ekspresi estetik bangunan Silawuh Jabu Karo khas etnis Batak Karo dan Ruma Toba, etnis Batas Toba.

Penelitiannya ini membuat Pribadi harus mengintrepretasi nilai budaya objektif masyarakat Batak masa lalu yang masih diwarnai oleh budaya primitif, animistis, mitologis. Untuk itu, Pribadi harus menelaah hingga akar budaya Batak, khususnya sistem kepercayaan. Analisisnya menjelaskan mulai ajaran Parmalim yang sebenarnya ada lebih dahulu dari ajaran Sipele Begu; konsep kosmos Batak yang dibagi menjadi tiga benua, dengan masing–masing dijaga oleh kekuatan spiritual masing–masing, Tuan Bubi Na Bolon, Tuan Silaon Na Bolon, dan Tuan Pane na Tolu.

Berikut ini kesimpulan hasil disertasi Pribadi, ekspresi dari estetika yang tersembunyi pada arsitektur Batak Karo dan Batak Toba, khususnya pada bangunan Silawuh Jabu Karo dan Ruma Toba.
Arsitektur Batak Karo

• sistem orientasi Julu–Jahe, Hulu–Hilir,
• penempatan bangunan Jabu yang tersebar namun harus sejajar aliran sungai, bubungan atam lurus sejajar aliran sungai,
• masa bangunan yang terdiri dari tiga bagian pokok dengan perbandingan 1:1:5, memberikan perhatian utama pada bagian atap,
• dinding ruang bangunan (derpik) yang berbentuk miring ke atas melambangkan pertemuan dunia tengah dengan langit (atap),
• bidang segitiga berornamen pada atap (ayo–ayo), tiga titik sudutnya lambang bersatunya tiga Debata, atau bersatunya Daliken Sitelu
• kepala kerbau, untuk keamanan rumah, lambang estetika animistis
• sumbu transenden, pada sirkulasi utama bangunan Jabu

Makna estetika simbolik pada Batak Karo: kosmologis, keseimbangan, religius, animistis, diam, misteri, keterbukaan, kesederhanaan, ketenteraman.


Arsitektur Batak Toba

• sistem orientasi sumbu transenden Gunung Pusuk Buhit,
  
• jajaran Ruma yang harus mengikuti sumbu Utara–Selatan,
• masa bangunan yang terdiri dari tiga bagian pokok dengan perbandingan 1:1:5, memberikan perhatian utama pada bagian atap,
• dinding ruang bangunan (pardindingan) yang berbentuk miring ke atas, melambangkan pertemuan dunia tengah dengan langit (atap)
• pohon beringin pada setiap Huta toba yang diandaikan Kiara Jambu Barus, pohon nasib orang Batak
• bentuk bubungan atap yang melengkung ke atas (Toba)
• bentuk bangunan yang seimbang (simetri) sempurna, menciptakan garis sumbu yang kuat sebagai axis mundi

Makna estetika simbolik pada Batak Toba: kosmologis, proporsional, misteri, dinamis, ekspresif, keterbukaan, kesederhanaan, ketenteraman

The Houses of the Batak

The Batak, who live in north Sumatra, are divided into six ethnic groups. Two Bataks races, the Mandailing and the Angkola Batak, became Muslim in the middle of the 19th century, and Toba Batak were converted to Christianity in 1864 by the German Rheinisch Missionary Society. The others kept their native religion, though there have been converts to Islam and Christianity more recently.
"The houses of the Toba and Karo are recognizable by their massive style of building construction, which is suited to the way the inhabitants settled more and less permanently. The stilt house is an eminently pratical form of architecture for life in the tropics. Unfortunately, the Toba Batak houses are no longer being built. Earlier, rice stores (sopo) were a part of the traditional house, the rumah adat. The sopo were very important as status symbols.

The ornaments put onto the external walls of the house are meant to drive away evil influences. These ornaments consist of anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations, carved decorative ornaments, and wall paintings. The colors used are natural colors, the most iportant being red (from red clay), white (from chalk), and black (from charcoal), which respectively represent the three spheres of the cosmos: the human world, the world of good spirits above, and the underworld.


Video Clip
Rumah Batak