Thursday, July 15, 2010

Lake Toba (2) - the Folklore

The Folklore of Lake Toba

Once upon a time, lived a young orphan farmer in the northern part of the Sumatran Island. This area was very dry. The young man lived from farming and fishing. One day he went fishing, he already fishing for half of the day but still not getting any fish yet. So he returned home for the day turns to night, but when he nearly left he saw a big beautiful golden fish, he then caught the fish and brought it home. He intended to cook the fish right away but watched the beauty of this fish he then cancelled his intention. He chose to keep it as pet, and then he placed it in a big pond and feed it. On the next day, like usual, he went to his farm, and on the noon he comeback home, to have lunch. But when he arrived in his house he was very startled for the meal had prepared to be eaten. He then fears that the fish might be stolen, and then hastily he ran to the back of his house.

However, the fish was still in place, for a long time he thinks, “Who cooks those meals”, but because his is very hungry, he ate those meals. But this incident continued to occur again repeatedly, every time he came home for lunch, the meals are prepared on the table. Then one day this young man made a strategy to find out who cooks those meals, the next day he then began to commence his strategy, he then hide around the trees close to his house. He was waiting for a long time, but the smoke in his kitchen still has not been seen, and when he then intended to return home, he began to see the smoke in the kitchen.

"Hey woman, who are you, and where are you came from?” the woman began to drop tears, and then the young man saw his fish was no longer in the pond. He asked the woman, “hey woman, where is the fish in that pond?” the Woman cried intensely, but this young man continued to ask and finally the woman answers, “I was the fish that was caught by you”. The young man then startled, but because he felt that he had hurt the feelings this woman, then he said, “Hey woman, did you want to become my wife??” the Woman then startled, he stay quiet, then the young man said “Why are you silent??” Then the woman said, “I wanted to become your wife. But with one condition.” ”What is the condition?” the young man quickly asked, the woman then said, “In the future if our child was born and grew, never even once you said that he/she was anakni Dekke (child of a fish) ”. The young man then agreed to that condition and swore he will never say it.

Then they were married and granted a child. When the child was 6 years old, this child turn to be very naughty. Then one day the mother told her child to deliver meals to his father field, the child then went to deliver rice to his father. But in the middle of the trip, this child was felt hungry, then the child opened food package for his father, and ate the food. After finished eating, the child then wrapped it back and continued the trip to his father's field. On arrival the child gave the food package to the father, the father was very happy, the father then sat and immediately opened the food package that was sent by his wife to be carried by his child. But he was very startled when he opened the package there is only bones remained. The father then asked his child “Hay my child, why there are only bones left in this package??” And the child answers,” In my trip I felt hungry, so I ate the food.” Listened to that the father was very angry, he then slap his child and said, "Botul maho anakni dekke (Why you child of a fish),". The child is then ran home crying and ask to his mother “Mak, Olo do na in dokkon amangi, botul do au anakni dekke? (Mother, is it true what father said, that I am a child from a fish?) ” Heard his child's words his mother was startled. While dropping tears and saying in her heart, “My husband has violated his swore, and now I must return to my place.” Then the sky was suddenly become dark followed with lightning, thunder, storm, and rain. The child and the mother disappeared, from their footprint emerged a spring that flowed water as swiftly as possible. Until this area was turned into a lake, that was named as “Tuba Lake” the lake without mercy, but because of the bataks was difficult to say “Tuba”, then this lake was mentioned as TOBA LAKE.

According to the local Citizen, the mother return as a huge fish (the lake guardian), and until today no one is able to measure the depth of this lake

Lake Toba (1)


It is the largest volcanic lake in the world (yes, it is a lake and it is a supervolcano), second largest lake in the world, and it is popular because it has a tiny little island on it. Funny, because that so-called little island turns out to be the biggest island in the world. And yes, that is probably why lake Toba became popular.

Its max length is app 100 KM and 30 KM on its width. It is the ninth deepest lake in the world (529 m at its deepest point). The surface of this lake is around 1,130KM2 (Singapore area is about 720km2, so you do the math..). It is that large that the lake is surrounded (and belongs to) eight regencies, including the Tobasa regency.


There are two version of how this lake was actually created. Well, one version is the folklore version, and the other one is off course the scientific version.

Lake Toba and its surrounding area are home to the exuberant Batak tribe. It is one of the biggest clean lake water supplier in Asia. Most of the land surrounding the lake are covered with the rice paddy fields.





Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Toba Samosir, introduction

So this is the very first entry of this blog, and i really do hope there will be more and more entries afterwards...

Most of you might be familiar with both lake Toba and Samosir island, yes, those are the two big words used in the blog's name, but no, this blog is not really about those, oh well, yes maybe a little of those, but Tobasa (Toba-Samosir) here is referring to the Toba Samosir Regency, located in North Sumatra, Indonesia.

Toba Samosir regency is one of many regencies in North Sumatra. It was part of the North Tapanuli (Tapanuli Utara) regency until March 9th, 1999. Although both words of its name are internationally known, the regency itself is still trying to be so.

Located about 250 km from Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra, Toba Samosir can be reached by a 4 to 5 hours drive, or a 40 minutes flight (service by: Susi Air; Medan-Silangit). There are two routes that can be taken driving from Medan to Tobasa. One route is a half-day route through Berastagi, where you can stop overnight there (Berastagi is another visitor point in North Sumatra), or you can take the 4 hours route through Pematang Siantar and Parapat. If you take a public transportation from Medan, big chance you'll go through the second route as it is the shorter route, and some people might say it's the more popular route.

There are 16 sub-districts in this regency. These sub-districts are:
1. Ajibata
2. Lumban Julu
3. Bonatua Lunasi
4. Pintu Pohan
5. Parmaksian
6. Uluan
7. Porsea
8. Siantar Narumonda
9. Sigumpar
10. Silaen
11. Habinsaran
12. Nassau
13. Borbor
14. Laguboti
15. Balige (The capital of the regency)
16. Tampahan



The area of this regency is around 3.125 km2, and the population is about 200.000 where 90% of them are the Batak people, the tribe that originates from the area, and yes i am one of them. I went to visit the regency once-twice a year since i was a kid and now i kinda spent most of my times there. This place hasn't been discovered by lot of people, and if you love to enjoy nature, i really recommend the regency.

We have more than Lake Toba to offer, although maybe Lake Toba is still our best option in the menu, but we have there are many other places that i can guarantee you, are the places you won't regret once you've visited . Please use this simple blog as your guide. I really hope you'll enjoy it, and any information, comments, and ideas are highly appreciated.

at last, for this post, and any other coming posts, please do excuse my grammar, spelling, and anything that might go wrong. Thanks, and enjoy! HORAS!