Subject: datu / guru shaman
Culture: Batak
Setting: northern Sumatra highlands 18-20thc
Evolution:
Context (Event Photos, Primary Sources, Secondary Sources, Field Notes)
* Pusaka 1992 p143 caption
"Herbalists are called "datu among the Batak people of North Sumatra. They not only treat disease, but can also fortell the future and make their clients invulnerable to charms."
* Traditions of Asian art 1995 p35
"It is for the unpredictable events, of both small and large proportions, that a sorcerer is needed. Although he invokes some assistance from the deities, his skills largely depend on his magical powers to control and dispel, and sometimes even to work, evil. In performing such rites, the priest draws upon and manipulates the tools of his profession: his knowledge of formulae and potions, and his magical instruments, especially his staff. The name tungkot malehat could be translated as 'the seeing staff', an appropriate title for an object used in divination and exorcism."
* Power and gold 1985 p98
"One category of Batak art goes a bit beyond the conceptual framework of local kinship into the realm of divination, magical protection, and sorcery. This was the domain of the datu (the Toba and Angkola word) or the guru (the Karo term). This person was the master spirit conjurer and spellcaster of Batak village life (and contemporary city life, for that matter, since datu sorcery has proven to be one of the most resilient and adaptive areas of Batak culture in this last century of rapid modernization and integration into national life). Toba datu and Karo guru outfitted themselves with a panoply of magic wands, amulets, conjurer's rings, and potion pouches. All these objects were designed to take evil influences from the sorcerer, his patient, and his village and cast them back to their source."
* Greub 1988 p202
"Datus (village priests or spell-casters) used some objects with incised written passages as recipe books for spells, or to give protection to patients after a cure. As aide-memoire devices such objects could be 'read' for the secret lore about spells that they contained. Only the datu could decode the messages.
"Other repositories of this same general type included the pustaha (bark book), incised pieces of bone or horn joined together into thick bundles, and various pieces of bamboo and wood incised with the Batak script. The patterns of textiles and the weaponry and jewelry of the aristocrats also contained hidden messages that expert orators could 'read,' usually as speeches giving advice to the owners."
Staff
* Traditions of Asian art 1995 p35
"The magician-priests (datu or guru) of the ancestral religion of the Batak peoples of north Sumatra employed a range of ritual objects in their attempts to harness the supernatural world and make contact with the spirits of the deceased: special textiles and costumes, talismans and amulets, recipes for medicines and spells inscribed in beaten bark books, texts incised on bamboo oracle sticks, medicine horns and containers of all shapes. The most potent object in the sorcerer's regalia, however, was the magical wand or staff, a family heirloom in the treasury of the clan or village chief.
"These long and elaborately carved staffs (tunggal or tungkot) were carried by the village shaman at magical rituals intended to ward off evil, protect the village and fortell the future. The staff might be struck into the ground to form part of a protective 'fence' to keep evil at bay. The head of the staff, and in some instances the length of the shaft, were carved with animals and human figures."
* Power and gold 1985 p103 (on the Toba)
"Primary among the datu's magical implements was his tunggal panaluan, magic staff or wand. A number of humanlike figures and mythic characters, each with an open mouth, were carved into the wand. To invest the staff with power the datu would 'feed' each little mouth with a concoction of magic material made in part from mashed human viscera from a sacrificed victim."
* Signos y símbolos 2020 p155
"El bastón tallado del chamán no simboliza solo su poder: también representa la frontera entre los mundos natural y espiritual. Los chamanes batak de Sumatra, conocidos como datus, llevan unos bastones que contienen una poderosa sustancia mágica, el pukpuk."
* Wagner 1988 p66
"Amongst objeccts used for ceremonial purposes decorated in this manner, the 'magic staff' is often of a bizarre beauty. The figures and motifs are carved into a heavy stick of hardwood, and wrench themselves, so to speak, with the utmost effort towards the top, which is crowned by a free-standing figure, usually a human head."
* Greub 1988 p208
"In the Toba, Simalungun, Pakpak, and Karo Batak areas these staffs were once associated with powerful datus, or village priests. Some ethnographers assert that village chiefs, or rajas, also used the staffs as a sign of office. The most common uses of these tunggal panaluan, however, concern the datus' manipulations of the supernatural. The staffs were traditionally used to cast back ghosts from a sick person or an entire village, to bring rain, to warn a village of impending enemy attack, to fortify warriors for battle, to foretell the future, and to cure and even cause serious spirit illnesses. With all these functions and the high degree of care taken to carve a tunggal panaluan, the staff was the most important component of a great datu's armamentarium of power objects. Other, more casually carved wands were sometimes made for individual curing ceremonies, but these tunggal panaluan remained a permanent part of the datu's heirloom treasures, or pusaka.
"Usage varied, but priests would generally wave the wand through the air, casting back evil influences, and then stick it firmly in the ground by its pointed tip. The motion of waving the staff through the air made the tunggal panaluan into a sort of pagar, or supernatural fence that would serve to keep begu, or evil ghosts, at bay. Numerous small anthropomorphic protective wooden statues, also called pagar in many areas, served much the same purpose.
"Tunggal panaluan, like most important sorcery and supernatural protection devices, has close ties to ritual oratory. The datu would have to intone special speeches and secret formulas as he waved the wand through the air. Like many Batak art objects, this staff served in effect to unlock large oral worlds of myth.
"The staffs came in two main varieties: the tunggal panaluan, which were covered from top to bottom with carved figures, and the tungkot malehat, which were generally plain, uncarved sticks topped by carvings of single figures (often a man mounted on a singa-buffalo-lizard or on a buffalo or a horse). Apparently, a large variety of myths were used to explain the existence and use of the tunggal panaluan and their busy population of carved figures. Certain scholars think that some of these myths were created after the fact, to explain a carving tradition already in place. Although there is little unanimity in interpreting the myths, a number of students of Toba culture assert that the frequent inclusion of a male and female pair atop the wand represents the incestuous male/female twin pair important in certain creation myths. In such myths (which have innumerable variations) a raja and his wife would give birth to a pair of boy and girl twins. This was a highly embarrassing event, because of the suggestion of incest in the womb, and village custom would demand that the parents rear the children separately. This the raja and his wife refused to do. The children, who were very beautiful, grew up together and fell deeply in love. The villagers separated the pair; the boy sought the girl and eloped with her to the forest where they tried to subsist on fruits. Spying on particularly bountiful tree, the girl climbed in to pick the fruits, but the tree trunk sucked her up into itself, leaving only her head sticking out. Her brother attempted to rescue her, but the tree absorbed him too. All manner of other potential rescuers came to their aid (great datus or shamans called sibaso, snakes, mythical animals). All got swallowed up into the tree trunk, with their heads remaining outside. None were ever freed, and the raja decidedto make the magic people-tree into a sacred heirloom object to help protect his village and guard it from attack. When enemies approached, the tree would sing out a warning.
"Many tunggal panaluan have small holes carved into the stomachs of one or several of the upper figures. Datus would apparently 'feed ' their wands with mascerated parts of sacrificed animals to convey the tondi (souls) of these creatures to the figures on the wands and thus increase the protective powers of the staff."
* Schnitger 1989 p84 (writing in 1839)
"The stick, cut from a special kind of wood (kayu tunggalan), has a length of about 1.70 m. In hard wood, figures of human beings and animals are often artistically carved in a row above each other. The wand ends in an iron point, with which it is driven into the ground during ceremonies. In some places and in the priests' language, the iron is said to be made 'by people from all points of the compass of Linggapayung and coming from the four princes, 7 times forged and 7 times melted and made into a deadly iron'.
"The topmost figure bears as a rule a helmet; in a little cavity of the head, the atrocious magic broth called pupuk was deposited, and round the head, red, white, and black threads were wound diagonally. On this tricoloured turban is stuck a plume of human hair, horse hair, or cock's feathers.
"On most wands, seven figures of human beings are seen, also the figures of a snake and of a bull or ox. As one knows, the number 'seven' plays an important part in Batak religion. According to the Toba Batak, every human being possesses seven souls. The Toba origin of the tunggal panaluan is generally recognized by the Bataks. But although the country near the legendary mountain Pusuk Buhit is accepted as the place where the first sacred sticks came from, the magic wand is found in all the Batak provinces."
* Aspects of Indonesian culture 1979 p74-75
"The most aesthetic carving, found throughout Batak land, is probably the magic wand. It is a wooden ceremonial stick used by priests (datus). Legends say that the magic wand is the result of the incestuous love of a boy and his twin sister. To separate the twins and prevent them from bringing shame on their family, the girl was banished to the forest, where she climbed a tree to save herself from the wild beasts. But as she climbed, she became part of the tree, with only her head sticking out. When her brother came to join her in the forest and saw her head he climbed up to free her and was himself absorbed, save for his head. A number of gurus and datus, and some animals, were similarly captured as they tried to free the couple. As a final resort, the tree was cut down - and all the heads vanished. The father of the twins thereupon cut the tree into lengths and carved on the wood the images of the persons and animals that had disappeared.
"There are two different kinds of wands:
"The Tunggal malek has a single riding figure at the top while the rest of the wand is smoothly cylindrical.
"The Tunggal panaluan is usually 1.7 metres in length and also has a human figure mounted on a horse at the top. It has other carved figures, however, following each other downward, some in the round and some in relief. Most wands of this type have seven human figures, plus a number of animal ones, like snakes, horses and water buffaloes.
"Around the topmost figure's head is a headband which is used to hold a plume of human hair, horsehair or feathers. The head itself has a helmet-like extension where a magic substance called 'pupuk' used to be placed. Pupuk was a substance taken from the brain of a captured enemy's child to give the wand its magical powers.
"In times past, wands were used to induce sickness, death in enemies and to pinpoint thieves. Even today they are believed to have influence over rain. An iron point on the bottom enables the wand to be stuck in the ground when used during such ceremonies."
* A passion for Indonesian art 1996 p38
"[M]agic wands (tunggal panaluan] ... were used by the datu (priest/medicine man) as a magic weapon against enemies and as an oracular tool for detecting disease. The wand derives its powers from a magic substance (pupuk) which is pressed into small cavities in the wand."
Jewelry
* Power and gold 1985 p103 (on the Toba)
"Datu adorned themselves with a veritable armamentarium of potent amulets and jewelry used for calling back (mangalap tondi) the lost souls of sick people or casting back evil influences such as enemy attacks or epidemics."
* Power and gold 1985 p96
"Batak jewelry exchange is complex. In intriguing contrast to some of the patterns of cloth and metal exchange found in Eastern Indonesia, metal jewelry often serves Batak cultures as an important gift for conveying blessings and good health from wife-givers to wife-takers."
Bottle
* Wagner 1988 p66
"The Bataks' excellence in wood-carving is ... evidenced by their 'medicine horns'. These consist partly of a buffalo horn worked at one end only and plugged in front with a wooden stopper; this plug is in many cases beautifully worked. The singa figure ... is employed over and over again, usually in conjunction with human figures placed one upon another."
Costume
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Calendar
* Greub 1988 p200
"Powerful datus (village priests or spell-casters) used parhalaan [calendar/augury instruments] in pre-Christian times (through about 1900) to predict the future and aid their clients in selecting auspicious days for staging ceremonies or setting out on journeys. Calculating the configuration of the constellations on various days was central to this endeavor. Augury involving the inspection of the intestines of slaughtered animals such as chickens was also used in diving the future and avoiding unlucky days."
Book
* Geary/Xatart 2007 p218-223
"The Batak lived in the orbit of Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms established in coastal Sumatra and came in contact with Islamic and Christian ideas. Thus, they developed a script inspired by Sanskrit characters from southern India. Only a few, highly regarded individuals possessed writing skills. Among them was the datu, or ritual specialist, who kept written records, prescriptions, formulas for ritual healing, and agricultural procedures in this book [pustaha] of the knowledge of his predecessors. The datu was responsible for protecting the souls of the living from malevolent spirits such as the begu, an ancestral spirit that felt neglected if it had not received offerings for a long time. The Batak held such spirits responsible for seizing a deceased person's soul and subsequently causing death and illness among the living."
