sinuuuun 2.docx

7/28/2019 sinuuuun 2.docx

1/4

Patched sheet of cultures and religions

Sumatra counts over 40 million people, one fifth of the total Indonesian

population and it', after Java, the most densely populated island in the Indonesian

archipelago. Four big ethnic groups, the Malay, the Minangkabau, the Acehnese

and the Batak, are the big majority of the local population. Furthermore there are

more than a dozen smaller ethnic groups, with their own language, history and

culture.

The last centuries, the inflow from abroad is substantial. The flow of Javanese,

which started in the early 20th century by the Dutch government, still hasn't

stopped, however the government also had it's majestic transmigration

programme. The Chinese, which came to the island in the 19th century asplantation labourers and tin-miners, now control the trading posts of all important

Sumatran cities. Furthermore a handful of people from the rest of Indonesia and

from abroad work as civil servants or in the blooming oil-industry.

Islamic strongholds

Sumatra is on of the biggest Islamic strongholds in the Indonesian archipelago.

The Islam reached South-eastern Asia for the first time along the northern coast of

Sumatra, in a city that is named Samudra or Pasai. From here, the religion spread

over both coastal areas of the island and to the neighbouring islands of Malakka,

mostly through an Islamic trading network, built by Malay traders in the 15th

century. For centuries, the word 'Malay', meant the same as 'Muslim' for many

Indonesians.

The Malay have a long, interesting history that dates back to the Buddhist, Malay

principality of Srivijaya in the 7th century until the 11th century, which ruled over

the straits from it's bases. After that, the symbol of the Malay raja (king)

expressed the highest cultural targets of perfection, wisdom and Islamic religion.

However fishermen and farmers could not equal the raja's, they used it's ideals

though.

Picture:Lampung weddingNowadays, the Malay are the biggest ethnic group on Sumatra, with about 11

million people. They inhabit the biggest part of the southern and eastern coasts

and the lowlands, as well as the smaller islands along the coast. Eight million

people in the neighbouring Malaysia see themselves as Malay also, but in fact

most of them are descendants of Minangkabau and Javanese migrants, and from

the Cham in Vietnam and Cambodia. Many Bakat also call themselves Malay, so

this name contains a big variety of lingual and cultural expressions.

The Minangkabau of the central western highlands is almost the biggest
http://indahnesia.com/picture/SUM/012/lampung_wedding.phphttp://indahnesia.com/picture/SUM/012/lampung_wedding.phphttp://indahnesia.com/picture/SUM/012/lampung_wedding.phphttp://indahnesia.com/picture/SUM/012/lampung_wedding.php


2/4

population on the island, and is most related to Malay over what concerns

language and culture. The group counts about 5 million people which are known

as loyal Muslims, while they also have an unusual system of obedience, whichdates back long before the Islam arrived to the Minangkabau. This system

implicates that the traditional Minangkabau longhouses, the fertile rice soils, and

the positions of leadership in the clan are passed on to the next generation by the

women. However men often have important leading places, they heir them

through their mothers.

A third important Islamic group are the Acehnese, the inhabit the strategical

northern coast of Sumatra. Nowadays they are with two million people, and they

also speak a language which is closely related with the Malay. They enjoy most

fame because of their fierce resistance against the Dutch, during the thirty years of

ihad(holy war) from 1873 until 1903.

Long before, in the 17th century, Aceh was the most powerful Islamic kingdom in

the area. Here, the word of Islam is still law, and every Friday masses of religious

people still flock to the Big Mosque of Banda Aceh. As well as among the

Minangkabau, and however Islam says men are more important, the live in the

villages is all about women. If a man marries, he usually moves to the village of

his wife, where her family gives them a house.

In the highlands of central Aceh the Gayo live. Their language is just as

remarkable as that of the Acehnese, because of the many words from theMon-

Khmer, a language-group that originates from the mainland Southeastern Asia. In

contrary to the Acehnese, the Gayo the wife usually moves to the village of her

new husband. The Gayo surrounding the Lake Tawar catch fish; coffee and tea are

other important products from this area.

The Gayo fight with words. In earlier times, diding, poetic twosomes, were held

between pairs of speakers which represent the families of the groom as well as the

bride. Later, didonghelped to dissolve arguments between villages, and even

more recent this verbal art was made into a form of match between teams of

singers, supported by a choir.

Christian converts

While the coastal regions normally support Islam, the biggest parts of the island

are nowadays Christian; in fact there are more Christians on this island, than any

other Indonesian island. German Lutheran missions which already worked with

the Toba Batak, had success very early already. Nowadays the Toba Batak-

Church is the biggest Christian body in Indonesia.

The Dutch Reformed missionaries from the neighbouring Karo Batak-area found


3/4

resistance for decades. The result of this is that the Christian Karo only got a

majority in the 1950's. The Simalungun Batak, once a part of the Toba Church,

have separated into a own ethnic sect.

All of these Batak churches do the masses and hymns in their own local

languages. Like everywhere in Indonesia, these ethnic churches find strong

competition from catholic and Pentecostal churches, which speak Indonesian and

have ethnically mixed unities.

Picture:Srivijayan traditional clothing

From the Angkola Batak, which live south of the Toba, about ten per cent is

Christian. A majority is Islamic, as well as the Mandailing Batak in Southern

Tapanuli. Other Christian centre are the islands of Mentawai and Nias along the

western coast, and some original inhabitants of the island of Enggano.

Patchwork of populations

However most people on Sumatra are farmers, small groups, like the Kubu in the

province of Jambi and the Sakai from Riau Islands, live of fishery and the hunting

along the swampy areas of the southern rivers. Another group, the Orang Laut(lit.

Sea People), are often named a little more negative, like sea pirates, and they live

on boats between the hundreds of small islands on the archipelago of Riau.

Danau Kerinci, in the highlands of western Jambi, is inhabited by the Kerinci.

The lake is surrounded bysawah (rice paddies); the rice is accompanied with fish

from the lake, and fresh tea from the mountain slopes. As well as among the

Minangkabau, the Kerinci have a culture in which the female plays an important

role.

Their longhouses are unique in the Indonesian archipelago, because a central

hallway which connects the apartments of the families is missing. However the

male connects himself with the family of his wife, he will stay a member of the

family in which he was born, and he partially lives in his own longhouse where he

helps to manage the goods of his children and sisters.

The province ofBengkulu is inhabited by theRejang, which call themselves "We,the People of Jang". It is said that their mythical ancestor of Jang was member of

the royal family of the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit. He should have founded

himself on Sumatra in the 14th century, and his four sons should be the founders

of four different clans in which the community ofRejanggrew. Nowadays it

consists of about 200,000 members. TheRejang-area nowadays stretches over a

varied terrain: along the coast with low hills to peaks in the highlands with

tropical rainforest.

It were theRejangwhich converted to Islam as one of the last few, which causes
http://indahnesia.com/picture/SUM/013/srivijayan_traditional_clothing.phphttp://indahnesia.com/picture/SUM/013/srivijayan_traditional_clothing.phphttp://indahnesia.com/picture/SUM/013/srivijayan_traditional_clothing.phphttp://indahnesia.com/picture/SUM/013/srivijayan_traditional_clothing.php


4/4

the long survival of the pre-Islamic cults around the souls of the ancestors. Every

clan in Rejang demands the rule over their territory. The oldest village of every

domain has a sacred tomb which is connected with the founder of the clan.Villages and families do also have their own ancestral graves, so a pilgrimage to

the main tombs is a rare occasion.

Southwest of Palembang, near Lahat, are thePasemah highlands with remains of

megalithic monuments from the year 100. These stone monuments, the biggest of

their kind in Indonesia, contain symbols of humans and animals and more.

However thePasemah people turned to Islam in the early 20th century, it still fills

the ancestral promised at this and other tombs around Gunung Dempo. The

Pasemah are similar with the Rejang for what organisation and their theories

about their foundation, but they were enemies for much of the colonial time.

In Lampung, the far southern part of Sumatra, many different ethnic groups live,

each with their own cultural background, among them many Javanese. They

migrated in big numbers, as well as in free will, but also because of transmigration

programs of the government. One of the biggest local populations of this area are

theAbung, which say they came from the mountains in the west, where they

supported a megalithic culture which is comparable with that of the Nias.

Headhunting and human sacrificed brought them in conflicts with their

neighbours, and especially the Malay, which were forced to their nowadays living

area in 1450.

The Abung-community consists o dozens of clans. The villages sometimes have

upto 3000 inhabitants and 120 clan houses. Every clan supports a separate house,

which is inhabited only by a few elderly people, because working parents and

their children spend most time in small seasonal villages outside the village,

where they maintain theirladang,family garden. They go back to the village for

special occasions. Initiations are meant for men to show them their wealth.

Formerly head-hunting was needed for the highest rank.

However the Dutch tried to end the head-hunting and the human sacrifices, the

Abung continues their practices far into the 19th century, illegally. Just like the

surrounding populations the Abung are nowadays Muslims. In the modernversions of their stories namedpapadon, the dances are the replacement for the

head-hunting, and a buffalo replaces the human sacrifice.

Documents

sinuuuun 2.docx