I feel honored when people come to me and ask about my tribe. And sometimes I just can't understand why people from other country are interested, moreover they study about batak culture. To be honest, I come from modern batak family, so I probably don't know much about my own tribe (I know...I'm so ashamed of myself  >___<). But, I'll take this opportunity to getting know about batak's tribe. I have asked around (to my friends, parents, family) and hopefully, people from around the world will know more about my tribe, Batak. So, here we go.

As you all may know, Batak ethnic origin is in North Sumatra. There are six kinds of batak's tribe out there: Batak Toba, Batak Karo, Batak Mandailing, Batak Simalungun, Batak Pakpak and Batak Angkola. Each of them have their own language, their own culture activities, etc, but they all come from same ancestor.

It is said that the very first Batak ancestor is called Raja Batak or King Batak. All of this King Batak's offsprings become King in their own region and that is why every each of Batak's sons and daughters to this day are called as the descendants of the Kings. That is why Batak people can be very fierce, harsh and a little bit 'persuasive' with their talking skill (lol), because most of batak people have been educated to be a 'king' since young age.

Like I said above, I come from modern family, so I never have any conflict regarding the patriarchy  system of Batak or any old belief/myth/custom or those shit stuff that would mistreated me and my siblings anyhow, but some of my friends have been so traumatized by those system that make them hate their family so much. 

One of my friend, Adelle (not real name of course), her grandpa spit on her on the day she was born because he wanted a boy. The worst thing is he was never talk to her until the day he died. He didn't even know her name and treated her like a stranger or a servant sometimes. But, her grandpa was always full of love to her younger brother. Who wouldn't get hurt in that situation? And my other friend, Tina, her big family (uncles, aunties, grandparents) is always and always look down on her parents, especially her mother because they don't have a son.

I was lucky enough to be born in modern family to not have those kind of problem, but that doesn't mean that I'm free from many kinds of obligations as a firstborn child and first granddaughter in my big family. Although sometimes I kinda enjoy it because people in my family always 'listen' to me as if like I'm a true princess (okay, you can laugh your ass off now lol), someimes I feel like my words are an order for younger people in my family.

Oh well, I'll explain more about batak later... >___<


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