THE PARMALIM MOVEMENT and ITS RELATIONS to SI SINGA MANGARAJA XII: a Reexamination of the Development of Religious Movements in Colonial Indonesia
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Jurnal Antropologi Sosial Budaya ETNOVISI•Vol. 1•No.3•Desember 2005 THE PARMALIM MOVEMENT AND ITS RELATIONS TO SI SINGA MANGARAJA XII: A Reexamination of the Development of Religious Movements in Colonial Indonesia Masashi Hirosue Rikkyo University, Tokyo, Japan Abstrak Tulisan ini membahas dinamika gerakan Parmalim sebagai salah satu gerakan keagamaan yang muncul di Sumatera pada era kolonial Belanda, khususnya di Batak Toba sejak 1878. Kedatangan kolonialisme Belanda dan Misionaris Jerman dianggap sebagai sebuah ancaman bagi kejayaan kekuatan lokal lama dalam bidang politik dan keagamaan. Gerakan Parmalim dilihat sebagai upaya untuk menghidupkan kembali simbol-simbol kekuatan tradisional demi memperoleh akses sumber kekuatan baru di tengah masyarakat dengan membangkitkan sentimen anti-kolonial. Gerakan ini mengklaim diri sebagai transformasi dari masyarakat Batak dan ‘top leader’ mereka dipandang sebagai reinkarnasi Si Singa Mangaraja. Kata kunci: Parmalim movement, colonial government, religious movements, revivalistic Introduction Parmalim movement which anxiously awaited During the later part of the nineteenth the revival of the harajaon (kingdom) of Si century when the Dutch began to expand Singa Mangaraja is one such movement. colonial rule in Indonesia, the local power Scholars have paid much attention to such symbols who had been mediators between local religious movements that occasionally induced people and outside powers began to undergo the masses into forms of protest against the drastic changes. Against the intensification of colonial authorities. The research to date has colonial rule, protest movements arose in explained that those participants, whose daily various parts of Indonesia including north lives were rooted in their magico-religious belief Sumatra. Especially among the people whose systems, had no other choice than to resort to power symbols were abolished by the Dutch, the such millenarian expectations in order to change religious movements in which followers their plight.2 Furthermore, the literature is expected the revival of their holy king often inclined to argue that those movements which gave rise to. Such movements occasionally arose in the earlier stages of colonial rule were developed into the millenarian-like protests, in highly revivalistic because participants were still which participants passionately called for a total deeply in touch with their traditional religious transformation of the existing order by the beliefs, while those which appeared in the later 1 reappearance of their power symbol. The Dharmono Hardjowidjono and Djoko Suryo, (Yogyakarta, 1987), Jang Aisjah Muttalib, “Jambi 1900-1916: From War This article is a paper originally delivered to the seminar, to Rebellion”, (Ph.D. dissertation submitted to Columbia “Parmalim Batak Toba: Kekuasaan, Negara, dan Ekspresi University, 1995), and M. Hirosue, “Prophets and Keberagamaan di Indonesia”, (Medan, 24 November Followers in Batak Millenarian Responses to the Colonial 2005). I am very grateful to Prof. Irwansyah Harahap for Order: Parmalim, Na Siak Bagi and Parhudamdam, 1890- inviting me to the seminar, and also to Mr. Monang 1930”, (Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the Australian Naipospos, Mr. Bisri Effendi and Mr. Nelson National University, 1988). Lumbantoruan for their comments and advice. 2 Sartono Kartodirdjo, “Agrarian Radicalism in Java: Its 1 Sartono Kartodirdjo, Protest Movements in Rural Java: A Setting and Development”, in Culture and Politics in Study of Agrarian Unrest in the Nineteenth and Early Indonesia, edited by C. Holt with assistance of B. R. O’G. Twentieth Centuries, (Singapore, 1973), Mukhlis, “Batara Anderson and J. Siegel, (Ithaca and London, 1972), pp. 78- Gowa: Mesianisme dalam gerakan sosial di tanah 82, and J. C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Makassar”, in Dari babad dan hikayat sampai sejarah Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia, (New Haven kritis, edited by T. Ibrahim Alfian, H. J. Koesoemanto, and London, 1976), p. 187 and 192. 113 Masashi Hirosue The Parmalim Movement and Its Relations to Sisingamangaraja XII: … stages often became syncretic or “import- During the era when Somalaing had been oriented”.3 by Si Singa Mangaraja, Toba Batak society However, such opinions seem to become experienced drastic changes in both its political highly problematic when we consider the actual and religious spheres. In the Batak area which circumstances of the participants in such had generally maintained its independence movements. In the early stages of colonial rule, except for the Mandailing region that had been the colonized people tended to be generally placed under Dutch rule since the 1840s, the impressed by the superiority of the colonial German Rhenish Missionary Society rulers who had defeated their traditional power (Rheinischen Missions-Gesellschaft) began symbols. In order to cope with such a situation, missionary activities from 1861 in order to make they often formed doctrines mixing new a Christian zone between the two Islamic areas elements of foreign power with their traditional of Aceh and Minangkabau. Then the Dutch beliefs. On the other hand, the people who had government extended its influence into the Toba been put under the colonial regime for long Batak region from the 1870s. periods of time and had subsequently become The Toba Batak chiefs who accepted dubious of legitimacy of colonial rule, often German missionaries in their village were endeavored to revive their dissolving tradition as successfully in enlarging their influence among a symbol of their anti-colonialism. The history their rivals by establishing connections with the of the Parmalim movement presents to us a very colonial government, while those who had not interesting example in order to clarify the accepted missionaries became highly afraid of transformation of a doctrine fashioned by a the transformation of the local balance of power. religious movement which at first manifested a Consequently, they entreated the holy king of Si syncretic character by adopting new religious Singa Mangaraja who had been revered as an elements into Batak traditions, and later a highly incarnation of Batara Guru among the Toba revivalistic one, in which their dissolving Batak, to rise up against the Dutch colonizers tradition was given renewed meanings under the and German missionaries.5 Somalaing played an colonial regime. In this paper, I would like to important role in leading military campaigns take up the dynamism of the Parmalim against the Dutch in 1878 and 1883. However, movement which revived among the Toba Batak they lost the battles mainly due to the inferiority reverence for the last Si Singa Mangaraja of of their weapons and Si Singa Mangaraja XII Ompu Pulo Batu in the later stages of colonial himself was wounded at the battle of 1883. rule. After defeat in 1883, Si Singa Mangaraja did not rely on opinions of the datu. Ompu Pulo 1. The Rise of the Parmalim Movement Batu then started to negotiate peace with the The Parmalim movement was organized by colonial government through the Sultan of Guru Somalaing, a Toba Batak datu in 1890. Asahan.6 Somalaing in due course parted Datu was a healer, augur and magician and had company with Si Singa Mangaraja. much knowledge about the Batak holy books.4 Somalaing now fell into the dilemma. He Guru Somalaing had been a well-known datu was obliged to acknowledge the superiority of among the Toba Batak and he had been an European colonial power. He came to see the adviser of Si Singa Mangaraja XII, Ompu Pulo rule of the Dutch and the Christianization of Batu. Toba as having been destined by some mightier source of power. On the other hand, it was not easy for him to accept the new order brought 3 M. Adas, Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest about by the Dutch. After the Dutch established Movements against the European Colonial Order, (Chapel Hill, 1979), pp. 114-119, and A. F. C. Wallace, “Revitalization Movements”, American Anthropologist, 5 W. B. Sidjabat, Ahu Si Singamangaraja: Arti Historis, vol. 58, (1956), p. 276. Politis, Ekonomis dan Religius Si Singamangaraja XII, 4 J. Winkler, Die Toba=Batak auf Sumatra in gesunden und (Jakarta, 1982), pp. 151-318. in kranken Tagen: Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis des 6 Resident of Oostkust van Sumatra to Gouverneur animistischen Heidentums, (Stuttgart, 1925), p. 75, and J. Generaal of Nederlandsch Indië, (Bengkalis, 28 Aug. Warneck, Die Religion der Batak: Ein Paradigma für die 1885), mailrapport 648/1885. The negotiations continued animistischen religionen des Indischen Archipels, until 1886, but were not successful because Si Singa (Göttingen, 1909), pp. 109-113. Mangaraja did not appear before Dutch officials. 114 Jurnal Antropologi Sosial Budaya ETNOVISI • Vol. 1• No.3 • Desember 2005 colonial rule in Toba, the local chieftains who The point of Somalaing’s new religion was had showed a cooperative attitude toward the that the Christian God ordered him to preach Dutch and the Christian missionaries were Toba indigenous values. Through the traditional appointed colonial chiefs, while many of the means of a dream and by retaining the essence former datu became Christians and were of the Toba Batak virtues, he found a way to appointed church elders. However, those local gain access to the new source of power, Jehova, leaders who had not been given such which appeared to be transforming Batak appointments began to encounter more society. This was the initial step in establishing a difficulties than before in winning legal