Pustaha
Pustaha ( pus ta ha ) are oracle books of the Batak , a people in Sumatra , Indonesia , written in ritual language by magical priests ( Datu / Guru) . The magic priests of the Toba-Batak are called Datu, those of the Karo-Batak are called Guru. Together with other utensils such as the Tunggal panaluan (ceremonial staff ) and Pupuk (magical medicine porridge ), which is served from differently designed medicine containers, Pustaha is one of the most important ceremonial accessories for ritual-religious festivals of this ethnic group. The magical priests have a certain monopoly position, since they are the only ones who are able to use the Batak script and understand how to read from the Pustaha.
Research history
Research travelers obtained the first ethnographic information about the country, which had never been entered by whites before, towards the end of the 18th century. In the middle of the 19th century, the script, language and grammar of the Batak were first thoroughly researched by HN van der Tuuk , so that a text work on the Batak languages could be written in 1861/62. The missionary doctor and tropical medicine specialist Johannes Winkler wrote a book on the Datu in 1925, which is still understood today as a standard work. This also provided information about the content of the Pustaha. Pustaha research was deepened by the Dutchman Petrus Voorhoeve, who compared and recorded manuscripts from different regions. A distinction is made between five Batak languages, each with their own alphabet. Further researchers made a contribution to the description and cataloging of various European Pustaha collections.
Manufacture of the oracle book
Mainly tree bast, bamboo and bones were used as writing materials . Tree bast came from the agarwood tree ( alim ). It was peeled off in strips, smoothed and finished with rice flour paste and folded in the form of a fanfold album. Wooden panels glued to the ends served as binding and were decorated with ornaments. Braided rattan leaves were used to hold the books together .
Writing was done with ink, which consisted of a carbonaceous, viscous mass and was prepared from various tree resins and other ingredients cooked over the fire. The recipe instructions for this can often be found in the Pustaha itself. Bamboo, buffalo horn or sticks cut from sugar palms served as stylus .
Contents of the oracle book
The content of the Pustaha consists primarily of magical formulas ( tabas ), as well as recipes for medical applications and magic substances, and ultimately instructions for ritual acts. The latter instructions were mostly recorded in fragments, as the Datu, as the only authors of the oracle books, were always aware of their ritual duties and could instruct themselves without a broadly fixed set of rules. The development of these special text contributions presented research with greater challenges, as there were many - not written down - requirements to be known or interpreted.
Hadatuon
In the Pustaha the main features of the hadatuon are documented, an art-understanding triad of wisdom. According to Johannes Winkler , these can be broken down into:
1. The art of sustaining life,
2. The art of destroying life, and
3. The art of divination.
All medically relevant appearances for disease control and prophylaxis serve to sustain life. In particular, this includes the art of creating beneficial recipes for this. For example, it was necessary to combat infertility , diarrhea, coughing up blood or rheumatism . Broken bones also had to be restored. For this use was Pagar , herbal ingredients that are often produced in long procedures. In the absence of scientific knowledge, diseases were attributed to disturbances of harmony in the spiritual sense and were combated. Ancestral spirits ( begu ) and hostile people were considered to be the cause of disease. It is also described in the Pustaha that amulets (made of lead) were used. As well as substitutes such as porsili , roughly carved human figures that were thrown down a ravine or into a river to suggest to the hostile ancestral spirit that it was the person who died of the disease. Texts that concern the production of the porsili are part of the content of many Pustaha.
Illustratively illustrated instructions on the art of shooting are also part of the recurring content of the Pustaha, whereby it is assumed that the Batak could have come into possession of firearms before the 16th century, especially since there are extensive oracles and instructions on the art of using weapons and the manufacture of Have weapon accessories found. In addition to the use of weapons to destroy lives, kidnapping, the skillful killing of kidnapped children and magical, aggressive powders of the Datu have been described.
The art of fortune-telling as an oracle art is primarily based on astrology and takes up a lot of space in the Pustaha. Like many Indonesian peoples, the Batak are influenced by Hinduism in this respect . Twelve-month calendars, always ending monthly with the new moon , are supplemented by two sunny days if necessary in order to be able to count thirty days of the month. The calendars did not serve to calculate the time , but cultic customs, such as finding the suitable day for different ceremonies.
Pustaha collections
Pustaha have not been written for a long time and the remaining copies are almost without exception in European collections. According to estimates by Petrus Voorhoeve, there are several hundred, maybe even 1000 pustahas in public collections (museums and libraries). About 80% of all specimens are in European collections. Most of them can be found in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, in the Reichsmuseum für Völkerkunde in Leiden, and in the Ethnological Museum in Berlin.
literature
- Achim Sibeth: Batak. Live with the ancestors. People of Indonesia . Stuttgart, London 1990.
- Johannes Winkler: The Toba-Batak on Sumatra in healthy and sick days - A contribution to the knowledge of the animistic paganism . Stuttgart 1925, ISBN 978-3-89645-445-4 .
- David Gintings: The Society and Culture of the Batak Karo . Medan 1993.
- Achim Sibeth, Helga Petersen, Alexander Krikellis, Wilfried Wagner: Religion and healing arts of the Toba-Batak on Sumatra: handed down by Johannes Winkler (1874-1958) . Cologne 2006, ISBN 978-3-89645-445-4 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Achim Sibeth, Living with the ancestors BATAK - People in Indonesia, Chapter 6 - Arts and Crafts , p. 126
- ↑ Achim Sibeth, Living with the ancestors BATAK (see LIT); The following researchers are mentioned by Uli Kozok: William Marsden ; HN van der Tuuk; Johannes Winkler; Petrus Voorhoeve; J. Edison Saragih
- ↑ Johannes Winkler, Religion and Healing Art of Toba-Batak on Sumatra (see lit.)
- ↑ Johannes Winkler, The Toba-Batak on Sumatra in healthy and sick days - A contribution to the knowledge of animistic paganism (see lit.)
- ↑ Medicine and magic spells The missionary doctor Johannes Winkler immersed himself in the culture of the Toba-Batak in Sumatra
- ↑ Petra Krömer Dr. med., Healing for the Kingdom of God - Johannes Winkler (1874-1958) and the Medical Mission of the Rhenish Mission Society under the Batak in Sumatra
- ↑ Uli Kozok in Achim Sibeth, Living with the ancestors BATAK - People in Indonesia, Chapter 5 - Batak Scriptures and Literature , p. 100
- ↑ Uli Kozok in Achim Sibeth, Living with the ancestors BATAK - People in Indonesia, Chapter 5 - Writing and Literature of the Batak , p. 103
- ↑ Uli Kozok in Achim Sibeth, Living with the ancestors BATAK - People in Indonesia, Chapter 5 - Writing and Literature of the Batak , p. 106