A Ferocious Pangulubalang Image from Meranti Omas, Na IX-X Subdistrict, Labuhan Utara Regency, North Sumatra

At the end of September 2021, a certain Pak Arun Rambe Rambe reported the discovery of
an unusually ferocious pengulubalang figure in the hamlet of Batu Sinanggar, part of Meranti
Omas village in Na IX-X sub-district of Labuhan Utara Regency of North Sumatra Province.
The image which had been buried in the soil came to light accidentally on the 29th September,
and was discovered by the wife of the cultivator Pak Sarpin Ritonga, when she was clearing
tree roots prior to planting a dry rice crop.
In days gone by, a pangulubalang was essentially a guardian figure, set up outside a settlement
to protect the inhabitants of a village from harm and to deter would-be attackers. Such
images were considered to possess spiritual qualities.
The image which is cut from greyish stone, stands approximately 1 metre in height. Its
hair style displays a typical traditional top knot and it has a rounded face with large staring
eyes. The ear lobes appear to be pierced and elongated. The ferocious appearance is due to
its teeth which are all sharpened to a point. Tooth filing among the so-called Batak tribes of
northern Sumatra was an erstwhile common feature of their culture. This, combined with the
habit of betel nut chewing, which produces copious amounts of reddish saliva, is undertaken
with a wad of sirih leaves, and gave them a most ferocious appearance which may, in part,
have been responsible for their reputation for indulging in anthropophagy. Coincidentally,
the Pardembanan call themselves Halak Pardembanan, “people of the betel-quid” and the
name Pardembanan as a geographic name translates as “the place where betel chewers live!”
(Bartlett 1952, 629)