Harmony Blossoms Here

KOMPAS/Lasti Kurnia

Visitors from various backgrounds and religious beliefs traveled to Avalokitesvara Temple in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra, Sunday (7/7/2019). Pematang Siantar, according to the Setara Institute, is one of the most tolerant cities in Indonesia.

The Dutch brought Chinese, Indian and Javanese workers to the tea plantation they established in Simalungun, North Sumatra. They then interacted with one another as migrants and with locals in the spirit of equality and humanity. Here, harmony blossoms.

Both sides of Jl. Raya Sidamanik were filled with parked cars, making it difficult for other vehicles to pass through. The road became increasingly narrow with the lines of flower boards congratulating the couple to be wed of Ingka Pangaribuan and Denny Sitorus.

Denny is the son of Donaria Silalahi, whose house that Saturday (6/7/2019) was filled with guests in Sarimatondang village, Sidamanik, Simalungun regency, North Sumatra. The bride and groom, their parents and guests danced the tor-tor as part of the traditional ceremony. The party was also enlivened by the presence of street food sellers bringing their carts around the tent for the invitees.

After the tor-tor dance, the guests were ready for lunch. The host was preparing a Batak meal that not everyone could enjoy as it contained pork. For those who could not eat pork, there were 400 lunch boxes with beef rendang (meat slow-cooked in coconut milk and spices) at the home of Hotnida Tambunan, 62, just 40 meters away from the wedding stage.

The lunchboxes filled the living room in Hotnida’s home. She deliberately took out the sofa and chairs to the verandah to get some space inside the living room and to provide seating for guests in front of her house. The woman, who wore a hijab, graciously greeted each guest as if she was the host.

“This is our party. I was asked to help organize the food,” she said while distributing the lunchboxes with the help of her daughter Diah Pratiwi Nasution, 32.

KOMPAS/LASTI KURNIA (LKS) 08-07-2019

Churches and Mosques in the Sidamanik emplacement area, PTPN IV plantation land, Sidamanik, Simalungun Regency, North Sumatra, Monday (8/7/2019).

The guests then mingled with one another on the verandah. Some sat down on the grass in her side yard while enjoying the breeze from the tea plantation located just 300 meters away.The scene at Ingka and Denny’s wedding reception portrayed the harmony and tolerance blossoming in Simalungun and Pematang Siantar. Locals live in harmony with one another despite differences in religion, ethnicity or language. They become one.

Such scenes can also be found easily in Pematang Siantar city. Just look at the hustle and bustle inside a coffee shop on Jl. Cipto, named Kok Tong. On Sunday (7/7/2019), visitors spilled out onto the small alley

outside as there were no empty seats inside. They were enjoying coffee with milk, teh tarik (tea with milk), toast and black coffee while chatting with one another.

In one corner, several guests talked in Hokkien Chinese dialect, while several others talked in Malay at the center of the coffee shop. Several guests sitting outside were talking about the beauty of Lake Toba in Batak dialect.

It is so rare so see groups of people from just one ethnicity or sub-ethnicity. Many comprise people from various ethnicities. On one table, for instance, Batak Toba and Simalungun people were sitting with Javanese Deli people.

Shop owner Lim Ming or Djamin Halim, 60, said that his shop was never empty, especially on weekends. His multiethnic customers are friendly to one another. “This is why I love living in Siantar. It is so peaceful, unlike in other cities,” said the third-generation owner of the shop that was established in 1925.

Indicators include levels of religious freedom violation and good governance of religious diversity.

A 2018 report by human rights group Setara Institute placed Pematang Siantar as Indonesia’s third most tolerant city, after Singkawang in West Kalimantan and Salatiga in Central Java. Indicators include levels of religious freedom violation and good governance of religious diversity.

Plantations’ role

The tolerance is inseparable from the plantations, including the tea plantations in Sidamanik, Simalungun. Pematang Siantar was administratively a part of Simalungun regency, before it was split off. Simalungun is in eastern Sumatra. The emergence of tea plantations in the area enabled an intermingling of people from various ethnicities, including Batak Toba, Batak Simalungun, Indian, Chinese and Javanese. Surely there were also Europeans.

The story began when the Dutch colonial government established a tea plantation in Simalungun in 1910 (or 1911 according to some sources) on concession land given by the King of Simalungun. The Dutch were facing difficulties in recruiting Simalungun people, as they were reluctant to work for the Dutch. Many locals were already managing their own lands. The Dutch then brought Chinese and Indian workers from the Malay Peninsula as contract coolies.

KOMPAS/LASTI KURNIA

The atmosphere of the Avalokitesvara Temple in Pematang Siantar, North Sumatra, Sunday (7/7/2019).

At the time, as written by Tehe Kian-wie in his 1977 dissertation, tea was the most important commodity after rubber, tobacco and palm oil. After their contracts expired, many of the Indian and Chinese workers decided not to extend them. Instead, they asked the Dutch government for permission to become food ingredient sellers or entertainment spot managers for other plantation coolies.

At the time, many Toba people already came to Simalungun thanks to the encouragement of Andreas Simangunsong, a missionary and an employee of the Purba King who the Dutch appointed as Hoofd der Tobanezen or Raja Ihutan.

“He was managing the Immigrate Bureau Tobaneezen [the Toba bureau of migration] that organized the migration of Batak Toba people,” Simalungun University history education study program lecturer Hisarma Saragih said.

Therefore, Batak, Simalungung, Toba, Chinese and Indian peoples had lived in one region that enabled them to interact with one another. Afterwards, the Dutch brought the Javanese as contract coolies. The Javanese came in massive waves.

In other words, Simalungun became increasingly diverse but has remained in harmony.

Anthropology and history professor Ann Laura Stoler, in Capitalism and Confrontation in Sumatra’s Plantation Belt, 1870-1879, mentioned that Simalungun’s population was less than 100,000 in 1880. It grew to 1.5 million in 50 years, with the Javanese accounting for half of the total population. In other words, Simalungun became increasingly diverse but has remained in harmony.

Key

The harmony is borne out of the value system that the Simalungun people, as natives, hold close to their heart. They live by the value of sapangambei manoktok hitei, which roughly means working together to achieve true goals. All humans are of equal standing. “The kings of Simalungun in the past believed that people must be protected. There should be cooperation with migrants,” Hisarma said.

Toba people prioritize the principle of dalihan natolu which includes a spirit of respecting others. Meanwhile, Javanese, Chinese and Indian people tend to have the same values. As migrants, they respect established local values, especially because the values accommodate egalitarianism.

“My parents and grandparents taught me the same thing. Be nice to others as others are also nice. Accept others,” Lim Ming said.

KOMPAS/Lasti Kurnia

PTPN IV\'s plantation land, Pematang Sidamanik, Simalungun, North Sumatra, Monday (8/7/2019). Located at an altitude of 800-1,100 meters above sea level with an area of 6,373.29 ha.

Such accommodative values enable unimpeded social distribution. In the decades after the migrants first came to Simalungun, interethnic marriages became common. For instance, 26-year-old Pematang Siantar resident Fadilah R has a Javanese mother and a Simalungun father.

Hisarma has a sibling-in-law that married a Minangkabau Muslim. Their two children, who are Muslims, live with their grandfather in Protestant-majority Raya district, Simalungun. Hisarma arrived at the conclusion that religion supported tolerance in Simalungun.

In the end, Simalungun and Toba people also joined the tea plantations. Today, several Simalungun and Toba people have important positions in the plantations’ management.

Tea plantations enable people from various ethnicities to meet and build harmonious culture together, like in Simalungun and Pematang Siantar. In tea plantations, harmony blossoms.