BATAK CALENDAR MANUSCRIPT /SUMATRA
Very Rare Batak Calendar Porhalaan Sumatra with bone covers.
Written on wood bark in a surat Batak script, these were primarily used by Shamans (datu).
The porhalaan is used by the Batak people for divination. Batak people did not use the porhalaan for telling time. The responsibility of interpreting the porhalaan fell solely to the chief male ritualist known as the datu. The datu would read the porhalaan to determine which day is considered auspicious or inauspicious to hold a certain ritual
Item: Batak Ritual Calendar Manuscript or Porhalaan
Content: The Traditional Calendar of the Batak people
Dimensions: 6 x 5 cm (opened 65 x 5 cm)
Date: undated but estimated Early 20th Century
Origin: Sumatra (Indonesia)
Material: bone, wood bark (written on strips of bark of the alim (Aquilaria malaccensis) tree after preparing it with rice paste)
Language: Batak
Script: surat Batak
Pages: 28 pages (13 leaves)
Design: two hardcover (lampak) and pages made of softened tree bark (laklak) for the writings. The hardcover is carved with motifs of a gecko which represents the deity Boraspati ni Tano, a beneficial earth deity of the Batak people.
Translation
BATAKNESE CALENDAR 30 Days & 12 Months
It is not allowed to hold a
ceremony or party because the scorpion will catch the person who holds the
ceremony/party with its pinch.
2. Scorpion Abdominal
Only those who were born in
Scorpion day are allowed to hold ceremonies or parties on this day.
3. Scorpion Tail
It is not allowed to do anything
on this day and the day after.
4. Sign of Free Time
Every effort will be useless.
Parents must not establish wedding ceremony on this day. It is better not to
give or receive anything on this day.
5. Hook of a Bell
It is a good day to receive
anything given, whether it is gold or other kind of goods. Somehow, no one
should lend something to someone else on this day because those who borrow
something on this day will not give the things back to the owner.
It is forbidden to move into a new house on this day in any condition. If they broke this rule, one of the guests or the members of the family who own the house will die.
7. The Sign of Fish shows that the host must serve fish to his or her guests. Otherwise, they will get bad luck such as illness and lost of livestock because today is the ‘thanksgiving day’.
8. Fruitful Day
It is a good day for wedding
ceremony receiving cattle as wedding gift or debt payment.
9. Every job cannot be done completely on these days. It is only can be done by giving an offering to Parsili (a god of bad luck).
10. These days are bad. The day that are marked show that the Porhalaan (calendar) are not allowed to be applied on these days.
11. Alasunsang, opposite of Scorpion.
We have to be careful on this day because it brings bad luck as the result of the power of Magis (magic).
12. Deadful day according to Datu
Those who do something on these days will be dead.
13. Also a Bad Day
Those who do something on these days will get a stomachache.
14. It is the 8th Day, which makes men widowers, and women become widows. Ualu is formed from the word Mabalu that means ‘eight’.
15. It is Another Bad Day
This day can cause a fight one to another.
Please let me know if you have any questions.