The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, Angkola, Mandailing[5] and related ethnic groups with distinct languages and traditional customs (adat).

Although the Batak are often considered to be isolated peoples due to their location inland, away from the influence of seafaring European colonials, there is evidence that they have been involved in trade with neighbouring kingdoms for a millennium or more.

[7] From the 16th century onward, Aceh increased the production of pepper, an important export commodity, in exchange for rice, which grew well in the Batak wetlands.

These include novelist Merari Siregar (Azab dan Sengsara),[9] Muhammad Kasim Dalimunte (Teman Doedoek),[10] Soeman Hasiboean (Kawan Bergeloet and Mentjahari Pentjoeri Anak Perawan),[11] Mochtar Lubis (Senja di Jakarta) and Iwan Simatupang (Ziarah); poets Sitor Situmorang; as well as literary critic Bakri Siregar.

In the colonial era, the Dutch introduced commercial cash crops, such as coffee, sawit palm oil, and rubber, converting some parts of the Batak land into plantations.

Batak people have filled a wide range of occupations, from running modest tire service workshops to serving as state ministers.

The modern Batak have gravitated towards professions such as bus and taxi drivers, mechanics, engineers, singers and musicians, writers and journalists, teachers, economists, scientists, military officers, and attorneys.

In contemporary Indonesia, the Batak people have a strong focus on education and a prominent position in the professions, particularly as teachers, engineers, doctors and lawyers.

[17][publisher missing] A significant minority of Batak people do not adhere to either Christianity or Islam, however, and follow traditional practices known as the agama si dekah, the old religion, which is also called perbegu or pemena.

In Marco Polo’s memoirs of his stay on the east coast of Sumatra (then called Java Minor) from April to September 1292, he mentions an encounter with hill folk whom he refers to as "man-eaters".

[23] The Venetian Niccolò de' Conti (1395–1469) spent most of 1421 in Sumatra in the course of a long trading journey to Southeast Asia (1414–1439), and wrote a brief description of the inhabitants: "In a part of the island called Batech live cannibals who wage continual war on their neighbors.

"[24][25] Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles in the 1820s studied the Batak and their rituals and laws regarding the consumption of human flesh, writing in detail about the transgressions that warranted such an act as well as their methods.

Junghuhn tells how after a perilous and hungry flight he arrived in a friendly village, and the food that was offered by his hosts was the flesh of two prisoners who had been slaughtered the day before,[28] however he maintains that the Batak exaggerated their love of human flesh in order to frighten off would-be invaders and to gain occasional employment as mercenaries for the coastal tribes who were plagued by pirates.

[29] Oscar von Kessel visited Silindung in the 1840s and in 1844 was probably the first European to observe a Batak cannibalistic ritual in which a convicted adulterer was eaten alive.

His description parallels that of Marsden in some important respects, however von Kessel states that cannibalism was regarded by the Batak as a judicial act and its application was restricted to very narrowly defined infringements of the law including theft, adultery, spying or treason.

Salt, red pepper and lemons had to be provided by the relatives of the victim as a sign that they accepted the verdict of the community and were not thinking of revenge.

Dutch and German missionaries to the Batak in the late 19th century observed a few instances of cannibalism and wrote lurid descriptions to their home parishes in order to raise donations for further missions.

[38] The modern Indonesian state is founded on the principles of pancasila, which requires the belief in 'one and only God', the practice of either Protestantism, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism or Hinduism, one of which must be entered on an individual's KTP.

She flees from her intended husband, the lizard-shaped son of Mangalabulan, and lets herself down on a spun thread from the sky to the middle world which at that time was still just a watery waste.

The couple settle on Pusuk Buhit, a volcano on the western shore of Lake Toba, and found the village of Si Anjur Mulamula.

The second tendi is found in the placenta and amniotic fluid of the new-born baby, and accordingly the afterbirth is given special attention after the birth of a child.

Similar ideas about the afterbirth are also found among the Karo, who also bury the placenta and amniotic fluid under the house and regard them as two guardian spirits (kaka and agi) who always remain close to the person.

The Batak believe that the begu continue to live near their previous dwelling (in a village of the dead which is thought to be situated not far from the cemetery) and that they may contact their descendants.

The corpse is carried a few times round the house, usually by women, and then to the cemetery with musical accompaniment from the gondang orchestra and the continual firing of guns.

This means that a rich and powerful individual remains influential after death, and this status can be elevated if the family holds a reburial ceremony.

Following the Christianization of the Toba and Karo Batak in the late 19th century, missionaries discouraged traditional healing and divination and they became largely clandestine activities.

According to Toba and Karo cosmology, each person receives a jinujung in childhood or at puberty and they keep it for life unless they are unfortunate enough to lose it, in which case they will fall ill.

[55] Traditional healers are not powerful enough to cure illness due to the loss of a person's tendi (this falls under the jurisdiction of the datuk); however, they do play a role in communicating with begu and influencing their behavior.

Sir Stamford Raffles perceived the Batak lands as a buffer between the Islamic Aceh and Minang kingdoms, and encouraged Christian missionary work to preserve this.

[61] According to Ida Pfeiffer: Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk was employed by the Nederlands Bijbel Genootschap (Netherlands Bible Society) in the 1850s to produce a Batak–Dutch grammar-book and a dictionary, which enabled future Dutch and German missionaries to undertake the conversion of the Toba and Simalungan Batak.