Северная Суматра: География, Население и История провинции Индонезии.

Province of Indonesia

North Sumatra is a province of Indonesia located in the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. It is bordered by Aceh on the northwest and Riau and West Sumatra on the southeast, with two different coastlines located on the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca, and a maritime border with Malaysia to the east. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java, and Central Java, and is also the most populous province outside of Java Island. North Sumatra is also the third largest province in area on the island of Sumatra after South Sumatra and Riau provinces. It covers an area of 72,460.74 km2, which is approximately the same size as Sierra Leone or Scotland or Maine. According to the 2020 census, the province's population in that year was 14,799,361. The mid 2023 official estimate was 15,386,640 (comprising 7,721,314 males and 7,665,326 females). North Sumatra is a multi ethnic province. The Malay people are regarded as the natives of the east coast of the province, while the west coast of the province is mainly inhabited by the Batak (Pakpak, Angkola, and Mandailing groups). The central highlands region around Lake Toba is predominantly inhabited by other Batak groups (Toba, Simalungun, and Karo). The Nias people are natives of Nias Island and its surrounding islets. With the opening of tobacco plantations in East Sumatra during the colonial era, the colonial government employed many contract labourers for plantations, mainly Chinese, Javanese, and Indian migrants. The majority did not return after their contract ended and decided to stay in the province. The recent rapid urbanisation also attracted neighbouring people from Aceh, Riau, and West Sumatra. During the Dutch rule, North Sumatra was administered under a government called the Gouvernement van Sumatra with an area covering the entire island of Sumatra, led by a governor based in the city of Medan. After independence, in the first session of the Regional National Committee (KND), Sumatra Province was then divided into three sub provinces. With the issuance of the Law of the Republic of Indonesia (R. I.) No. 10 of 1948 on April 15, 1948, it was stipulated that Sumatra was divided into three provinces, each of which had the right to regulate and manage its affairs, namely: North Sumatra Province, Central Sumatra Province, and South Sumatra Province. April 15, 1948, was later designated as the anniversary of the Province of North Sumatra.

Prehistoric relics in North Sumatra show that the oldest population was Austro Melanesoid. Based on the types of artifacts that were found, it is evident that their dispersal took place in the Mesolithic era (Middle Stone Age). They spread to the eastern part of Indonesia to the island of Papua, and to the west the traces are found in North Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Austro Melanesoid people especially in North Sumatra consumed mostly snails and clams. The shells were broken at the ends and sucked for the contents, over time the shells became hills that we now find in some places in North Sumatra. For centuries they discard the shells until they become a pile of rubbish that experts call kjokkenmoddinger (kitchen waste), some of the clam hill was found in Saentis, Hinai, Tanjung Beringin, and several areas along Deli Langkat shore and river banks. Around the year 1000 BC came the second wave of migration from mainland Southeast Asia, the Young Malays or Deutero Malays. They settled on the coast and made a living from fishing or cultivating the marshy land for agriculture. Their villages were scattered along the big rivers that flow to the east coast of North Sumatra such as Besitang, Wampu, Asahan, and Barumun. The rivers are important for traffic and fishing. Larger villages grew at the mouth of the river and became the center of government or Kingdoms. Relics of the Mesolithic era were found in North Sumatra, finely honed stone axes, bone tools, and painting materials. Linguistic and archaeological evidence indicates that Austronesian speakers first reached Sumatra from Taiwan and the Philippines through Borneo or Java about 2,500 years ago, and the Batak probably descended from these settlers. While the archaeology of southern Sumatra proves the existence of Neolithic settlers, the northern part of Sumatra was settled by agriculturalists at a considerably later stage. New genetic research has found that the Nias people came from the Austronesian peoples. The ancestors of the Nias people are also thought to have come from Taiwan through the Philippines 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. Ten years of researching involving blood samples of 440 Nias people in 11 villages on Nias island showed the Y chromosome and DNA mitochondria of the Nias people are very similar to the Taiwanese aborigines and Filipino peoples.

The eastern coastal area of North Sumatra is located on the shores of the Straits of Malacca. The strait for centuries has been widely visited, both by Hindus and by Chinese traders, with the founding of Situs Kota Cina or Chinese Town site in Hamparan Perak. Meanwhile, at that time there was a known trading port on the western coast of Tapanuli that attracted Middle Age era traders to Barus, people became increasingly interested in Barus, because of its camphor which was popular in Ancient Egypt. A kingdom in North Sumatra mentioned in the Tanjoore information from 1030 issued by Rajendra Chola recorded the names of the states he defeated in one expedition to conquer Srivijaya. States that he mentioned were Sriwijaya, Malayur, Kendara, and the Panai Kingdom. Furthermore, the Negarakertagama Kingdom by Mpu Prapanca from the 14th century finds several names of countries found in North Sumatra, Pane, Haru, Mandailing, Tamiang, Lawas, and Barus. The places were mainly defeated by the Majapahit. The earliest kingdom that was present on the eastern coast of North Sumatra was the Aru Kingdom from the 13th to the 16th century. In its height the kingdom was a maritime power, and was able to control the northern part of the Malacca strait. The kingdom was initially established as a Karo polity. The indigenous population practiced native animism as well as Hinduism. During the 13th century Islam came to be practiced alongside the existing faiths. Aru's capital was located close to present day Medan and Deli Serdang. The people of the kingdom are believed to have been descendants of the Karo people from the interior of North Sumatra.

The province of North Sumatra stretches across the island of Sumatra, between the Indian Ocean and the Strait of Malacca. It borders the province of Aceh on the northwest and Riau and West Sumatra in the southeast. It has an area of 72,460.74  km2. The province contains a broad, low plain along the Strait of Malacca on which the provincial capital, Medan, is located. In the south and west, the land rises to the mountain range that runs the length of Sumatra; the mountains here are dominated by Lake Toba, formed from the caldera of an ancient volcano. Several large islands in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Sumatra are currently part of North Sumatra, most notably Nias Island and the Batu Islands. There are 419 islands in North Sumatra province. The outer islands include the island of Simuk (the most westerly of the Batu Islands), and the island of Berhala in the Strait of Sumatra (Malacca). The Nias archipelago consists of the main island of that name and other much smaller islands in the vicinity, located off the coast of western Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The administration centre is located at the city of Gunungsitoli on the northeast coast of Nias. The Batu Islands consist of 51 islands including three major islands: Pini, Tanahbala and Tanahmasa. Pulau Telo is the administrative centre on the small island of Situasi. The Batu Islands are located to the southeast of the island of Nias. Other islands in North Sumatra are Imanna, Pasu, Bawa, Hamutaia, Batu Makelele, Lego, Masa, Bau, Simaleh, Makole, Jake, and Sigata, Wunga. Half of provinces are high plateau that runs by Bukit Barisan mountains range, mainly around central to western coastal of provinces, the tallest mountain in the provinces is Mount Sinabung with elevation around 2,460 mdpl, and it is the most active volcano in the region. Activities of the mountain (cracks where steam, gas, and lava are emitted) were last observed at the summit in 1912; recent documented events include an eruption in the early hours of 29 August 2010 and eruptions in September and November 2013, January, February and October 2014. Another volcano nearby are Mount Sibayak with 2,181 mdpl, the mountain produce crystalline sulfur, which was mined on a small scale in the past. Seepage of sulfurous gases has also caused acidic discolouration of the small crater lake, both of the volcanoes are located in the Karo highland. Lake Toba is the site of a supervolcanic eruption estimated at VEI 8 that occurred 69,000 to 77,000 years ago, representing a climate changing event. Recent advances in dating methods suggest a more accurate identification of 74,000 years ago as the date. It is the largest known explosive eruption on Earth in the last 25 million years. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, it had global consequences for human populations; it killed most humans living at that time and is believed to have created a population bottleneck in central east Africa and India, which affects the genetic makeup of the human worldwide population to the present. More recent studies have cast doubt on this theory and found no evidence of substantial changes in population. It has been accepted that the eruption of the Toba Caldera led to a volcanic winter with a worldwide decrease in temperature between , and up to in higher latitudes. Additional studies in Lake Malawi in East Africa show significant amounts of ash being deposited from the Toba Caldera eruptions, even at that great distance, but little indication of a significant climatic effect in East Africa. In North Sumatra, there are currently two national parks, the Gunung Leuser National Park and Batang Gadis National Park. According to the Ministerial Decree, No. 44 of 2005, the forest area in North Sumatra today covers 3,742,120 hectares (ha), which consists of a Natural Reserve Area/Natural Conservation Area covering an area of 477,070 ha, 1,297,330 ha of protected forest, 879,270 ha of limited production forest, 1,035,690 ha of permanent production forest, and 52,760 ha of production forest that can be converted. However, the figure above is only de jure. In reality, the forests are not as large as the figures suggest. A lot of the forests are damaged, due to encroachment and illegal logging. So far, over 206,000 ha of forests in Sumatra has experienced changes in function. As many as 163,000 ha were converted to plantations and 42,900 ha were transmigration areas.

The administrative centre of North Sumatra is located in the city of Medan, governed by a governor. Earlier, North Sumatra was included in a single Sumatra province when Indonesia became independent in 1945. In 1950, North Sumatra Province was formed including the former residencies of East Sumatra, Tapanuli, and Aceh. In 1956, Aceh split off to form a separate Aceh Province.

North Sumatra is currently subdivided into 25 regencies (kabupaten) and 8 autonomous cities (formerly municipalities). When originally created as a province with its current boundaries, it was composed of 10 regencies and 6 cities, but an 11th regency (Dairi Regency) was created on 23 September 1964. Fourteen more new regencies and two new cities were created between 1998 and 2008. All these are listed below with their areas and their populations at the (1 May) 2010 census and the 2020 census, These in turn are sub divided into 455 districts, which in turn are further sub divided into 6,110 villages at the start of 2024. With proposals under consideration to create three new provinces from parts of the present North Sumatra, these regencies and cities are grouped for convenience below according to the projected new provinces within which they are situated:

It was reported in January 2024 that a group of 140 Rohingya people, consisting mostly of women and children had landed in Indonesia and been directed by the military to the North Sumatra region. This has been one of several groups that have arrived in the area over the preceding months.

As well as Indonesian, languages spoken in the province include various dialects of Batak languages (particularly around Lake Toba), Javanese (various regions in the east of the province, especially around Medan), Malay, Minangkabau and the Nias language (parts of Nias).

North Sumatra hosts various ethnicities, religions and traditions, influenced by the Batak, Malay and Nias peoples, and other cultures such as Chinese, Indian and Javanese.

The music that is usually played depends on the traditional ceremonies held, but is more dominant with the drums. As in the Coastal Ethnic , there are musical instruments called Sikambang. The Batak Toba, Pakpak and Simalungun tribes have a musical instrument called Gondang which is usually played during traditional ceremonies in marriage, death, and so on. Meanwhile, the Mandailing and Angkola Batak tribes have musical instruments similar to the gondang, namely Gordang Sambilan. The Malays in the East Coast have the same musical instruments as the Malays in general, such as the accordion, the Malay drum (kompang) and the violin. Meanwhile, in Tanah Karo, there are Kulcapi and Gendang musical instruments which are commonly used to accompany the Landek or Guro Guro Aron dance.

In the field of fine arts that stands out is the traditional house architecture which is a combination of the results of sculpture and carving as well as the results of handicrafts. Traditional house architecture is found in various forms of ornament. In general, the shape of the traditional house building in the Batak traditional group symbolizes "buffalo standing upright" This is even clearer by decorating the top of the roof with buffalo heads. The traditional house of the Batak Toba ethnic, Ruma Batak, stands strong and majestic and is still commonly found in Samosir and Lake Toba area. The Batak Karo traditional house looks big and taller than other traditional houses. The roof is made of palm fiber and is usually supplemented with smaller triangular roofs called ayo ayo rumah, Jambur and tersek. With soaring multi layered roofs, Karo's house has a distinctive shape compared to other traditional houses that only have one roof in North Sumatra, there are still several villages in Karo highland that still reserve traditional house and buildings, like in Lingga. The shape of the traditional house in the Batak Simalungun area is quite attractive. The traditional house complex in Pematang Purba village consists of several buildings, namely the Rumah Bolon, Balai Bolon, drying rack, taboo hall of need, and mortar. The prominent Mandailing buildings are called Bagas Gadang (house of Namora Natoras) and Sopo Godang (customary consultation hall). Malay traditional houses in North Sumatra are not much different from Malay houses in other provinces, only the green and yellow color is more dominant.

The traditional dance repertoire includes various types. Some are in the form of sacred dances and some are solely for entertainment. In addition to traditional dances which are part of traditional ceremonies, sacred dances are usually danced by dayu datu. Included in this type of dance are teacher dances and stick dances. Datu danced while swinging a magic stick called Tunggal Panaluan. Profane dance is usually a young social dance that is danced at a happy party. Tortor is danced at the wedding ceremony. Usually danced by the audience including the bride and young people. These youth dances, for example morah morah, parakut, sipaj ok, patam patam and kebangkiung. Magical dances, such as the Nasiraan Tortor Dance, Tunggal Panaluan Tor Tor Dance. This magical dance is usually performed with great solemnity. Besides Batak dances, there are also Malay dances such as Serampang XII, Gundala Gundala and Landek dance from Karo Highlands, Moyo and Maena dance from Nias.

In addition to architecture, weaving is an interesting craft art from the Batak tribe. Examples of this weave are ulos cloth and songket cloth. Ulos is a traditional Batak cloth used in wedding ceremonies, death, building houses, arts, etc. Ulos cloth is made of cotton or hemp yarn. Ulos colors are usually black, white, and red which have certain meanings. While other colors are symbols of the variety of life. In the Pakpak tribe there is a weave known as oles. Usually the base color of the ointment is black brown or white. In the Karo tribe there is a weave known as uis. Usually uis base colors are dark blue and reddish. In the west coast community there is a woven fabric known as Songket Barus. Usually the basic color of this craft is Dark Red or Yellow Gold. Batubara Malay Songket is one of the typical crafts of the East Coast that has been worldwide. Songket Batubara has its own characteristics, this can be seen from: The process of making songket still uses wooden looms in the traditional way, but still has good quality, thus this songket is not inferior to songket produced with today's sophisticated machines. The Batubara songket also has a variety of unique motifs such as bamboo shoots, mangosteen flowers, cempaka flowers, Caul buds, Tolak Betikam, and Fighting Dragons. The Batubara songket woven has an attractive design and a high cultural artistic value.

Typical food in North Sumatra varies greatly, depending on the region. It is the only provinces in Sumatra island and may one of provinces in Indonesia that has serves non halal based food such as pork and alcohol, as around 40 percent of provinces are not Muslim. Saksang and Babi panggang karo are very familiar to those who carry out parties or home cooking. For example, in the Pakpak Dairi area, Pelleng is a typical food with very spicy spices. The characteristic of Batak cuisine is its preference to andaliman (Zanthoxylum acanthopodium) as the main spice. That is why andaliman in Indonesia sometimes dubbed as Batak pepper., in the Batak land itself there is dengke nani arsik which is fish that is fried without using coconut. For taste, Batak land is heaven for lovers of coconut milk and spicy food. Pasiyak Natonggi or money to buy sweet palm wine is a very familiar term there, describing how close palm wine or nira is to their lives. Batak people are majority Christian — unlike neighboring Muslim majority ethnic groups such as Aceh and Minang — Christian Batak people are not restricted to Islamic halal dietary law. Many of the Batak popular meals contain pork as well as dishes made from unusual ingredients, such as dog meat or blood, however there are also halal batak dishes, mostly chicken, beef, lamb, mutton, and freshwater fishes. With a large population of Batak being Muslim, especially among Mandailing people, they have their own dishes such as Sayur daun ubi tumbuk or mashed cassava leaf soup, Pora pora, Salai ikan, Pakkat and others. Batak culinary centers are located in towns of Batak highlands, such as the town of Kabanjahe and Berastagi in Tanah Karo area. Some towns around the Lake Toba offer freshwater fish dishes such as carp arsik. The Northern Sumatra capital of Medan is also a Batak cuisine hotspot where numerous of Lapo (Batak restaurants) can be found anywhere across the province, it even expanded into neighbouring provinces such as Riau, Riau Islands, even capital Jakarta and neighbouring countries like in Malaysia and Singapore. The North Sumatra's Malay cuisine is similar to another Malays region, meals such as Nasi lemak (called as Nasi Gurih), Bubur pedas, Lemang and dodol are the most known dishes from Medan and the east coast. The Chinese have influenced the province's cuisine, examples are Cha Sio,Tau Kua He Ci, Popia, Bakpao, Teng Teng, Chai Pao, Roti Kacang and Bika ambon which are dishes also popular elsewhere in Indonesia. Indian influences can also be seen in dishes such as Martabak, Roti canai, Putu bambu and Mie rebus. The Minangkabau and Acehnese peoples brought Nasi padang and Mie Aceh dishes.

North Sumatra is rich in natural resources such as natural gas in the area of Tandem, Binjai and petroleum in Pangkalan Brandan, Langkat which has been explored since the days of the Dutch East Indies. Besides that, in Kuala Tanjung, Asahan, there are the company named PT Inalum (abbreviated of Indonesia Aluminium) that engaged in ore mining and smelting of aluminium which is the only one in Southeast Asia. The rivers that disgorge in the mountains around Lake Toba is also a natural resource that is potential enough to be an exploited to resource of hydropower plants. Asahan hydropower which is the largest hydropower plant in Sumatra Island is located on Porsea in Toba Samosir Regency. Moreover, in the mountains there are many geothermal hot spots were very likely to be developed as a source of thermal energy or steam that can then be transformed into electrical energy.

The province is famous for its plantations. The plantations are managed by private companies and the state. SOE Plantation area is located in North Sumatra, among others PT Perkebunan Nusantara II (PTPN II), PTPN IV and PTPN III. North Sumatra produces rubber, cocoa, tea, palm oil, coffee, cloves, coconut, cinnamon, and tobacco. These commodities have been exported to many countries and contributing huge foreign exchange for Indonesia. In addition to commodities, North Sumatra is also known as a producer of horticultural commodities (vegetables and fruits); e. g. Medanese Orange, Deli Guava, Cabbage Vegetable, Tomato, Potato and Carrot generated by Karo, Simalungun and North Tapanuli. The horticultural products have been exported to Malaysia and Singapore. The plantation is spread in East coast area such as Deli Serdang, Serdang Bedagai Langkat, Simalungun, Asahan, Labuhan Batu, and also around west coast: Central and South Tapanuli. Plantations, especially palm oil, are important for sourcing reticulated and blood pythons, the skins of which are a major export product. The size of technical irrigation entirely in North Sumatra is 132 ha that covers an area of 174 irrigation site. Sumatra Mandheling and Sumatra Lintong coffee beans are grown in North Sumatra and largely exported to the United States. Mandheling is named after the similarly spelt Mandailing people located in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The name is the result of a misunderstanding by the first foreign purchaser of the variety, and no coffee is actually produced in the "Mandailing region". Lintong on the other hand, is named after the Lintong district, also located in North Sumatra.

In addition to national banks, state banks and international banks, currently there are 61 units of Credited Peoples Banks (BPR) and 7 Credited Sharia Bank (BPRS). Data from Bank Indonesia showed, in January 2006, the Third Party Funds (TPF), which absorbed BPR reached Rp253,366,627,000 (around US$19 million) and loans reached Rp260.152.445.000 (around US$19.5 million). While assets reached Rp340,880,837,000 (US$25.5 million).

North Sumatra has several industrial sites, mainly around Deli Serdang. Medan Industrial Area stands for KIM is the main industrial complex in Medan.

Sei Mangkei Industrial Area, also known as Sei Mangkei – Integrated Sustainable Palm Oil Cluster (SM ISPOIC), is located in Simalungun Regency and was formally opened on 12 June 2010. Four companies have joined in this area, with investment costs totaling up to Rp1.5 trillion ($176 million). In April 2011, three other companies also joined in the Sei Mangkei area. They are Procter & Gamble Co for making CPO derivatives of cosmetic raw materials, Ferrostaal AG and Fratelli Gianazza SpA.

The increasingly higher economic performance of Sumatra and Java means that North Sumatran exports will be experiencing rapid growth. In 2004, the size of the foreign exchange sector had reached $4.24 billion, up 57.7% from 2003. Coffee exports from North Sumatra reached a record high of 46,290 tonnes with Japan as the main export destination countries during the last five years. Sumatran coffee exports are also listed as the top 10 highest export products with a value of US$3.25 million or 47200.8 tons from January to October 2005. Of the garment sector, garment exports tend to fall in January 2006. The results of special apparel industry down 42.59% from US$1,066,124 in 2005, to US$2,053 in 2006 in the same month. Import export performance of some industrial products showed a decline. Namely furniture fell 22.83% from US$558,363 (2005) to US$202,630 (2006), plywood down 24.07 percent from US$19,771 to US$8,237, misteric acid down 27.89% from US$115,362 into US$291,201, stearic acid dropped 27.04% from US$792,910 to US$308,020, and soap noodles down 26% from US$689,025 to US$248,053. Export performance of agricultural imports also decreased the essential oil dropped 18 percent from US$162,234 to US$773,023, seafood / shrimp, coconut oil and robusta coffee also dropped quite dramatically to 97 per cent. Some commodities were increased (a value of over US $ Million) is cocoa, horticulture, arabica coffee, palm oil, natural rubber, seafood (non shrimp). For the results of the molding industry, vehicle tires and rubber gloves.

North Sumatra has an international seaport at Belawan, near Medan and is now preparing to have a new seaport at Kuala Tanjung, in Batubara Regency, for about Rp1 trillion ($114 million) budget.

In North Sumatra, there is 2098.05 kilometres down a state road, which pertained only steady 1095.70 kilometres or 52.22 percent and 418.60 kilometres or 19.95 percent in a state of being, remaining in a state of disrepair. While of 2752.41 kilometres of provincial roads, which is in a state of steady length 1237.60 kilometres or 44.96 per cent, while in a state of being 558.46 kilometres, or 20.29 percent. As damaged roads length 410.40 kilometres, or 14.91 percent, and the damaged length 545.95 kilometres, or 19.84 percent. There are 28 km toll road (expressway) in named as Belmera Toll Road, the first toll road in Medan, connecting from Belawan to Tanjung Morawa, passing east side of the city, the government also on has built a 62 km Medan–Kualanamu–Tebing Tinggi Toll Road and 17 km Medan–Binjai Toll Road. A project to build toll road from Tebing Tinggi to Parapat and also from Tebing Tinggi to Kisaran and Kisaran to Rantauprapat down south to Bagan Batu, Riau also in proportion, meanwhile in the north, a toll project connecting Binjai to Aceh's eastern city, Langsa and up to Banda Aceh are also on going. There are under discussion to build Medan inner ring road toll road, including an elevated tollway above Deli River to accelerate city traffic.

Regional Division I North Sumatra and Aceh or Divre I is regional railway from Aceh to North Sumatra operated by Kereta Api Indonesia, but only in operation railway are from Binjai to Medan (Sri Lelawangsa), Medan to Pematangsiantar (Siantar Express), Medan to Tanjung Balai (Putri Deli) and Medan to Rantau Prapat (Sribilah), there are an under construction rail way to Banda Aceh in Aceh province also to Pekanbaru, Riau province. Medan also has it first airport rail link in Indonesia, called Kualanamu Airport Rail Link. It connects the city to Kualanamu Airport.