Several women are washing while men are preparing for fishing and children are swimming.
My wife is posing at the top hill with lake Toba in the background
A beautiful view of Lake Toba
Hundreds of hectares of wet rice fields
Balige is situated on the south eastern shore of Lake Toba, opposite the tip of Samosir lsland. It has a beautiful sandy beach. It is an important market place at the southern shore of the lake, 65 km from Prapat, and is known for it's fabrics. The city does have a big pasar, built in the traditional Tapanuli-style and is often host to some annual Batak festivities, namely the Pesta Horas (Horas Party) and Pesta Pantai Lumban Silintong (Lumban Silintong Beach Party). The activities include a fishing competition, traditional sports such as Marjalengkat, Marhonong, and others.
Two museums are found here: the Balige Museum and the Sisingamangaraja XII Museum. The Sisingamangaraja Museum shows a collection of objects and items used by this past king. His tomb can be seen at Soposurung, Tanah Batak. There is also a monument here in honour of the late General D.I. Panjaitan, a National Fighter who was killed in the communist coup of 1965. Balige is located about 65 km from Parapat (2.5-hour drive from Parapat or 6 or 7-hour drive from Medan - the capital city of Nort Sumatera) and is noted for its traditional Batak cloths. Not far from Balige there is a village called 'Laguboti' which is known for its woodcarvings and statues.
Balige at dawn at the southern tip of Lake Toba
From the memories of Sitor Situmorang (one of Indonesian well know journalist and cultural observer, poets writer) we get an impression of the Batak country in the thirties, when in 1931 he went to Balige, on the southern tip of Lake Toba:
'The six hour boat trip to the south went via the waters west of the lake. This was the first time I left the valley and the first time I experienced the vastness of the lake. Balige was also my first town. The Dutch school was founded in 1925, in the same period that the Trans Sumatra road was opened from Medan to Padang. As the landscape to the north of the lake was dominated by groups of high steep mountains, Balige was also surrounded by mountain ranges which rose higher to the east, towards Habinsaran, where the sun rises, the source region of the Asahan stream. ... Behind that was a mysterious outerworld, just as this outerworld, for centuries had considered the Batak countries a mysterious world, populated by tribes with scary habits, with a fascinating adat culture interwoven with legends and myths....' (Sitor Situmorang, The old Tiger, p. 20)
Pictures by Insa Pradhana - Jakarta.
For more information visit Bona Ni Pasogit
