Batak’s Striving Traditional Lifestyle

Dark skinned, naturally curly hair, small in structure, shy and rarely talks, these characteristics fits for people we call Batak, this tribe is one over seventy indigenous people here in our country and is included in the oldest tribes in the Philippines. Today, the Bataks is considered the smallest tribe here in Palawan, the number of population of the tribe decreased from approximately six hundred to around three hundred now.

This tribe are in peace, they avoided the problems by running away, they avoided the outsiders as long as they are able to, but now, they need outsiders for their daily necessities.

The history of the Batak is barely known for they have no written history of their origin. In Chinese history it tells that five hundred years AC, a trade between the Chinese traders and the Batak Tribe members occurred. It is also assumed that they are the children of Negritos, Spanish for Negro that means small, dark person. Spanish travelers mistook them as Africans that’s why they call them Negrito. They really came from Southeast Asia, Australia and New Guinea to the Persian Gulf. Even though they show some of the similarities with the people from Africa but the DNA research tells that they are not related, that Negritos are originally residents of Australia and Melanesia, where these are possessions of Aborigines of Australia

Many theories are derived of where they came from.

Before Bataks wander around naked, but now, men desire to wear shorts and women wears skirts.

There are three groups that consists the community of the Bataks, the family, the band, and the settlement, the family is a family that is living with another family in compensation. While the band is formed by many families, and is led by a leader traditionally and is called ‘kapitan’. And lastly, the settlement have someone called ‘maskampo’ that ensure the justice and social condition of the community.

Polygamy was really the foundation of the society, and the strongest man was made by a woman. Adult men and women finds their partner picked out from the family, but the settlements are minimized.

Christians introduced the Monogamy to the Bataks, the women think it’s a shame, because with the strongest man, they have children. And it made the classification of Bataks more difficult for they find their partners from another culture. The Bataks more likely wants to find their partner from another culture for they earn more chances to survive

Their art consists of handcrafted products made of rattan, the women makes drums made of excavated trees, and there occurs the dance in accordance to music

Bataks believes that there are spirits containing in animals, plants, stones and even the natural phenomena like thunder and lightning. There are two types of spirits by faith, the Paneyon and the Diwata. A shaman, the Babaylan, interacts the spirits within these plants or animals, and is a healer.

They speak Binatak, a language belonged to Austronesian languages. Almost all of them are uneducated, yet they can still speak Filipino.

When exploring with the areas of Batak, the person will get to know their culture and lifestyle, you will learn their manners and habits.

The river valleys in their areas acts as a source of their sufficient food, they eat rice and native plants including cassava, hunt edible animals.

Bataks already had a trade with the Chinese merchants, they had their form of agriculture but it was banned, today, they earn money from finding rattan woods found in the forest, manufacturing pots, jewelry and weaving products by hand.

Bataks have a very difficult life, in the Outside world, the government declared the forest as protect area so the Bataks can’t earn money and hunt food. But this is also for the preservation of the resources in Palawan, in their culture, it slowly loses its identity, and it is in threat of disappearing, because their traditions are slowly becoming inactive.

Their state in health experiences many problems, like malaria, tuberculosis and measles are the most problems they’ve had. Whether these theories of where they came from are true, these Bataks has its own tradition, despite of their characteristics, even though they’re small and dark, they fight to survive as one, and live as who they really are, that’s the Batak Tribe.