the people of medan

North Sumatra is known as the land of the Batak people. Before the development of Medan city as the metropolitan city North Sumatra had clear segment of population. On the highland which is the larger part of the area was inhabited by the Batak, the lowland on the east coast and west coast including the islands were inhabited by the Malay. Some small part of the Karo land which is now bordering with Aceh province is inhabited by the Acehnese.

Geographically the Batak is divided into region where they live, so it is known as the Batak of Karo, the Batak of Pakpak, the Batak of Simalungun, the Batak of Toba, the Batak of Angkola, and the Batak of Mandailing. Based on dialect in fact they can be divided into the Karo, the Pakpak, the Simalungun, and the Toba which is the biggest of all in member and width of the area being inhabited because it includes Toba, Angkola and Manhdailing. 


After independence of Indonesia Medan was appointed capital city of North Sumatra with the population number already reached number 3 biggest cities in Indonesia after Jakarta and Surabaya. As a metropolitan city the character of Batak is not noticeable in the city, yet they reflects modern Indonesia with Bahasa Indonesia as the communication. But in some occasion Batak typical salutation for " hello " in the sense of familiar and acquaintance can be heard pronounced as " horass "

Just for idea the Batak people can be easily identified from their name, as they use family name, which they put at the last of their name, such as Ginting, Sembiring, Perangin-angin, Tarigan, Situmorang, Sinaga, Pandiangan, Nainggolan, Simatupang, Aritonang, Siregar, Lubis, Pulungan, Tanjung, Harahap, Sipahutar, Batubara, Purba, Saragih, Damanik, Simbolon, Manurung, Sitepu, Singulingga and others.


One thing that you should remember, they have strong dialect and strong facial expression. It makes them look like so mean. But dont worry, they are nice. And i like their spirit of life, they dont mind to leave their familly and move to other city for work. Hard worker. uhh, one more thing, they have a beautiful voice. They love to sing !!!


What to see in Medan ? you can check on "the views", i will show you there.