Mandailing :: English :: The Mandailings in Malaysia

The Mandailings in Peninsular Malaysia

The Mandailing have a long tradition of Pai Kolang, sojourning to the West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The Perang Paderi (Padri War, 1816 - 1833) was both a civil war and a war against the Dutch , resulting in the devastation of the Mandailing homeland. This episode was the catalyst of a large exodus of whole clans, led by their Raja- Raja (Rulers) to 19th century Malaysia.

Their presence in Malaysia triggered a series of local wars in four different negeri (states) over the next 30 years. Coming through Malacca, the Mandailing refugees first stopped to mine in Sungai Ujong (today known as Seremban, Negeri Sembilan), where they played a supporting role in the Perang Rawa (Rawa War) in 1848. They fled to the gold mines of Pahang where they got themselves embroiled in the Perang Orang Kemaman (Pahang War, 1867-1873). Next they tried to capture the tin mines of Selangor and became the feared commanders of the Porang Kolang (Klang War 1867-1873). Amidst the call to vanquish the Mandailings, they made their way to Perak and became the storm troopers of the British in the Perak war (1875-1876) against the native Perak Malays. Many Mandailings settled down in Selangor and Perak after the wars. From miners, traders and mercenaries, they became administrators, educationists and foresters.

The People

The Mandailings are an ethnic and cultural group from the interior of the west coast of Sumatra. They have their own script, language, literature, customs adat and rituals, sculpture, weaponry, built heritage.

Mistaken for Bataks in Indonesia and as "foreign Malays" in Malaysia, the Mandailings are a distinct ethnic and cultural group from the Bataks and the Malays whom they are associated with in the colonial census and in the writings of so-called colonial administrator-scholars. Until today, the Mandailings have been misrepresented in official publications and academic journals alike.

The Mandailings are one of the least relatively studied groups of people of Sumatra, inspite of their enormous contributions to society, literature and politics both in Indonesia and Malaysia. This is largely due to the fact that the Mandailings have been lumped together with the Bataks and with the Malays. Inadvertently any study of the Mandailings as an appendix of the Bataks or Malays can only be superficial to say the very least. In this way, the Mandailings have been academically marginalised.

It is only now beginning to emerge that the Mandailings were a distinct ethnic and cultural group and saw themselves as such, quite apart from the Bataks and the Malays. This was more evident in the 19th century Dutch East Indies and British Malaya. Therefore any treatment of the Mandailings as a subgroup of the Bataks and the Malays, would distort and would be inadequate to portray the Mandailings' contribution to human history and diversity.

The tagging of the Mandailings as Batak-Mandailings or Malay-Mandailings (or vice versa) has persisted and continue to do grave injustice to the Mandailings. This is indeed unfortunate, and only goes to show that it will be a long way before the Mandailings can free themselves from the Batak and the Malays labels.