The Mandailing in the Homeland

Marga / Clan

Tradition has it that that each Mandailing settlement (huta or banua) was originally made up of only two clans (marga) - the clan that founded the settlement (marga tanah) and the in-coming clan (bajo-bajo). These two clans routinely intermarried, but later on they also married clans from other settlements, thus leading to the establishment of additional clans in the same settlements. Nowadays, it is often difficult to tell which clans were originally responsible for founding a settlement.

Each clan is founded by a progenitor. However, the name and reputation of the clan may only emerge after the third generation, when the clan is well-established with a large number of descendants.

Grave of Si Baroar, progenitor of the Nasution Clan at Panyabungan

The head of an "sarung keris" from the Lubis clan heritage in Tamiang.

Tanjung, Lintang, Dasompang and Tambak has also been named as one of the Mandailing calns. Some number them at 16-17, others more. Some clans have the same proginator for example Rangkuti and Parinduri; Pulungan, Lubis and Harahap; Daulae, Matondang and Batu Bara.
Mandailing Clans Not Batak Clans

Although it cannot be said with certainty where the Mandailing clans originated from, however according to Dr. Junghuhn, who was assigned by the Dutch colonial authorities to Tapanuli in 1840, the Mandailng clans did not originate from the Batak and these clans are not to be found amongst the Batak people. (Batak here refers to the Tobas, who identify with the Batak label.)

Notwithstanding this observation, the Nasution clan can be found in Toba country by an accident of history. According to Mangaraja Parlindungan, the Nasutions were members of the Padri forces that made incursion into the Tobalands in the early 19th century and some were left behind and settled there. (In Tapah, a town in Perak, Malaysia, there is a Nasution Christian songkok (headgear) maker, who hails from the Toba lands.)

Of the many clans, the Lubis and the Nasution have best maintained their geneologies (tarombo) mainly because they were rulers (raja) in Upper Mandailing and Lower Mandailing, respectively. The Lubis clan geneology has 22 generations (sundut), which means that the Lubis clan can trace its geneology back to about 550 years, assuming that each generation is 25 years. As the progenitor of the Lubis clan was the first to settle in Mandailing, it follows that the Lubis have been in Mandailing since around the 15th century. The Nasution geneology has 19 generations (sundut) going back an estimated 475 years.

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