page_title: Sisingamangaraja XII
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Sisingamangaraja XII / Biography
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Drei Batak Krieger bewaffnet mit Speeren und Schwertern stehen vor einer Holzkonstruktion. Zwischen den Balken auf der Linken liegt ein Hund. English: Three Batak warriors with spears and swords in front of a wooden construction. A dog lies between the two girders at the left. Français&#160;: Trois guerriers Batak avec leurs lances devant une construction de bois. Un chien est couché entre deux poutres. Nederlands: Drie Karo Batak krijgers bewapend met speren en krissen staan voor een houten constructie. Tussen de balken ligt een hond te slapen.
context_page_description: Patuan Besar Ompu Pulo Batu, better known as Si Singamangaraja XII, was the last priest-king of the Batak peoples of north Sumatra. In the course of fighting a lengthy guerrilla war against the Dutch colonisation of Sumatra from 1878 onwards, he was killed in a skirmish with Dutch troops in 1907. He was declared a National Hero of Indonesia in 1961 for his resistance to Dutch colonialism.
context_section_description: Sisingamangaraja XII was born Patuan Besar Ompu Pulo Batu in Bakkara, Tapanuli, in 1849. He was the successor to his father Sisingamangaraja XI, who died in 1867. 
  The title Si Singamangarajah which was used by the family dynasty of Marga Sinambela means "The Great Lion King": (1) the (honorific particle Si from sanskrit Sri) (2) Great King (manga raja from sanskrit maharaja), (3) Lion (singa). Since the Batak see themselves in their mythology as descendants of divine blood (all Margas have the mythological god-king Si Raja Batak as their first ancestor), no feudalism structure could develop in that parmalim faith based concept of ethnic exceptionalism throughout Batak history. The king was merely seen as a ruler among equals ("primus inter pares" or in Batak law/adat "dalihan na tolo") and the South East Asian aristocratic lords, the Datuk (in Batak: Datu), did justify their leadership role within society by fulfilling their secular and religious tasks. They had for example to preside over courtship trials in cases of broken law, organize administrative affairs and similarly oversee in the function as a priest class all religious ceremonies within the village or territory of rulership (kedatuan); but there were, compared to the European nobility (Datu is equivalent to a European count or countess) and its characteristic excessive privileges, no further special rights beyond those functionally substantiated at hand. 
  Si Singamangaraja XII was the last in a line of figures known as parmalim (religious leaders) who were regarded as divine kings and incarnations of Batara Guru, the Javanese version of the god Shiva. The Sisingamangaraja was believed to have powers such as the ability to drive away evil spirits, call forth the rain and control rice-growing. He was not normally seen as a political figure, but when Dutch colonists and missionaries began penetrating north Sumatra from the 1850s onwards both Sisingamangaraja XI and XII became the focus of Batak resistance to colonial rule. Although they were not personally anti-Christian, the two Sisingamangarajas faced pressure to act from traditional list Batak chiefs and the neighbouring Sultanate of Aceh, which was at war with the Dutch from 1873.
caption: Batak warriors in traditional dress, ca. 1870.
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