Batak States

Indonesian Princely States

Last modified: 2026-10-17 by klaus-michael schneider
Keywords: karo batak | toba batak | bonang-manalu |
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• About Batak Nations
• Karo Batak Kingdom of Lingga
• Karo Batak
• Toba Batak

• Indonesia

About Batak Nations

The Batak nations had their origin around the Toba Lake in Northern Sumatra (The island in the lake has roughly the same size as Lake Constance.). They expanded southbound. In the North they were surrounded by the territory of the Sultanate of Aceh.
The Batak nations are Karo, Simalungun, Pakpak, Toba, Angkola, and Mandailing. Each of ita six nations has its own regional language and alphabet.
A narrow majority of these groups are Christian. Their total population is just under 8,500,000. Of these, well over 2,000,000 live outside the heartland in adjacent areas of Sumatra—such as Aceh, Riau, and Jambi, as well as on the Riau Islands and in western Java. Another 30,000 live in Malaysia. Today, they share a common flag: a tricolour in white, red, and black in different order. The colours are derived from the threads used by the Batak to make their cords. The flag is known as Bonang-Manalu, a term roughly signifying three threads intertwined into a single unit. The colours symbolise the "three worlds" and the virtues associated with them. The flag is regarded not as a separatist symbol, but rather as a flag representing the ethnic group itself.

Variants of the Bonang-Manalu

3:5, image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 Oct 2026

3:5, image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 Oct 2026

Karo Batak Kingdom of Lingga

The flag of the Karo Batak Kingdom of Lingga looks like being yellow over blue over yellow, with 5 white stars on the blue part.
John McMeekin, 3 Oct 2011

The stars are in quincunx, and four stars on edges point to the central star.
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 Oct 2026

Karo Batak

This flag of Karo-Batak is white and displays a red sword under ared 8-point star at top. The flag is made of linen and cotton with ratio approx 11:10, the latter having a size of 50cm. Source: Wereldmseum (Leiden department), filing card archive no. RV-3600-886
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 10 Oct 2026

Toba Batak

The flag is dark blue with yellow with saffron edges and a zulfiqar of the same on its centre made of cotton.
Source: Wereldmuseum (department Leiden), filing card archive no. RV-370-2816
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 5 Oct 2026

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