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The world famous crater lake of Danau Toba is the third biggest tourist destination of Indonesia. The island in the huge...
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The world
famous crater lake of Danau Toba is the third biggest tourist destination of
Indonesia. The island in the huge lake, Pulau
Samosir, attracts many tourists. Lake Toba is the largest lake in
Southeast Asia, once created by an enormous eruption less than 100.000 years
ago. The eruption was approximately 8.000 times more powerful than the eruption
of Mount St. Helen in 1981. Ashes in the stratosphere circled around the earth
for years and changed the climate. As things began to settle another volcanic
eruption happened about 25.000 years later and built up a secondary volcano
inside the caldera.
The cone of that volcano collapsed and formed the
island Samosir while the crater of the first eruption filled with water, what
to become Danau Toba. The lake covers approximately 1.265 square km excluding
Samosir and is 90 km long. The depth is in on average 450m and up to 900m in
some places. The lake is situated at an altitude of 906 m above sea level. The
steep coastline interspersed with small valleys creates fantastic scenery and
isolated areas. The deepest end and the highest mountains are at its
northeastern end. The Dutchman H.N. van der Tuuk was the first European who saw
and reported about the lake, in 1847.
There are of course legends on
how Lake Toba was formed. The following is a Batak Toba legend: Once upon a
time there was a man living in the area of the present day Danau Toba. No one
knew when or from where he came. He lived in a simple hut in a farming area. He
had a garden and did some fishing. One day he caught a big fish in his trap. It
was the biggest catch ever in his life. Back home the fish turned into a
beautiful princess decorated with jewels. He fell in love with her and proposed
to her. She nodded romantically, however, the princess had one condition. The
man had to promise never to tell anyone that she had been a fish. If he would,
there would be a disaster. They married and got a daughter and lived happily.
The daughter always brought lunch to her father out in the fields. The girl was
however very greedy and one day she ate all her father's lunch. Her father got
angry and scolded: "You damned daughter of a fish!" The princess
started to cry when she heard what her husband had said. She told her daughter
to go to the hills, as there would be a disaster. When the daughter had left
for safety the princess prayed. Soon there was an earthquake, rain started to
fall and springs appeared everywhere. The whole area got flooded and became
Lake Toba. The princess turned into a fish again and the father became the
island of Samosir.
According to a Simalungun
legend, told in Pematang Raya, there was once a mountain called Gunung
Tuhaweoba in the area where Lake Toba is now. (Tuhaweoba is also the name of a
kind of pepper). A long time ago the mountain exploded, Lake Toba was formed
and the people were divided. Those on the western side of the lake became the
Batak Toba and on the eastern side Batak Simalungun. The word Tuhaweoba changed
over time to Tuba and later to Toba.
The traditional Batak canoe,
the solu, was 10-15m long. All had the same width. The canoes of the chiefs
were decorated with carvings. The captain, the Chief, sat in front and gave
orders. The solu had its own spirit and when a new canoe was built offerings
were made for both the canoe spirit and to Boru Saniang Naga, the Goddess of
the water. Bataks feared her as disasters could easily happen when she was
angry.
Three years ago Lake Toba reached its lowest water
level ever, which caused problems, for example for tourism. The level had then
fallen several meters and the lake was a rather depressing sight for people who
had seen it before. The reasons for the falling water level were deforestation
and over consumption of water by a pulp factory and a hydroelectric power plant
near Porsea. The companies consumed more water than the capacity of Lake Toba
allowed. After strong and sometimes violent protests from the local
communities, the pulp factory, Indorayon, was closed down. The protests were
based on many different interests and concerns, amongst others of course
environmental concern. The water level is however, also controlled by the big
dams of PT Inalum. Since the closure of Indorayon, the water level in Lake Toba
has reached its normal level and the lake has regained its original beauty.
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information please call us : +62 823 64965245 or E-mail : medanview@gmail.com