Ancient Toba Batak Village, Lake Toba - Samosir Island, Sumatra

The Toba Batak people live in permanent villages and cultivate irrigated rice and vegetables. Irrigated rice cultivation can support a large population, and the Toba live in densely clustered villages, which are limited to around ten homes to save farming land. Unirrigated slash-and-burn agriculture supported smaller villages with only several houses.

All villages are located near watercourses and fields. Internecine Batak warfare before the twentieth century saw villages sited in easily defensible positions. High bamboo stockades fortified Pakpak villages and barriers of earthen ramparts with bamboo fencing and trees. Toba Batak houses are laid out side by side with their front gables facing the street.

Traditionally, each house would have had a rice barn granary opposite which would a complementary row in the village. The street formed between the row of houses and the row of granaries is known as the alaman and is used as an area for work the drying of rice.

The houses are constructed from wood, bamboo, using ijuk fibres for binding and for the thatched roof.

Ornamentation is very important in Batak houses. The colours used in designs are red, white and black. The red signifies a zest for life, a 'get-up-and-go', the colour seen in traditional clothes used in weddings, black the colour of death, man's ignorance of Dibata's (God) will, and white, the colour of God's holiness. An intaglio carved gecko protects the occupants from evil spirits. The kitchen is decorated with carvings.