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span class="inline inline-left">Greetings: “Horas”, which means hello and goodbye, is painted at one entrance to the small town. JP/Martina TobingTarutung in the Batak language means durian, the delicious, pungent fruit with the rough skin.  

The city of Tarutung in the beautiful valley of Silindung in North Sumatra has an old durian tree symbolically standing on the hill just above one of its main streets, Jl. Sisingamangaraja.  

The tree stands in a tiny park with a marker that says the tree was planted in 1877. It still produces fruit that is visible high in its branches.

When traveling on the Trans-Sumatra Highway between Medan and Sibolga, Tarutung is usually only passed through, or maybe one stops for a meal. But, the town is worth visiting if only to experience the small town feel and to see the open-fronted shops and the business of market days when angkots are loaded with people and their wares going to and fro.

Thousands of schoolchildren, still in uniform, swarm all over the town after school is out for the day. They make their overwhelming presence known in tiny Internet cafes (just a room big enough for two rows of four or five wooden cubicles with one computer each) where they sit five or six to two chairs in front of a computer, playing games.

The town is built around the Aek Godang (Godang River), with traffic going one-way counterclockwise along the two sides of the river and across the two bridges that were recently beautified with Batak motifs painted on welcoming arches with the word “Horas” on each side.  

Horas means “hello” and “goodbye”, and brings a smile to faces if used by non-Bataks.

Tarutung is an old town, but it is hard to know just how old as there is barely any written documented Batak history or general history from the area to be found.  

The Dutch managed Tarutung from the late 1800s until the late 1940s, and during that time they constructed government buildings and homes in the upper part of Tarutung called Tangsi, where it is cooler and more pleasant.  

It is quite a hike up the hill to Tangsi but very much worth it: standing across the road from the bupati’s house, one can look down upon rich views of red rooftops, church steeples, the activity on the main street immediately below and the glittering river with green paddy fields organized in large and small squares.  

Bubbling up: Volcanic activity means there are active hot springs in the area near Tarutung. JP/Martina TobingIn the distance, the flatness of the valley rises up to become part of the Bukit Barisan mountain chain; the chain running along the entire length of Sumatra from northern Aceh all the way to Teluk Betung in the south.

In the Tarutung area it is Mount Martimbang that stands high and mighty above the rest, and it can be observed from most anywhere.

From above Tarutung, the Salib Kasih or Love Cross can be seen high up on Siatas Barita Mountain.  It was built in 1993 in memory of the German missionary Nommensen where he first entered Rura Silindung on his way to bring Christianity to the land of the Bataks.  

Just before Nommensen arrived, two missionaries from Boston, Munson and Lyman, were killed in Lobu Pining by local Bataks before they could begin their missionary work. Their graves can be found not far from Tarutung.  

Tarutung is mostly Christian and there are many churches in town and the surrounding agricultural areas, but there is also a growing Muslim community and the familiar call to prayer can be heard from four mosques in town and several in the valley.

The town is situated on a seismic fault (part of the ring of fire), running lengthwise along the entire island of Sumatra. Earthquakes are therefore a rather common occurrence; think of the devastating earthquake followed by the tsunami in Aceh in 2004, and the one in Padang in 2009.

Tarutung itself was struck by an earthquake in 1987 and a large part of the town was destroyed. The restless activity below the earth’s surface also causes hot, sulfurous water to escape in several areas, producing many bathing places in Tarutung’s surroundings.  

Steam rises up behind houses in Sipoholon, a town just outside Tarutung on the way to Medan, and in the Hutabarat and Sait Nihuta areas.

Legend: A memorial marks a scenic vista in Tarutung, North Sumatra.JP/Martina TobingThere is no charge for the small cabins in which steaming water runs perpetually from the outside through a hole into a large container of water, but it is expected that guests order some food or drink afterward. The standard food is hard-boiled duck eggs, automatically set on your table.  

Taking a look behind the cabins in Sipaholon, there is an incredible sight of steaming rocks covered with calcified sulfur in beautiful colors. In addition, there is the air soda in Parbubu, where you can emerge yourself wholly in therapeutic, bubbly water.

While Tarutung doesn’t have a shopping center, a McDonalds, a movie theater or even an A&W, it has put itself on the North Sumatra map for the shopping at the hundreds of market stalls, for the variety of food in the cozy restaurants and for its hot springs.  

And yes, there was a theater, built in the early 1900s and named the Tobing Theatre, where Batak plays were once performed.  Its remains are still standing on Jl. Sisingamangaraja, waiting for someone to restore and put to good use.