dmitry.borko@gmail.com – Page 3

Bataki from the Samosir island. I. How I Searched For The Right King

Coming to a new country, we definitely go to the market, to the historical museum and to the cemetery. There was no need to go to the cemetery in Samosir, graves and monuments here are one of the main elements of the landscape.

Bataki from the Samosir island. II. Soaring houses and a strange road

It seemed to me that the houses – directed upwards with saddle roofs, despite their massiveness, seemingly light due to the intricate openwork design, most expressed the fantasy and flight of the spirit of these people. The Bataki are very fond of music and their homes I imagined the embodiment of their songs in wood.

Bataki from the Samosir island. IV. About big trees and the reasons for the victories over the Dutch

Pagan magic still lives on in today’s Christian Samosir. Is this a tourist attraction or a living tradition?

Bataki from the Samosir island. VI. Christians

We were suddenly carried away by the question: how did it happen that the most “barbaric” (according to European concepts) peoples (Bataks in the west and Papuans in the east) turned out to be Christians? And despite the fact that around, in the once Hindu Indonesia, Islam was already flourishing with might and main.

The book “1991/1993” (Two dramas in one set)

The author spent three days of August 91st and two weeks of October 93rd at the besieged White House, which was called at first the House of Government, then became the Parliament of the RSFSR, and at the end – sovereign Russia.

Bataki from the Samosir island. VII. Conclusion. The ark

The inhabitants of the island actually do not need communication with the outside world: everything you need is here. Dense forests on the slopes of the mountains have always provided the Batak with building materials for their houses. We picked delicious mango and avocado for breakfast from the ground around our house, and we were too lazy to climb trees for bananas.