ofthe SAME TREE

Padang Lawas are both written in a square type of early Kawi script, indicating
strong Batak links to the Java-Sumatran Indianized polities. 12 Despite
the sharing of a common culture, however, the Batak developed a distinctive
identity as a way of maximizing their advantage in international trade.
This chapter describes the circumstances that led to the ethnicization of
the Batak. Crucial in the forging of the larger identity from the numerous
clans and subclans known as marga was the indigenous religion and its practitioners,
who provided the common bond and the structure for the creation
and maintenance of a Batak ethnic identity. The major stimulus in this process
was Batak involvement in trade as collectors of commodities in great
demand in the local and international marketplace. Among these products,
the most valuable for many centuries were camphor and benzoin, two oleoresins
obtained from the forests in the Batak lands.
148 Chapter 5
The Camphor and Benzoin Trade
Camphor and benzoin were among the products of greatest demand at the
major port cities in the Straits of Melaka from the early fifth century, and at
Sriwijaya between the seventh to the eleventh century. These valuable resins
are found in the northern Sumatran forests in the Batak lands, and so
it was the camphor-benzoin trade that provided the first indirect evidence
of Batak participation in international commerce. 13 By the sixth century in
southern China, benzoin became widely accepted as a substitute for myrrh
(Commiphora mukul Engl.) and later came to replace it as a permanent and
valuable commodity not only in China but also in western Asia and Europe. 14
The value of these resins—considered to be on a par with gold in China—lay
both in their much-vaunted medical properties as a cure for a host of illnesses
and shortcomings as well as in their scarcity (see chapter 2).
The camphor tree is one of the largest of the dipterocarps in western
Indonesia, reaching a height of between 60 and 70 meters (196 to 226 feet).
It grows at altitudes of 60 to more than 365 meters (196 to 1200 feet) above
sea level on well-drained soils and often on steep ridges. These conditions are
met in the Batak lands in northwest Sumatra between Singkel and Air Bangis.
Benzoin trees grow in the same areas and under similar conditions as the
camphor trees. They are found in clumps from the north of Padang Sidempuan
to the area around Tarutung, as well as in another three locations from
the mountain valley of the Lai Cinendang, a tributary of the Singkil River,
northward to Sidikalang. Camphor crystallizes in the wood from an oleoresin
present in the tree itself, and it accumulates irregularly in the cavities of the
trunk. Only after twelve years does the tree produce camphor, with the oldest
trees supplying the greatest quantity and others yielding nothing at all. 15