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Sopo is a treasury structure in the architecture of Toba Batak people, North Sumatra, Indonesia. It has a very similar form with Batak traditional house with the exception of being smaller in size and a construction ritual that is the opposite of a normal Batak house. Sopo is used as repository for various item, e.g. rice, magical items, or trophies; and as a meeting point for social activities.

Description

Sopo was a Batak word indicating a storage structure, e.g. for storing rice (sopo eme, eme means "rice"), storing trophies (e.g. skulls of wild boars and humans, and the smoked and dried hands of enemies defeated in battle), storing magic items (e.g. the pustahas or magic batons)^[1] The space on a sopo is generally open like a pavilion, and so the space can also be used as a forum, as a temporary quarters for travelers or a dormitory for celibate males.^[2]

In the course of the 20th-century, some sopo have been converted into a dwelling by enclosing the open platform-space with walls. These dwellings are usually continued to be called sopo. Some of these converted sopo were later rebuilt or replaced with modern dwellings with concrete structures. In the region around the southern half of Lake Toba and on Samosir Island, many villages feature various kinds of dwelling houses. However, only few of them have the original "open" sopo.^[3]

Architecture and function

Sopo is usually built facing the traditional Batak house in a north-south axis. Similar with the traditional Batak Toba houses, a sopo is hierarchically divided into three sections representing the three realm of the cosmos. The lower part is where livestock are kept. The middle part is used as a place of rest or for women daily activities e.g. sewing. The top part is used as storage.

There are different types of sopo depending on the amount of its posts. A four-posted sopo is known as sopo siopat, a six-posted sopo is known as sopo sionam, eight-posted is sopo siualu while twelve-posted is sopo bolon ("great sopo"). Large-sized sopo bolon are often established by the chief of the village, and so every Batak Toba village would have one sopo bolon located at the center of a square and exactly on the opposite side of the chief's house. A sopo bolon can still be seen in the village of Lumban Nabolon, Tapanuli Utara. This large sopo served as a meeting hall, and its attic could be used as a shrine for sacred treasures, in which case it may not always functioned as a granary. Smaller ordinary sopo on the other hand has less ornamentation and stands on the opposite side of each houses in a village. These ordinary sopo are used for storing rice.^[4]

The main posts of a sopo are supported by a stone base known as batu ojahan. Each stone base has a diameter of 40 centimetres (16 in) on its base, and tapered on top to 20 centimetres (7.9 in) in diameter. These main posts are supported by smaller posts (tiang-dang pembantu). All of the posts are bound by anchor rails which is arranged in narrowly-spaced four levels. Each of the anchor rail levels are named (from the bottom to the top): balok ransang, balok galapang, sumban and gulang-gulang. Unlike a sopo, the Batak Toba house has three layers of anchor rails instead of four.^[5]

Even though the Batak Toba house and the sopo looks similar, the structure and architecture were marked not only as unequal, but also an inversion of one another. For example, the central roof-supporting posts of a sopo were deliberately placed upside down, so the post is thicker towards up; a Batak Toba house would have it the other way around, with the thick part at the bottom. Other differences is that the ruma is an enclosed structure, while the sopo is an open pavilion-like structure. Batak Toba house also stands broadly on the ground, while the sopo rises from a narrow base and widens at the level of the cantilevered attic floor.^[6]

The middle open space of a sopo is used as a meeting point, working place, or other mundane activities. Important sopo usually have the sitting platform skirted by heavy planks placed on edge and jointed in the corners, acting as a fence. Simple sopo has no fence.^[4]

Symbolism

Although neither the ruma (house) nor its sopo were exclusively used only by women or by men, it is traditionally accepted that the ruma is the realm of women while the sopo is the realm of men. This is evident in a Batak Toba expression: ruma jabu ni boru, sopo jabu ni baoa - "the ruma a dwelling for women, the sopo a dwelling for men". The ruma was also said to symbolize the female buffalo, while the sopo the male buffalo.^[4]

The sopo is a sacred structure, as the harvest was also seen as containing the spirit of an agriculture deity. A sopo in essential is more sacred in comparison with the house, and so they are treated differently. For example, a sopo should stand on higher ground than the house.^[7]

In Batak Toba society, the main house is inherited to the youngest son (a fact that bears on his duty to care for his parents in their old age) while the eldest son is inherited the sopo. If there are more sons who must live in the house and the sopo, then the youngest gets the main room of the main house (jabu bona), and the eldest gets the sopo.^[7]

Reference

^ Beekman 1988, p. 156.
^ Beekman 1988, p. 157.
^ Domenig 2013, p. 196.
^ ^a ^b ^c Domenig 2013, p. 197.
^ Domenig 2013, p. 200.
^ Domenig 2013, p. 198.
^ ^a ^b Domenig 2013, p. 210.

Cited works

Beekman, E.M. (1988). Fugitive Dreams: An Anthology of Dutch Colonial Literature. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 9780870235757. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Domenig, Gaudenz (2013). Howell, Signe; Sparkes, Stephen (eds.). Inverted posts for the granary - The House in Southeast Asia: A Changing Social, Economic and Political Domain. Routledge. ISBN 9781136824456. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help); Invalid |ref=harv (help)