5 Lake Toba Museums You Must See

Lake Toba museums speak about Batak culture and history. Objects of cultural and historical importance are in display in a few museums or at places right where they belong. If you are interested in understanding how the history has shaped the people who live there today, here are the five most important museums on Lake Toba to visit.

1. TB Silalahi Batak Museum

T B Silalahi Batak Museum is the largest Lake Toba museum. It holds over 1,000 cultural artifacts and historical relics. They include weapons such as hujur (spear), podang (sword), piso (knife), sior (arrow and bow), ultop (chopsticks), and body (rifle). There are also custom clothes from each of six Batak tribes. The museum is by the lake at Jalan Pagar Batu No. 88, Balige. See more.

2. Huta Bolon Simanindo Museum

Huta Bolon Simanindo Museum is a Lake Toba museum located at Simanindo, Samosir island. It is a former ancient king’s traditional house. The owner restored and converted it into a museum to keep a range of historical objects such as cooking utensils, sculptures, carvings, and the swords used in the past to watch for dangers. Then there are also some traditional agricultural objects utilized in the livelihood of Batak in the past. The museum performs Batak Sigale-gale shows daily. See more.

3. Simalungun Museum

Simalungun Museum is a Lake Toba museum dedicated for the Simalungun sub-tribe. This museum is at Jalan Sudirman No. 20, Pematangsiantar, Siantar Regency (historically Siantar Regency was a part of Simalungun.) It preserves an estimated 1,000 pieces of the collection, including jewelry, musical instruments, clothing, utensils, ancient manuscripts, and archaeological findings. A number of them are the heritage from late kings of Simalungun. See more.

4. Karo Heritage Museum

Karo Heritage Museum is a Lake Toba museum dedicated for the Karo sub-tribe. This museum is at Jalan Perwira No. 3, Berastagi. It is the place where you can find hundreds of Karo relics, some of which are aged hundreds of years. See more.

5. Batak Museum at Tomok

Batak Museum at Tomok is a Lake Toba museum established in 2005. It has a wide range of collections related to the Batak lands. For example, there are different types of fabric and clothes, statues made of wood, a sword, a wide variety of farm equipment, and old household equipment. See more.

See also 5 Things to Do at Lake Toba.