NAI MANGGALE

The folklore of Nai Manggale came from the Tapanuli tribe, which lives in the province of North Sumatra. Generally people in North Sumatra are referred as Batakese. This folklore is not famous, but part of is similar to the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea.

Datu Panggana was a famous sculptor. When he got an order, he went to the forest to look for the most suitable wood. One day he got an inspiration to craft a wood he found (not to complete an order, just his own desire), and in his workshop he carved the wood to be the statue of a beautiful woman.

Then a merchant named Bao Partigatiga passed by, and he decorated the statue with stunning clothes and jewels. Those items became permanently attached to the statue.

Bao Partigatiga, angry that his trading items were stuck to a statue, ordered Datu Panggana to destroy the statue so that he could get his clothes and jewels back. Datu Panggana refused, so Bao Partigatiga left in rage. Datu Panggana, however, was also unable to move the statue from its place. He also left the statue in sadness.

Then a druid named Datu Partoar saw the statue, and he prayed to God. Later the statue became alive, and Datu Partoar embraced his newly existed daughter. His wife named their step daughter as Nai Manggale.

The news about Nai Manggale's spread rapidly. She honestly told the villagers that she was a statue who/which became a living woman by the grace of God. Datu Panggana went after Datu Partoar to claim his own creation, Nai Manggale. And Bao Partigatiga also claimed his right for the living statue.

A village elder, Aji Bahir, solved the dispute and made an agreement about the relationship of those three men and Nai Manggale: Datu Partoar is the father, Datu Panggana is the uncle, and Bao Partigatiga is the brother.