CHAPTER 2 IDENTIFICATION
2. 1 Geographical Background of Karoland
Karo Highland is named Tanah Karo Simalem which is located in North Sumatera Province. It is one of many regencies in North Sumatera Province. The capital
of Karo Highland is Kabanjahe. It is about 76 km from Medan. Karo Highland has only two wellknown cities they are Kabanjahe and Berastagi. Kabanjahe is as the center of
Government Administration of Karo Regency and Berastagi is the center of tourism objects.
The area of Karo Highland is about 2,127.25 kilometers square. It is consist of seventeen districts and 274 villages. All of Karo area is inhabited by farmer. They earn
their families needs by cultivating the land, which is so fertile. They cultivate the land by various kinds of vegetables, fruits, flowers, etc.
Karo Highland is approximately 100-2600 meters above the sea level. It is circled by hills and mountains, which called Bukit Barisan. Karo Highland also has two
volcanoes and they are still running actively. The volcanoes are : Sinabung and Sibayak . Karo Highland is bordered with some other regencies, such as Langkat Regency,
Deli Serdang Regency, Dairi Regency, Simalungun Regency, and Southeast Aceh Regency. In the following description we can see border with some other areas:
In the East, Karo Highland borders on Simalungun Regency.
In the West, Karo Highland borders on Southeast Aceh Regency.
In the South, Karo Highland borders on Dairi Regency and Lake Toba.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
2. 2 The Religion of Karonese People
Most of the Karo people believe in Christ and Mohammed as their saver. Before they received or accepted the ideas of Christian and Moslem they have their belief which
called the Perbegu or Pemena. Perbegu means that someone who believes in somebody’s soul who has been
died, and they also believed the soul could save and disturb people who still lives in the world.
The perbegu believers believed that a man consists of soul and breath. They also believed that if someone who believes in begu ghost is died, his body will came back to
the ground, his blood will come back to the river, his breath will come back to the wind, and his soul will become begu or ghost. Perbegu, which also often called pemena which
means believe into one Gods. Besides belief into one Gods, Karo people also believed into powers of nature
such as, the power of great rivers, big trees, big stones, etc. They give tribute and offering of flowers or food and together with magic formula to ask something so the spirits will
give their bless for human. But after the coming of Christian and Moslem, most of Karo people changed their religion into the both new religion, so that, the belief into ghost
became smaller and small. Nowadays, the influence of the Pemena or Perbegu is almost lost in Karo.
2. 3 Karonese Lineage System
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