When I was walking under the foot of Mount Sinabung last week I accidentally saw this church building from a distance. We have often passed this road but this is the only time I saw this church, maybe because I was too focused on the fresh air I breathe and the view of the green forest that cools the eyes and the farmers' plants that are ready to be harvested make me never pay attention to this building . Just this week I saw this building from afar and it turned out that the building is a Catholic church whose building is more nuanced with local wisdom, which tends to be Batak culture because this church is located in Batak Land, one of the tribes that has a large population in Indonesia. This tribe is usually more at the foot of the mountain because the activities of the population are mostly agriculture.
If we look at the top corner of this building there is a statue of a buffalo horn, then in Batak culture this symbol is a symbol of greatness and has the highest meaning of offering in the Batak culture. According to information from my friend who is Catholic and is of Batak ethnicity, the buffalo head on the roof of the building also symbolizes patience, success, great strength and can also be used as an antidote to anger and danger from people who want to harm by using magic or magic. evil spirits, all based on the beliefs of the tribe.
On the upper walls beside the church there are also calligraphy ornaments in the form of lizards, and the symbol of the lizard in the Batak tribe also has its own meaning, namely a symbol of wealth or prosperity and wisdom for its descendants or from generation to generation. So that there are also many Batak houses or buildings that make lizard calligraphy in the building as a symbol of the good fortune of the homeowner, of course.
The church building that I visited was very unique, not only from all the building designs, the selection of ornaments and the selection of the place was very cool. Because this church is close at the foot of the mountain so that the fresh air is free from vehicle pollution and has a pretty good view, we can see Mount Sinabung closely from this church, not only that, the choice of calm colors is combined with calligraphy that has colorful The bright light makes the design of this building a special attraction.
This building has two floors and the building is still under renovation, it can be seen from several church congregations who are working together to clean the church and there are several building supports for the stairs to repair the building. According to information from the church congregation, the second floor is designated for worship. It was built on two floors so that animals such as dogs, chickens and wild boars that are still around this area don't go up to the second floor, so they don't pollute the floor, the first floor is used for parking vehicles, and other church activities that are not possible to carry out on the second floor.
Almost forgot to mention it, we've seen this two-story church building, but we haven't talked about the roof. The roof of this church is made in layers, namely from tile and then covered with a roof made of arena tree leaves to maintain the naturalness of the building. The roofs of the buildings are also equipped and beautified with layers of wood called PVC in our area, so that this building has a classic, elegant, luxurious and modern impression at the same time. Do you agree with my opinion on this? What do you think about this church building? Surely this building has a unique and classy design. In the future I will look for buildings that have a more local feel. Greetings from us Tomi and Maya from the city of binjai Indonesia
