The Tua Golo, traditional leader in Wangkung

Responsibilities
The traditional leader is called Tua Golo. Tua means leader and Golo means village. His responsibilities are to lead ceremonies, solve conflicts, and be available for the people. The Tua Golo is chosen trough a democratic voting system. People in the village vote for their favourite candidate, he has to be male, born in the village, and have a family history back for at least two generations.

Knowledge about the traditions and habits is essential. He has to be a social person, with a good eye for conflict solutions. The task is not paid, but it is normal to give a small donation to the Tua Golo when given advice. If the people are unsatisfied with the Tua Golo, or he wants to quit, they call in for a meeting and elect a new one.

Religion versus tradition
The village has about 50 families and each family has between 2 and 10 people. When something of importance happens, the Tua Golo has a bell that calls the village in for a meeting at his house. They do not have to join the meeting, only if they have the time and opportunity.

Even though the priest and the Tua Golo have the same status, there is no formal connection or cooperation between them. There is a clear distinction between traditions and religion, but the tradition stands stronger than the religion in the community. The Tua Golo prioritises the traditions but realizes that changes are important for the village. Modernization will probably replace many of the old traditions in the future.

In special situations were the Tua Golo is unable to solve a conflict, the case goes on to the Kepala Desa. The Kepala Desa is the political leader in the community and he is also the Tua Golo’s connection to the government. Regulations and rules for the village are passed on with oral traditions. None of them are written, mainly because most of the population are illiterate.

Rituals and ceremonies
The Tua Golo is responsible for birth, when a man wants to get married, when a women is moving to a new family, marriage, funeral, for dividing land, harvests, and festivals to thank God outside the church.

They have a special tradition when the woman is going to give birth. First, they invite all the people in the village to wait for the child to be born. All the men are outside and all the females inside. When the child is born, the men knock on the door three times, and ask what gender the child is. The females answer that the men have to leave and the men say they want to stay. They prepare local medicine for the mother, and sacrifice a white chicken. And then they give the child a name.

Finally, after five days, the mother can spend some time alone with her child. Within a year, they have a baptism in the church. The child is given two names, one traditional and one Christian. The child gets a name after which date he or she is born. Each year Indonesian cardinals make a new calendar with a Christian name for each day. Because of this, many of the Christian people in Indonesia have the same names.

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