History of Toba Lake and the Legend

Review by : Yuli SE., MM

There are so many tourist attractions that can be found in Indonesia. One of them is Toba Lake. Toba Lake is a volcanic lake that is located on North Sumatra Province.

Toba Lake is named as one of the biggest lakes in South East Asia and the second largest lake in the world after Victoria Lake in Africa.

Here, We inform you about History of Toba Lake.

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The volcanic dust that is blown by the wind is spread to the half of the world, from China to South Africa. This eruption is estimated occurred for one week and the volcanic dust is thrown up to 10 km high above sea level. This event caused mass animals death and some species are extinct due to this event. According to several DNA proofs, this eruption also reduced the population of human up to about 60% from total population of human in that period. There are about 60 millions humans that are killed due to this eruption.

This eruption also caused the ice age to occur even though some scientists are still debating this hypothesis. After that eruption, a caldera is formed and then this caldera is filled with water and became what is now known as Toba Lake. The upwards pressure that is created by magma that was not erupted cause the formation of Samosir Island.

New Archaeology Sites

In a press conference in Oxford, America, international multi-discipline research team that is headed by Dr. Michael Petraglia revealed that the new archaeology sites is found by geologist experts in south and north parts of India and these archaeology sites are quite spectacular.

On these sites, it’s revealed how people survived before and after the Mount Toba supervolcano eruption occurred in 74,000 years ago. The team also found the evidences about the existence of life under the pile of volcanic dust from Mount Toba. This is very interesting since the source of eruption is 3,000 miles far from the distribution of the volcanic dust.

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For seven years, the experts from Oxford University investigated the ecosystem project in India in order to find the evidences of life and tools that are left on the empty field. This thousands hectare area apparently is only just a savanna with bones from animals scattered around.

Meanwhile, the team concluded that this wide area was apparently covered by volcanic dust from the eruption of ancient volcano. The distribution of this volcanic dust is very wide and it’s been found in almost any part of the world. The volcanic dust came from the eruption of an ancient supervolcano which is Mount Toba.

On the other hand, the conjecture lead to Mount Toba since there is evidence found that the molecule of volcanic dust that are found on 2,100 spots have similar structure.

These molecules are found from caldera that now became Lake Toba to 3,000 miles from the source of eruption. The quite surprising fact is that the distribution of the volcanic dust apparently reached the North Pole.

Then, this evidence is just like reminded the experts about how powerful the Mount Toba eruption that time. The evidences that are found support the assumption that the power of the eruption and the tsunami that it’s created is the cause of the extinction of life in Atlantis.

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Folklore about the Legend of Toba Lake

There is also a folklore that told as part of History of Toba Lake. Its called the legend of Toba Lake. According to this folklore, a farmer lived in Sumatra and this farmer worked very hard. This farmer lived alone and every day the farmer will work on the field and caught the fish tirelessly. All of these are done by the farmer to meet his daily needs.

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That woman said to the farmer not to be afraid and she will not hurt him. The farmer asked that woman who she really is and still wonder how came the fish that he caught can turn into a very beautiful woman. The woman then explained that she is a princess that is cursed because she broke the rules of the kingdom. The woman then thanked the farmer because the farmer has freed the woman from the curse.

As the reward, the woman is willing to become the farmer’s wife. However, there is a promise that needed to be kept by the farmer which is the farmer must not tell anybody that the princess was a fish. If this promise is broken, then the tremendous disaster will occur.

Then. after they’re married for a while, finally their happiness became larger because the farmer’s wife gave a birth to a boy. Their kid grew into a very handsome and strong boy. However, the boy has a habit that made everyone wonder. The boy always felt hungry and never be satisfied. All the foods that are served will be eaten by the boy without any remains.