Sigale Gale or Si Gale-Gale is a wooden puppet used in a funeral dance performance of the Batak people of Samosir Island, Northern Sumatra. Sigale Gale is a well known feature to visiting tourists. During the dance, the puppet operated from behind like a marionette using strings that run through the ornate wooden platform on which it stands. The set up enables its arms and body to be moved and its head to turn.
Traditionally the performance carried out of childless person. Batak Toba believes souls become an ancestral spirit and the children of the deceased perform funerary rites. If a person died childless a Si gale Gale is created as a substitute. Complicated Sigale Gale could be life sized and featured actuation using wet moss or sponges that could be squeezed to make the dolls appear to cry.
The wooden figure has jointed limbs were mounted on large wheeled platforms on which, weeping, they danced during funerary ceremonies called papurpur sepata, held for persons of high rank who had died without offspring. The ritual dispelled the curse of dying childless, and placated the spirit of the deceased so that he would do no harm to the community.
There are a few versions of Sigale Gale in existence but the main one sits outside one of the many traditional Batak style houses in Tomok Village, Samosir Island ~ Wikipedia
The travel time from Medan to Ajibata port, Parapat takes time about 4 – 5 hours, then from Parapat to Tomok will take time approximately 1 hour (it is a ferriage) to the Tomok in Samosir island. If you are using a car you can use the public boat transportation to the Samosir Island which they call ferry.
The ferry ticket cost for a car is approximately Rp. 232,700.00 (class IV, this may depend on the classification of your car. For class V may be almost doubled). Per adult person costs around Rp. 16,500.00 (as per Oct 1, 2022 PT ASDP Indonesia regulations).