Polahi

A Polahi family settled in Tumba hamlet, 2022.
Total population
Unknown[1]
Regions with significant populations
Gorontalo
Languages
Gorontalo (Polahi dialect)
Religion
Native beliefs; some of them are Islam[2]
Related ethnic groups
Gorontalo

Polahi are an isolated ethnic group that inhabits the interior forests of Gorontalo.^[3] According to stories circulating in the people, the Polahi were ancient fugitive people who exodused to the forest because they were afraid and did not want to be colonized by the Dutch.^[4] As a result of this, they have become an isolated ethnic group until now.

This ethnic isolated itself around the 17th century and now lives in the interior of the forests of the Boliyohuto, Paguyaman, and Suwawa in the province of Gorontalo.^[5]

According to local stories, the Polahi people were refugees during the Dutch colonial era. In the Gorontalo language, Polahi comes from the word lahi-lahi which means 'runaway' or 'on the run'. Polahi were fugitives during the Dutch colonial period who were afraid or did not want to pay taxes, who then lived in the interior of the forest, one of them is on the slopes of Mount Boliyohuto in the village of Tamaila Utara, Gorontalo Regency.^[4][6]

This makes the Polahi people adapt to jungle life. After Indonesia's independence, most of the Polahi descendants still lived in the forests and mountains. This anti-colonial attitude has been carried over from generation to generation, so that other people from outside the Polahi people are considered oppressors and invaders.^[3]

There is another theory that the assumption that the Polahi people are refugees from the Dutch colonial era is wrong. There are several reasons, the most obvious being to avoid taxes. Income tax rules were imposed on both natives and non-natives who earned income in the Dutch East Indies. Income tax for natives is imposed on business activities such as trade and agriculture. Entering the era of British occupation, Governor General Raffles (1811–1816) introduced a system of direct tax collection from farmers calculated based on the average income of farmers in a year. The income tax rate is 2% of income. So if Polahi people really avoids taxes, then they certainly have agricultural land and a developed fisheries and livestock culture. In fact, they do not have an agrarian culture, because they still live a nomadic life.^[7]

Another reason is the Islamic religion. As recorded in history, Islam has entered Gorontalo since the 1400s, marked by the presence of the first mosque, namely the Hunto Mosque, which was built in 1495. It is said that the king nicknamed King To Tilayo, who ruled from 1472 to 1550, built this mosque as a dowry to propose to the princess named Boki Autango from the Palasa Kingdom in Central Sulawesi. So Islam had existed 300 to 400 years before the Polahi exodus into the forest. So the Polahi people should have been Muslim before entering the forest. In fact, Polahi people is not Muslim, even animist. In fact, Islam entered Gorontalo in the 1400s. The Gorontalo Sultanate should have converted the Polahi people to Islam when their ancestors still lived in ordinary villages, but this was not the case.^[7]

Meanwhile, socio-anthropologically, the Polahi people are still nomadic and do not even have a planting culture like the modern Gorontalo people. They only expect forest products or even become guards for local community plants. Indeed, their ancestors lived a nomadic life. However, because now the forest conditions are starting to be touched by people who are expanding their agricultural areas, many of them are experiencing acculturation and assimilation with modern society. So there are some Polahi people who know the science of making houses as permanent residences, even though they are still very different from the houses of ordinary people. A primitive habit that is still maintained by Polahi's descendants is to marry each other. Because they don't know religion or education, a Polahi's child can marry his father, his mother can marry her son, and his sister can marry her older brother. Their marriage culture never existed, either heard of or written in folklore during the ancient kingdom era in Gorontalo before the Dutch came to colonize the archipelago.^[7]

The last factor is the linguistic factor. Many Gorontalo language words experience changes in meaning after going through the pronunciation process, so that there are some that are simplified, such as the origin of the word Gorontalo, for example: hulontalangi comes from the word huta langi-langi. Another simplified example is that hu'idu comes from the words hu'u hu'u i'idu and dudangata comes from the words dungu-dungu danga-danga a'ato. It is also possible that the origin of the word Polahi was a way of inviting people who at that time were still living in the mountain forests in Gorontalo who were still living a nomadic life to come down, namely by using the invitation word, namely polaheyi which means 'come down'. It is possible that the word polaheyi has undergone word evolution in the process of pronunciation to become polahi which is translated as 'the one who runs away' or 'runaway'.^[7]

Based on the evidence of this theory, temporary assumptions based on history, socio-anthropology, do not support that the Polahi people were a community of refugees from villages to the forests and mountains to avoid taxes. It is possible that Polahi people is a trace of the ancient humans who were the forerunners of the modern Gorontalo people today. This is based on the history of the Indonesian archipelago which began with the Proto-Malay humans. The Proto-Malay who inhabited the archipelago continued to move nomadically, forming small ethnic groups in different regions. In its development, he became the ancestors of the Dayak, Toraja, Batak, and several other ethnic groups in the archipelago. If initially it was believed that Polahi people was the one who ran away from the village to the forest, this could not be proven. It is suspected that linguistically the origin of the word "Polahi" is polaheyi or 'come down'. The intention is to leave behind the traditional (nomadic) way of life and move towards a more civilized way of life in society.^[7]

Living in isolation while in the interior of the forest makes the Polahi people unreachable by social ethics, education, and religion. The Polahi descendants are a very marginalized society and are not familiar with the general social order. They also do not know how to read and write and still adhere to native beliefs.^[3]

The language used daily is the Polahi dialect of Gorontalo language. The Polahi people lives by farming in a rudimentary way and hunting animals such as wild boar, deer and pythons. Some of them also do not know how to wear clothes like Indonesian people in general, they only wear genital coverings made from palm leaves and tree bark. However, nowadays, some of them have adopted modern clothing. The Polahi people's house is very simple, has no walls, the kitchen is built in the middle, and also functions as body warmer. They also do not attend school and enjoy modern health facilities. To get to the Polahi people, it takes about 7 hours on foot up the mountain from the center of Gorontalo City.^[3]

The Polahi people are very backward, not only because of their remoteness and lack of formal education, even in the Polahi culture, they do not know how to count and do not know the names of the days in the calendar. Several researchers managed to meet the Polahi people when they came down from the mountain, the maximum number that could be counted was four, the rest is 'many'. Previously, the Polahi people only knew two numbers, namely one to four and 'many'.

The Polahi people live in small groups in the interior of the Gorontalo forest, they recognize three Gods in their beliefs. These three gods are Pulohuta, Lati, and Lausala.^[8]

Pulohuta is depicted as a living figure who has power over the land, a concept that originates from ancestors. Pulohuta is a husband and wife. If the Polahi people want to clear land in the forest, they will ask Pulohuta for permission first.^[8] Apart from holding power over the land, Pulohuta also holds power over the animals in the forest. The Polahi people's form of respect for Pulohuta is if they get game animals, certain parts of the animal's body are sliced, such as the ears, mouth, and tongue, then placed on a tree stump to be offered to Pulohuta.

Lati is depicted as a living creature that inhabits large trees and waterfalls. Her body size is depicted as small, the size of a doll in large numbers. Lati is the holder of power over trees. They cast a spell with the aim of telling Lati to move to another tree.^[8]

Lausala in Polahi's narrative is like a superhuman character. He is an antagonist who is depicted as a figure who thirsts for blood. It turns out that Lausala is not only described as a male character, because there is also an old woman who is referred to as Lausala. The Polahi people created several images to convince people that Lausala really existed. The Polahi people believe that Lausala has red eyes, carries a flaming sword and can move quickly from one hill to another. According to the Polahi people, if a dog barks, it is a sign of the presence of Lausala.^[8]

The Polahi people lives a nomadic life, they live in simple wooden huts so that they are easy to leave.^[9] When a Polahi family member dies, they will be buried in that place, then they will leave that place. Family members move to find a new location again, bringing cooking utensils, clothes, plates, glasses, and other usable items.

A deep fear of corpses is what causes the Polahi people to leave their homes.^[9] The Polahi people often moved from place to place, then built new huts. With this lifestyle, the Polahi people only communicate with each other within their group. This then gave birth to the tradition of consanguineous marriage or marriage between siblings.^[9]

Mating with siblings has become commonplace in the Polahi people. For example, the elder in one of the Polahi groups, namely "Group 9", is a grandfather with three siblings, the other two siblings are girls. The grandfather married both of his siblings at once, one wife had no children, while the other had six children, two boys, and four girls. Then his son married his daughter again, so that her daughter also became his son-in-law. Even though they live in isolation and have different traditions from society in general, the Polahi people are relatively open to people outside their circle.^[10]

The Polahi people has unique habits, including the Polahi people who only eat once a day. They only eat once, namely in the afternoon at 5 pm, just before the Maghrib prayer according to the Islam belief. They consume tubers that they grow themselves and are not accustomed to eating rice like the general public. The Polahi people only cultivates tubers, papaya, and bananas.^[9]

Most of the Polahi people still adhere to native beliefs. However, nowadays, they are starting to be open to the arrival of religions from outside, especially Islam. Islam is the religion practiced by the majority of people around the Polahi people, namely the Gorontalo people.

On 11 June 2018, 25 Polahi people from the Bakiki Nani descendant group declared their conversion to Islam, they recited the two sentences of the shahada at Udin Mole's house in Pilomuluta hamlet in Tolangohuta district. They were initially guided by Udin Mole who met them in the forest and told them to go down the mountain to meet his leader, Bakiki Nani.^[2]

• Uncontacted peoples
• Gorontalo people
• Boliyohuto