Tambar Ni Hulit: An ancient medical manuscript in North Sumatera

Abstract

Tambar ni hulit, which means skin medicine in the Simalungun language, is the title of an old manuscript belonging to the Simalungun tribe. This manuscript is written on laklak material containing medicine information for various diseases. Moreover, this manuscript is relatively rare and written in characters and language that are no longer commonly used. The purpose of this study is to inventory, describe, transliterate, and translate the interpretation of the Tambar Ni Hulit contents. Tambar Ni Hulit is one of the results in searching for old manuscripts in various places in North Sumatra, like museums, libraries, and private collections. The inventory, description, transliteration, and translation were carried out by applying the philological method and content analysis was done to review the content. The result of the inventory described the information of the storage location of Tambar Ni Hulit, namely the North Sumatra Museum. The description analysis described the physical state of the manuscript. From the transliteration and translation results, it is concluded that the Tambar Ni Hulit contains various disease information accompanied by the ingredients of their respective medicine and treatment methods with incantations during the treatment.