Bakara was the place in the Batak country of the Tobameer whose “wonderbron” — miraculous spring — became for a time a mass resort of native bathers, and whose sanitary levy indirectly financed Dr. J. Tijssen’s trachoma campaign of 1933.
The episode
Tijssen recounted that some years before, when the malaise threatened the taxi drivers in their livelihood, some of those shrewd gentlemen discovered a miraculous spring that offered healing against all diseases. The spring was very remote, and the conveyance of the thousands of native bathers yielded the drivers, “in dit land zonder spoorwegen,” a good plate of rice. “Meer dan honderdduizend menschen brachten zij in korten tijd naar de gezegende plek.” — More than a hundred thousand people they brought in a short time to the blessed spot.
No controlled cure took place, and several dysentery epidemics were traced back in their origin to “de heilige bron van Bakara.”
The levy
To conjure away the great hygienic dangers of the busy visiting and the accumulation of so many people, the administration had to take some sanitary precautions and levied for that purpose a contribution of ten cents per bather. “Van dit geld bleven eenige duizenden guldens over en daaruit steunde nu het bestuur mijn werk.” — Of this money some thousands of guilders remained over, and out of that the administration now supported my work.
This was the answer to the problem Tijssen had set himself: he came as a stranger among people who had no money and who suspected nothing so much as what was offered for nothing, and yet “ik kon er werken voor niets.”
Afterwards
“Bakara is thans weer rustig; de huizen daar gebouwd staan waardeloos en zonder doel. Men wijst elkander de plek als curiosum.” — Bakara is now quiet again; the houses built there stand worthless and without purpose. People point out the spot to one another as a curiosity.
See Also
- Trachoma campaign on Samosir (1933)
- J. Tijssen
- Samosir
- Toba Lake
- Malaise
- Een strijd in Atjeh (1934)
- 1933
Source
Een strijd in Atjeh (Een oogarts op het oorlogspad), door Mr. C. Graadt van Roggen, met een voorrede van den heer H. Wanting, redacteur Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant (Rotterdam: N.V. Drukkerij Korteweg, uitgave van de Vereeniging „SIMAVI”, 1934), pp. 12–13.
Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Een strijd in Atjeh (Een oogarts op het oorlogspad) by Mr. C. Graadt van Roggen (Rotterdam: N.V. Drukkerij Korteweg for the Vereeniging „SIMAVI”, 1934). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.