North Sumatra is a province in Sumatra, Indonesia's most northwesterly island. Bukit Lawang is a village in North Sumatra.
Despite its name it is not the most northerly province in Sumatra. That honour falls to Aceh, which forms the entire northern border of North Sumatra. The two provinces to the south of North Sumatra, are West Sumatra in the central west of Sumatra, and Riau, in its central east.
This map shows the location of North Sumatra. The large island to the west, part of North Sumatra province, is Nias, culturally quite distinct from the rest of Sumatra.
About 75,000 years ago. the Toba supervolcano erupted, being the most recent supervolcano eruption in Earth's history. It is believed to have had a dramatic effect on the Earth and human history. Today Toba is a tranquil place, known as the world's largest volcanic lake, and one of the main tourist sites in North Sumatra.
The indigenous populations of North Sumatra are the Batak, Nias, and Malay peoples. The 'Batak', a blanket term for a related group of distinct tribes for whom geography largely separated them from the influences of Islam in the east (from the strait of Malacca) and north (the kingdom of Aceh), came under Dutch control between the mid-19th and early 20th cenutries, long after the Dutch first established their interests in Java.
In the southern Batak lands, the early-19th century Padri war with the Minangkabau to the south, led the Mandailing Batak to convert to Islam. The other Batak tribes mostly converted to Christianity as a result of Dutch and German missionary work from the mid-19th century onwards.
'North' Sumatra is the most northern part of Sumatra, as distinguished from the long separate kingdom of Aceh, which was only finally conquered by the Dutch Indies in 1913.
The east coast of Sumatra had the greatest influence from outsiders, with the Acehnese establishing kingdoms in Deli, Langkat and Serdang, all in western Sumatra. These flat, fertile lands were taken over by the Dutch in the mid-19th Century, and from about 1870 Chinese 'coolie' workers were brought in to work on the tobacco plantations. Subsequently, due to a shortage of Chinese labour, Javanese workers were imported, and they worked on plantations including tea, rubber, palm oil, tobacco and coffee. By 1929 there were 250,000 Javanese labourers in the Deli area as well as 25,000 Chinese.
Deli is now Medan, North Sumatra's largest city, and the location of its only international airport, and its ethnic makeup largely reflects its plantation history. The largest group is the Javanese, who have migrated from overpopulated Java, while the Chinese dominate the city's commercial interests. Malay, Batak and Minang people are present for current and historical economc reasons.