'King of Apes' rebuilding his monkey kingdom in the jungle

'King of Apes' rebuilding his monkey kingdom in the jungle

MEDAN, North Sumatra (Antara): Umar Manik is the King of Apes. He can't be separated from primates. He loves them all and they love him.

Umar, 40, a father of six children, said he had more than 1,000 monkey friends in the Sibatuloting forest reserve, Simalungun, North Sumatra.

Umar, who used to live in the jungle cut off from any outside contact, opened the gate to his "monkey kingdom" in the early 1990s. It was situated in a strategic location, on the roadside heading toward Parapat, a holiday resort in the province. This new tourist spot soon attracted both local and foreign visitors eager to see the monkeys and play with them.

Their coming was a blessing for both the monkeys and the "king". Contributions from the visitors were enough to buy food for the monkeys. Umar and his family also benefited from the new business. By selling food and drink to the tourists, they could make both ends meet and send the children to school. Their eldest child is in senior high school in Parapat, and the second eldest is in a technical high school in Medan.

"Even though I am an uneducated man, all of my children must go to school," Umar said.

His youngest child, the only girl, is seven months old.

Umar has had a close relationship with monkeys since he was very young. During his childhood, he often played with them because he did not live far from their habitat. His family lived in a kampong on the shores of Lake Toba.

After his marriage, he moved from one place to another, until he settled at the Sibatuloting forest.

Umar then "renewed" his relationship with the monkeys. A lot of monkeys from other forests in North Sumatra came to stay with him in the forest. From day to day, more and more monkeys followed him. Umar estimated that there were about 1,000 of them.

Umar was happy with his new friends, but he also worried because there was not enough food for them. This motivated Umar to open the "kingdom" to the public, allowing people to come to play with the monkeys. The

"At the beginning, I never had the idea that this area would become a tourist site. News about this place spread by word-of- mouth, attracting not only local tourists, but also foreign visitors," he said.

Head of the provincial electricity company (PLN), Budi Harjanto, supported the project, providing the tourist spot with free electricity.

But things did not run well all the time. Last year, the Simalungun tourist agency kicked Umar out of the area and took over the management of the site. The electricity company then canceled its facilities.

As for the monkeys, life was never the same without Umar's presence. As they started missing the "king", they left Sibatuloting forest and returned to their former habitats in the North Sumatra jungles.

The monkeys kept leaving and fewer tourists came. A year had passed when the agency finally gave up. Recently, the agency asked Umar to rebuild the monkey kingdom.

"The Simalungun tourist agency has asked me to manage this location again," Umar said.

He said the government would not collect any levies from the tourists. "Visitors are asked to contribute a little money to help buy food for the monkeys," he said.

Umar is now trying to regather his friends in the Sibatuloting forest. He blows a buffalo horn occasionally to call his friends and invite them to come to the forest.

They have started to return. The number of monkeys and apes is not as big as it used to be, but there are many, and the species also varies, from beruk (Macaca nemestrina) and siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) to orangutans.

Umar said he is just an ordinary man. He said he does not have special powers to control the monkeys and apes. He has a star tattooed on his left cheek and he used to have long hair -- his hair reached his knees -- which he cut after his daughter was born. He said he had promised not to cut the hair before he had a daughter.

The tattoo and the long hair, of course, had nothing to do with the monkeys and apes. It is his love for the primates which attracts them. It is the same love which has become the foundation of his monkey kingdom.

"I have to start from the beginning, to reopen the tourist site," he said.

One of the biggest problems, he said, is the lack of electricity. "I do hope that the state electricity company will provide us with this facility again."