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North Tapanuli Regency

regency in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ5863 ↗
Source-derived summary

North Tapanuli Regency (Tapanuli Utara - in Indonesian, "Utara" means "North") is a landlocked regency in North Sumatra province, Sumatra, Indonesia. Its capital is Tarutung. The regency covers an area of 3,793.71 square kilometers and it had a population of 278,897 at the 2010 Census and 312,758 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as of mid 2025 was 333,690 (comprising 165,309 males and 168,381 females).

Administrative districts

The regency is divided into fifteen districts (kecamatan), tabulated below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census and the 2020 Census, together with the official estimates as of mid 2025. The table also includes the locations of the district administrative centres, the number of administrative villages in each district (totalling 241 rural desa and 11 urban kelurahan), and its postcode.

Note: (a) including 7 of the urban kelurahan of the district's 11 kelurahan. (b) except for the two desa of Jambur Nauli and Sihujur, which have the postcode of 22452. (c) Muara District is a northern near-exclave of the regency, mainly situated on the southern shore of Lake Toba and connected to Siborongborong District by a narrow strip of land. It includes the island of Pulau Sibandang (12 km2 in area, with 2,357 inhabitants in 2020), which is situated in the lake.

Soda Pond

Soda Pond, or Aek Rara / Air Soda is located at the bottom of Parbubu I Hill village.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “North Tapanuli Regency” as regency in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around North, Tapanuli and Regency.

Editorial reviewA strong orientation record where physical form, institutional use and historical geography need to be read together. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2010, 2020, 2025—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with North, Tapanuli and Regency providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “North Tapanuli Regency”, the useful work is to connect “regency in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5863. VIAF identifies the subject as 147772415. The Library of Congress control number is n82126565. Authority coordinates are 2.003, 99.071. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2010, 2020 and 2025.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “North Tapanuli Regency”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow North Tapanuli Regency primary sources, North Tapanuli Regency archive and North research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “North Tapanuli Regency”?
  2. Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
  3. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “North Tapanuli Regency” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.