THE ROLE OF DALIAN NA TOLU IN MAINTAINING RELIGIOUS HARMONY AND COHESION IN HUTA DOLOK VILLAGE, MANDAILING NATAL

This research aimed to describe the portrait of religious harmony and the approach adopted by Muslims and Christians in Huta Dolok Village in nurturing a harmonious relationship through the traditional system of Dalian Na Tolu as a pluralist society. This study employed a descriptive-qualitative approach with data collection techniques involving observation, interviews, and documentation. Miles and Huberman's interactive analysis model was used as the data analysis technique. The results of the study showed that the effort to maintain the interreligious harmony in Huta Dolok Village has so far been carried out by the Muslim-Christian community through the Dalian Na Tolu approach, which constitutes a kinship system in the Mandailing custom consisting of three elements, namely Mora, Kahanggi and Anak Boru. The result also indicated that the efforts to nurture the harmonious Muslim-Christian relationship have been carried out by the residents of Huta Dolok Village by prioritizing four aspects, namely (a) the relationship in the social aspects, (b) the relationship in the economic aspects, (c) the relationship in the costumary aspects, and (d) the relationship in the socio-religious aspects