North Tapanuli Regency (''Tapanuli Utara'' - in Indonesian, "utara" means "north") is a landlocked regency in
North Sumatra
North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java ...
province,
Sumatra,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. Its capital is
Tarutung. The regency covers an area of 3,793.71 square kilometres and it had a population of 278,897 at the 2010 Census and 312,758 at the 2020 Census.
[Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021.]
Administrative districts
The regency is divided into fifteen
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
s (''kecamatan''), tabulated below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census
[Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011.] and the 2020 Census.
[Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021.] The table also includes the location of the district administrative centres, the number of administrative villages (totalling 241 rural ''desa'' and 11 urban ''kelurahan'') in each district and its post code.
Note: (a) including 7 of the urban ''kelurahan'' of the district's 11 ''kelurahan''.
Soda Pond

Soda Pond, or ''Aek Rara'' is located at the bottom of Parbubu I Hill village. The pond's natural spring water generates bubbles and a soda aroma can be smelled. It is safe for swimming, but the use of googles is recommended. The locals regularly use the water from the pond to water nearby rice paddy fields.
References
Batak
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