Long carved panels known as pandilati or sometimes dila paung, were placed in the roof gable of the ancestral house. The term dila means tongue and pandilati represented the tongue of the living house. The Batak believed that an extended tongue could ward off evil spirits. This type of pandilati panel would have been hung on the inner part of the house gable. Kite shaped pandilati on the other hand would be hung on the outer edge of the gable near the top. This example is unusual in its simplicity and clean lines.
