Tobelo people are divided into several sub-ethnic groups namely, Dodinga people, Boeng people, Kao people and so on. The total population of the people are about 85,000. The huge influence on the Tobelo people was rendered by the Ternate people, since in the 15th-19th century entered the Sultanate of Ternate. Tobelo people also dominated such small peoples of the interior of northern Halmahera as Pagu people, Tabaru people and etc. Tobelo people has high migration mobility, but mainly their settlements are located along the coastline. Ground skeleton-stilted houses are built from bamboo, and the roofing is made of leaves of sago palms or roof shingle. The tribes of Forest Tobelo people stand out. The tribes of Forest Tobelo people live in the forests in the depths of the island of Halmahera, settling near the river valleys. Often they are referred to as Togutil people. The number reaches about 3,000 people. In the early 1980s, they still led a nomadic way of life, lived, mainly by hunting, stealing and growing sago. From time to time they used small fields, where basically, they grew bananas, cassava, fruits and coconuts by slash-and-burn method of agriculture. Monetary income are derived from the sale of forest products, sometimes new settlers hire them as wood timbers to clear jungle areas for farming.
Language
Among the Tobelo people, they speak Indonesian, Ternate, and also Tobelo, which has several dialects such as gamsung, dodinga and boeng.
Religion
The religious affiliation of the majority is Christian Reformer, while the minorities are Sunni Muslims. On the everyday life, traditional beliefs exert a strong influence. The process of adopting Christianity among the forest Tobelo people living in the northeast of Halmahera was very lengthy and complex. Only after decades of resistance, namely in the late 1980s, did they begin to profess the Bible. However, the version of Christianity that they chose was not the one that was preached to them by the Tobelo language-speaking societies of which they maintain family and marriage ties with, but the one that was brought to this region by American missionaries. In 1999-2001, the region was engulfed by religious-ethnic violence. The end of the conflict between Muslims and Christians was laid in April 2001, when a peaceful ceremony was held in the hope that the religious conflict that had frozen the island of Halmahera would not happen again. The ceremony consisted of the adat ritual and vowing that both sides of the conflict, Muslims and Christians, will respect each other's rights and will forever renounce violence. This ceremony was more than just a cultural manifestation. It symbolized the majority decision in the province of North Maluku to recognize adat as a guarantor of social unity and harmony in the region. Prior to this, the local government informed senior government officials and other political leaders that if they could not change the situation for a better life and facilitate the return to the region of forced relocating, then the capital of the new district of North Halmahera Regency would be another city, no longer as Tobelo. It was necessary to do something, and several leaders of influential associations decided that adat is the best solution. They believed that the resurrection of adat would change the point of identification of people from their religion to their Tobelo ethnic identity.
Culture
Song and dance folklore are the most common form of folk art. Marriage is patrilocal. Also for Tobelo people, as well as for many other people group of traditional society, the bilaterality of kinship is inherent. Economic strength plays an important role in marriage dowry, when determining the size of which gives a comparative estimate of the annual incomes of the households of the marriages, and also determines the amount of financial claims made to the groom's side. In the documentary Dirk Nilanda's "Tobelo Marriage", it is shown in detail how much the women's work is invested in the preparation of a wedding feast; such as weaving, preparing a "rice slide" festive dish, a special refined table in the form of a canoe, which all of this indicates the importance of the ceremony for both parties. Women demonstrate "women's wealth", in a way which is very similar to the Trobriand Islandsbarter. Their dancing with a bushcraft knife in their hand indicates that women play an important role in the proceedings. After this comes the time of the celebration itself, which includes feasting, dancing and performing traditional songs. All this looks very exciting and speaks about the beauty and importance of the marital union being concluded. In the case of incest, a special ceremony of rupturing the hereditary line takes place, during which, it is believed by sending the Tobelo couple floating or drowning into the river is done in order to prevent floods.
Clothings
Earlier, they wore bandages from Tapa cloth, but then they were replaced by common clothes and of European style.
Dietary
The main food products are raw, dried and salted fish, as well as vegetable based foods. Dishes from rice, usually, are not basic, but are prepared on holidays.
Traditional activities
The most common occupations are fishing, fishery and manual farming. Also, the production of sago among the Kao and Boeng speakers.
In popular culture
In 1982, in the Netherlands, in the town of Leiden, a film "Tobelo Marriage" was shot by the director Dirk Niland. The film allows one to look at the remote islander society, little known even to most Indonesians. The strengths of this work are its clarity, the research base and the provision of important information about this little-known people.
