Lam, Tjot, Glé, Boekit, Kroeng, Aloer, Pagar, market, mosque, Balei, Binasa and ravine were the principal Achehnese, Malay and Dutch topographic prefixes and elements used in the place-names of the Groot-Atjeh theatre of operations described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96. The prefix Lam- denoted a village near water (e.g., Lam Soet, Lam Barih, Lam Koenjit); Tjot- / Acehnese denoted a hill (e.g., Tjot Goeë, Tjot Rang, Tjot Tjako); Glé- / Acehnese denoted a hill or mountain (e.g., Glé Taroempas, Glé Broeë); Bt. / Malay/Acehnese denoted a hill; Kroeng- / Kroečng / Acehnese denoted a river (e.g., Kroeng Raba, Kroeng Gloempang, Kroeng-Kali); Aloer- denoted a stream or creek; Pagar denoted a fence, often a living fence of thorny plants (levende pagars); Pasar / Passer denoted a market; Masdjid / Missigit denoted a mosque (and a versterkte masdjid a fortified mosque); Balei denoted a hall or building; literally “destruction”, “ruined” was used as a prefix for fortifications; Dutch denoted a valley or gorge.
Etymology and Meaning
The Achehnese/Malay/Dutch topographic vocabulary is largely descriptive. Lam- is Acehnese for “village near water” or “place at the mouth of a river” — the prefix is attached to a water-feature name (as in Lam Soet, where Soet denotes a stream). Tjot- / Cot- is Acehnese for “hill” — cognate with Malay choot / chot. Glé- / Geulé- is Acehnese for “hill” or “mountain”, often applied to larger eminences than tjot. Bt. is the Dutch abbreviation for Malay/Acehnese for “hill”, from Sanskrit bhūmi “earth” or parvata “mountain”, via phonological adaptation; the full form is Boekit. Kroeng- / Kroečng / Krueng is Acehnese for “river” — the OCR variants reflect the difficulty of rendering the Acehnese velar nasal in Dutch orthography. Aloer- is Malay for “stream”, “creek” (from alir, “to flow”). Pagar is Malay for “fence” — often a living fence of thorny plants (levende pagars). Pasar / Passer is Malay/Indonesian for “market” (from Persian bāzār). Masdjid / Missigit are Acehnese/Dutch renderings of Arabic mosque; Missigit is the older Dutch-Indies spelling. Balei is Malay for “hall”, “building” (from Portuguese baleare? or Sanskrit). Binasa is Malay for “destruction”, “ruined” — used as a prefix for e.g., Koeta Binasa Baroe = “New Ruined Fort”. Kloof is Dutch for “cleft”, “gorge”, “valley” — a non-Acehnese term used by the Dutch to describe the deep ravines that characterised the inland topography.
Historical Context
In the first semester of 1896 the topographic prefixes were the indispensable key to the map of Groot-Atjeh. The Lam- villages — Lam Soet, Lam Barih, Lam Koenjit, Lam Goet, Lam-Pisang — were the principal sites of the buitenlinie and the principal targets of Achehnese attack. The Tjot- hills — Tjot Goeë, Tjot Rang, Tjot Tjigari, Tjot Tjako, Tjot Pliet — were the high-ground features that dominated the sawah and the raised paths. The Glé- mountains — Glé Taroempas, Glé Broeë — were the larger eminences of the inland ranges. The Kroeng- rivers — Kroeng Raba, Kroeng Gloempang, Kroeng-Kali, Kroeng Daroe — were the water features that defined the line of march and the position of defensive works. The Aloer- streams — Aloer Oe — were the smaller watercourses. The levende pagars — living fences of thorny plants — were Achehnese defensive features around kampongs. The pasar of Lamkoenjit was the great market of the IX Moekims. The masdjid — including the fortified mosque — was the religious and often defensive centre of each moekim.
Examples in the Source
Kruisheer’s principal topographic-prefix references include: Lam- — Lam Soet, Lam Barih, Lam Koenjit, Lam Goet, Lam-Pisang, Lam Tengah, Lam Manjang, Lam Djampoe, Lam-Rebo. Tjot- — Tjot Goeë, Tjot Rang, Tjot Tjigari, Tjot Tjako, Tjot Pliet, Tjot Manjang, Tjot Bas Tjoe, Tjot Preh. Glé- — Glé Taroempas, Glé Broeë. Bt. — Bt. Kesoemba. Kroeng- — Kroeng Raba, Kroeng Gloempang, Kroeng-Kali, Kroeng Daroe, Kroeng Lingkar, Kroeng Doi, Kroeng Ning. Aloer- — the blokhuis besieged 28 March–29 March 1896. Pagar — living fences. Pasar / Passer — the great pasar of Lamkoenjit. Masdjid / Missigit — the fortified mosque; Masdjid Lamdjampoe, Masdjid Ateuh, Masdjid Oleh-Soesoe, Masdjid Siem. Balei — hall/building. Binasa — “New Ruined Fort”. Kloof — the deep ravines that characterised the inland topography.
Significance
The Achehnese topographic prefixes are the indispensable key to the map of Groot-Atjeh and to the tactical problem of the Aceh War. A Dutch column marching on a Lam- village knew it would encounter water — a stream, a river, a flooded sawah — and that the village would be defined by that water feature. A column approaching a Tjot- or Glé- knew it would encounter high ground held by Achehnese defenders. A column crossing a Kroeng- knew it would encounter a river crossing, often a defended bridge or ford. The levende pagars — living fences of thorny plants — were Achehnese defensive features that impeded Dutch infantry and channelled them into killing grounds. The masdjid — particularly the versterkte masdjid — was the religious and defensive centre of each moekim, often the last strongpoint of Achehnese resistance. The survival of these prefixes in modern Acehnese and Indonesian place-names testifies to their enduring descriptive power.
Account from Het recht op den grond in Atjeh (D. W. N. de Boer, 1931) — glé and pageue in the law of land
Two of these topographic terms carried a technical legal sense in the customary law of the soil described by D. W. N. de Boer.
Glé and toenong — the uplands
Besides its topographic meaning of hill or mountain, glé denoted the upland districts of a landschap, synonymously with toenong: “de toenong of glé, d.z. de bovenstreken (het hoogland) van zijn gebied” — the upper districts, the highland, of his territory. Economically calculating as he was, an oeléëbalang would often exempt colonists in particular districts from the haq thiplah-tano obligation for their first three years, precisely in order to attract immigration into his glé; the radja taléë, however, was still collected at the first harvest.
The same word named one of the sovereign levies of the oeléëbalangs: the adat glé, the composite tax on cultivation carried on outside the gampong boundaries — that is, in the forest and in the mountains. It comprised a levy on wet rice fields identical with the boeët oemòng charged within the village; the padi lintjah (also padi tadjoë, “dibbled padi”) on dry fields, at two naleh of padi per hippaang padi; and the thiploeëh-tha — literally “one of the ten” — the tithe of the crop on gardens, a levy found elsewhere in the Archipelago as well, for instance in Bali. All were abolished by article 15 sub I of Staatsblad 1919 No. 822, the chiefs receiving a fixed civiele lijst in compensation.
Pageue — the fence as act of appropriation and as evidence
The pagar of the general vocabulary is the Atjehnese pageue, which in the law of land marked the completion of an occupation. Occupation of waste ground was announced first by planting ordinary stakes at the corners of the terrain and joining them by a rintisan (boundary path), and in a further stage by complete enclosure, the pageue. Its remains afterwards served as proof: a claimant asserting earlier use of ground fit only for a garden or ladang had to point, with his witnesses, either to trees or shrubs surviving from an earlier crop or to the remnants of a former pageue. Where no such remains could be discerned and only a single isolated tree stood — by preference a fruit tree such as a doerian or manggistan — the claimant could formerly invoke the haq thilangkob, the right of the felling-length, extending his claim to a circle about the tree with the tree’s own height as radius. That right, De Boer recorded, no longer occurred in his own day; he noted it only because the recording of “antiquities of customary law” could serve the comparative study of the adat law of other regions. The pageue was also a cost item in garden mawaih contracts, the party supplying the land furnishing the material and labour for its erection.
See Also
- Achehnese geographical terms
- Mukim
- Koeta
- Masdjid
- Heilig graf
- Kampong
- Tuchtiging
- Battle of Senelop (17 April 1896)
- Three-day Dutch offensive of 23–25 May 1896
- Adat glé
- Pageue
- Haq thilangkob
- Toenong
- Het recht op den grond in Atjeh (De Boer)
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Market. Sigli’s pasar is one of the busiest in the gewest. Beureunoen has a Saturday vee-pasar (cattle market). Bireuën also has Saturday pasar with vee-pasarMarket in towns likeTakengon, Idi, Lho’Seumawé.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 43, 58, 64, 69, 78, 88.
Source
ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 21, 27, 40–41, 51, 56, 71, 74, 81, 87, 89, 103, 105–106, 110–111, 144, 220, 230–231, 241, 244, 316, 322.
Het recht op den grond in Atjeh (“The Right to the Soil in Atjeh”), by D. W. N. de Boer, dated Scheveningen, November 1931, pp. 59-80. Offprint DLP-141, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, ‘s-Gravenhage; Bibliotheek KITLV accession 0060 4460 60 081470 428.
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 43, 58, 64, 69, 78, 88.