Bawar is the Gayo term for the ornamenten van waardigheid — the insignia of chieftaincy — that the Sultan of Atjeh was said to have bestowed on Saëda, the legendary progenitor of the Kédjoerön Boekét line, and that constituted the physical embodiment of the Kédjoerön’s authority. De Buitenbezittingen treats the bawar as the constitutional touchstone of the Gayo chieftaincy: the principle that “wie de bawar heeft, ook kédjoerön is” — whoever holds the bawar is the Kédjoerön — defines the law of succession in the Boekét territory and shapes its political history.
The five bawar
The legend of Saëda — followed by De Buitenbezittingen as “de minst onbetrouwbare” of the competing Boekét traditions — records that the Sultan of Atjeh raised Saëda to the dignity of Rédjë Boekét and “gaf hem daarbij als teekenen zijner waardigheid een vijftal ornamenten (bawar)” — gave him at the same time, as marks of his dignity, a set of five ornaments (bawar). The most important of these was the keris kepala soeasa — the gold-headed kris — whose possession or loss would, in the subsequent history of the Boekét house, determine the constitutional standing of the rival lineages.
The Ménèt seizure
The constitutional crisis of the Boekét house arose when Ménèt, the stepson of Saëda, contrived by a list — a stratagem — to seize the keris kepala soeasa from Mérah Lama, Saëda’s son by his second Acehnese wife, who had been installed as Kédjoerön Boekét in possession of the bawar. By the Gayo principle that “wie de bawar heeft, ook kédjoerön is,” Ménèt claimed the dignity of Kédjoerön. The dispute persisted until Ménèt’s refusal to pay the haol (tribute) due to the Sultan of Atjeh provoked the prang toedjéh tahoen — the War of Ten Years — which ended with the capture of many rédjë’s of the Meerstreek by the Acehnese. The ransom demanded for these chiefs included the surrender of the keris kepala soeasa; Ménèt, forced to comply, lost the principal bawar and, with it, his effective claim to the Kédjoerön title.
The Panglima Dagang recovery
The resolution came from Panglima Dagang, Saëda’s younger son by his second wife, who had settled in Meureudoe. Hearing of the matter, he returned to the Meerstreek and demanded from Mérah Lama the remaining bawar; he then succeeded in buying back the captured kris from the Atjehsche aanvoerder (Acehnese commander), thus reuniting all the bawar in one hand. He settled at Seroelë and assumed the title Kédjoerön Boekét. Ménèt’s forfeiture was complete. The descendants of Panglima Dagang — the Boekét Lah lineage — held the office of Kédjoerön Boekét thereafter; the descendants of Ménèt — the Boekét Ewéh — nevertheless continued to use the title and to exercise many of its functions.
Constitutional significance
The bawar principle — that the physical regalia constitute the title, not the descent — is the distinctive constitutional feature of the Gayo chieftaincy. It allowed the bawar to be transferred, pawned, or seized in ways that a purely genealogical title could not, and it gave to the keris kepala soeasa a constitutional weight that the Dutch, when they extended recognition to the Boekét Lah line, were careful to respect.
See Also
- Saëda (Gayo progenitor)
- Panglima Dagang
- Ménèt
- Kédjoerön Boekét
- Prang toedjéh tahoen
- Gajoland
- Sultans of Atjeh
- Keris kepala soeasa
Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu
Stabbing weapon with a peculiarly curved blade in a long sheath, given by the Sultan of Aceh to Radja Kemala of Alaslanden as a sign of good relations. Possession was highly prized and elevated the possessor in the eyes of the people.
Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 97.
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 96–98. Citing C. Snouck Hurgronje, Het Gajoland, pp. 170–191.
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. 97.