Kawaj XII — the “Kawé of Twelve” — was the federation of twelve gold-seeker settlements in the highlands between Beutông and Keumala Dalam (in the onderafdeeling Sigli), whose chiefs paid an annual boengkaj of gold dust to the Sultan of Atjeh’s keudjeuroeën mas (gold customs-collector), and whose depopulation — the result of the decline of the gold workings and the cholera epidemic of 1878 — led to its dissolution and partition in 1914. De Buitenbezittingen treats the Kawaj XII as the parallel, on the Pedir highlands, of the Kawaj XVI federation of the Westkust under the Keudjeuroeën Tjhï’ of Meulabôh: both were Sultan-derived federations of gold-producing settlements that the Dutch encountered as already-decaying institutions at the time of their arrival.
Origins and the keudjeuroeën mas
The Kawaj XII, De Buitenbezittingen records, consisted of settlements of gold-seekers from Pedir and Groot-Atjeh, who had established themselves in the mountainous country between Beutông and Keumala Dalam. Over the keudjeuroeëns of these settlements, the Sultan of Atjeh appointed a keudjeuroeën mas — a “gold keudjeuroeën,” that is, a collector of gold — as Keudjeuroeën Tjhï’, who was required to collect annually from each of the twelve keudjeuroeëns a boengkaj (lump) of gold dust for the Sultan. The keudjeuroeën mas also held the power to appoint the heads of the twelve settlements, “waardoor hij ten slotte aan bestuursrechten over het heele gebied verkreeg” — by which he finally acquired administrative rights over the whole territory.
Decline and depopulation
The sterk afnemende goudrijkdom — sharply declining gold wealth — of the Kawaj XII led to the great trek of gold-seekers to the Westkust, where the gold workings of the upper Kr. Geumpang (the Kawaj XII of the Westkust, not to be confused with the Pedir Kawaj XII) attracted the displaced miners. The hevige cholera-epidemie of 1878 — the same epidemic that depopulated many of the gold districts of northern Sumatra — completed the depopulation of the once-important region. By 1911 the geregistreerden (registered inhabitants) of the Kawaj XII numbered fewer than a thousand.
Dissolution in 1914
On the grounds of the very small remaining population, the Dutch administration in 1914 brought an end to the independent existence of the twelve-membered landschapje by dividing it between the onderafdeelingen of Sigli and Meulabôh. At Sigli were joined: 1. Keumala Dalam, united with Keumala Raja to form the II Moekims Keumala; 2/3. Tangsé with Beunga; 4/5. Geumpang with Lamjeuë. At Meulabôh were joined: 6/7. Anoë with Pameuë; 8. Reunggeuët, attached to the Kawaj XVI; 9/10. Toengkób with Ara. The territories of the two remaining keudjeuroeëns of the twelve could no longer be identified with certainty.
Significance
The Kawaj XII of the Pedir highlands — like the Kawaj XVI of the Westkust — was a fossil of the Sultanate’s apparatus of extraction, an institution whose constitutional significance had long since been hollowed out by the decay of its economic basis. Its dissolution in 1914 was a typical act of the colonial administrative rationalisation that consolidated the Gouvernement’s territorial structure.
Sources
De Rijkdom van Atjeh, uitgegeven door het Atjeh-Instituut, Amsterdam, 1923. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-110-De_rijkdom_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, p. 8.
See Also
- Kawaj XVI
- Sultans of Atjeh
- Keudjeuroeën
- Pedir
- Sigli
- Meulabôh
- Beutông
- Goudberg
- 1878
- 1914
- Pidië
- Meulaboh
- Tapa Toean
- Westkust
- Prang Rawa
- Pepercultuur
- Perak
- Sultanate of Aceh
- De Rijkdom van Atjeh (1923)
- 1645
- 17th-century
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. 55–57.