Resin (Aceh)

Properties2
tagsconcept, forest-product, acehnese, colonial, export-crop, resin, commodity, terpentijn, aceh, baleq, pinus-merkusii, 20th-century, chemical-product, batik-industry
aliasesDamar, Resin, Hars, Atjeh resin, Atjeh damar, Colophonium, colophony, dennenhars, pine resin, Baleq resin

5 min read

Resin (Aceh) (Dutch: hars, collectively called damar) encompassed the various natural resins and balsams collected from the rainforests (Dutch: oerwouden) of the residency of Atjeh in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and exported as one of the principal non-timber forest products of the Buitengewesten. The most prized variety was benzoin (Dutch: benzoë), the fragrant resin of the Styrax benzoin tree, used in the perfume industry and for the manufacture of incense; other varieties included damar mata kucing from the Shorea dipterocarps, used in varnish manufacture, and the getah latexes tapped from various forest trees for local caulking and waterproofing. Resin contributed to the forest-product export sector of Atjeh, complementing rattan, kapok and bakau bast.

The forest resin resource

The rainforests of the Atjeh interior — particularly the montane forests of the Gayo uplands, the Alas valley and the West Coast of Atjeh — supported a great diversity of resin-yielding trees, of which the three commercially most important were the benzoin tree (Styrax benzoin, Dutch: benzoëboom), the Shorea javanica and related dipterocarps (Dutch: meranti and damar trees), and various species of Agathis (Dutch: damarboom or kauri). Each yielded a distinctive resin, and the trade was correspondingly differentiated by both botanical source and end-use.

The benzoin tree was particularly important in Atjeh: it was cultivated as well as wild-harvested, and the highland Gayo villagers around Takèngön and Tangsé had developed a specialised benzoin agroforestry in which the trees were planted in cleared forest plots (Dutch: benzoë-tuinen), tapped after seven to eight years, and the resin harvested annually for two to three decades. The Gayo benzoin was — and remains — considered the finest in the archipelago, and the trade has deep historical roots in the pre-colonial Acehnese sultanate.

Tapping, harvesting and processing

Benzoin resin was obtained by making a series of V-shaped incisions (Dutch: tapsneden) in the bark of the Styrax tree, allowing the milky resin to exude and dry on the bark surface for two to three months, then scraping off the hardened tears (Dutch: tranen) and collecting them in bamboo containers. The tears were graded by colour and purity — the pale, frosted “almond” benzoin (Dutch: amandelbenzoë) being the highest grade, the darker “lump” benzoin (Dutch: klompenbenzoë) the bulk trade grade. The annual harvest of a mature benzoin garden was typically 1 to 3 kilograms per tree.

Damar resins — collected from Shorea and Agathis species — were obtained by similar tapping methods, but yielded a harder, paler, more vitreous resin used principally in varnish manufacture. The trees were tapped during the dry season, the resin collected in the form of drips and stalactites from the bark, and the harvest dried and bagged for export. Other forest resins, including the various getah latexes tapped for local use, were processed by simple evaporation into solid blocks used for caulking boats, waterproofing textiles, and the manufacture of torches.

Trade and uses

The most prized variety of Atjeh resin was benzoin, used in the perfume industry and for making incense. Benzoin contains the aromatic compounds cinnamic acid and benzoic acid, and its warm, vanilla-like fragrance made it a staple of the European perfumery trade and of the manufacture of church incense, soaps, and cosmetic powders. The resin was also used pharmaceutically in the preparation of compound benzoin tincture (Dutch: benzoëtinctuur), a topical antiseptic and inhalant still in use today.

Other resins served local purposes and occasional export. The damar mata kucing of the Shorea trees was exported to the paint and varnish factories of the Netherlands and Batavia, where its pale colour, hardness and solubility in turpentine made it the preferred resin for high-quality varnishes. The kauri copal of the Agathis trees was similarly exported for varnish manufacture, and the local getah latexes were used for the caulking of boats and the waterproofing of fishing nets.

Resin contributed to the forest-product export sector, complementing rattan, kapok and bakau bast trades. The export was concentrated through Kuta Raja and Belawan, and the principal overseas buyers were in Singapore, the Netherlands and — for the perfume-grade benzoin — France. By the 1930s the Atjeh resin trade had contracted, partly through over-tapping of the older benzoin gardens and partly through competition from synthetic resin substitutes, but benzoin remained an important smallholder crop of the Gayo highlands throughout the colonial period and into the post-independence era.

Sources

Atjeh-terpentijn: tegenwoordige kwaliteit en nieuwe beoordeelingen, by Ir. W. Spoon, Berichten van de Afdeeling Handelsmuseum van de Koninklijke Vereeniging Koloniaal Instituut No. 57, Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1930, pp. 5, 9 (Winning van de terpentijn).

See Also

Source

DLP-84-Atjeh.pdf, pp. 13-14.

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