The tangsi — from the Malay tangsi, “barracks” — was the K.N.I.L. term for the barracks, both the garrison on Java and the bivak in the buitengewesten. In Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. the tangsi is the institutional home of Oom Ambon — the place where the Ambonese soldier lived with his Tante and his anak-kolong, where the Marechausseelied was sung, where the Nieuwjaar feast was held, and where the moral economy of the colonial army was made. The dissolution of the tangsi culture with the disbandment of the K.N.I.L. in 1949 is the book’s closing argument.
The tangsi on Java
On Java the tangsi was the garrison — a fixed barracks where the *depotbataljons|depotbataljon]] trained the recruits, where the *veldbataljon|veldbataljon]] was paraat for both the foreign enemy and for unrest in the archipelago, and where the daily life of the soldiers and their families centred. The tangsi was the place where the dagverblijf (day-room) was the centre of the company’s social life, where the vrouwenloods (women’s shed) was the domain of the Tante, and where the compagniesrapport (morning parade) was the occasion for the lonté cases.
The tangsi in the buitengewesten
In the buitengewesten the tangsi was the bivak — the field camp in the rimboe. The bivak was both the daily camp and the daily act of construction: the pagger (fence), the afdakje (lean-to), the tentje for the dwangarbeiders. The tangsi in the buitengewesten was therefore a mobile institution — built each evening with the klewang as the only tool — but it was still a tangsi: the institutional home of Oom Ambon.
The tangsi and the anak-kolong
The children of the tangsi were the anak-kolong — the “children of the kolong” (the space under the slaaptafel). The anak-kolong had their own adat and sfeer, distinct from kampong children. “De anak-kolong konden de oude adatsfeer van de kampong missen, de tangsi gaf hen een eigen sfeer, een eigen adat, een eigen stijl…” The tangsi was therefore not just the barracks but a culture: the culture that made the anak-kolong and that the anak-kolong carried into the next generation of soldiers.
The tangsi and the feesten
The tangsi was the place of the feesten — the Nieuwjaar (the grootste, vrolijkste feest), the Poeusa (the end of the fasting month), the Koninginnedag (the Queen’s birthday), the schietfeest (the annual shooting festival), the compagniesfeest. The *Marechausseelied]] was sung in the tangsi; the menarie, quadrille and wals were danced by the Tante at the feesten. The tangsi was therefore the cultural production of the colonial army’s moral economy.
The dissolution (1949)
The closing arc of Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. is the disbandment of the K.N.I.L. and the dissolution of the tangsi culture. The transfer of sovereignty of 27 December 1949 dissolved the tangsi; the Ambonese soldiers were transferred into the Federale Legers and Negaratroepen of the federal Indonesia, and then, with the federal Indonesia’s dissolution into the unitary Republic, into the army of the Republic that had been their enemy. The tangsi culture that had made Oom Ambon was dissolved.
Significance
The tangsi is significant in Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L. as the institutional home of Oom Ambon and the place where the moral economy of the colonial army was made. The book’s argument is that the tangsi — both the garrison on Java and the bivak in the buitengewesten — was not just a barracks but a culture: the culture that made the Oom and the Tante, the anak-kolong and the Marechausseelied, the feesten and the adat. The dissolution of the tangsi culture with the disbandment of the K.N.I.L. in 1949 is the book’s closing argument: what was lost was not the decorated hero but the ordinary soldier whose life had been made by the tangsi.
See Also
- Oom Ambon
- Tante
- Anak-kolong
- Bivak
- Vrouwenloods
- Dagverblijf
- Compagniesrapport
- Tahoen Baroe
- Poeusa
- Koninginnedag
- Marechausseelied
- Buitengewesten
- K.N.I.L.
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Souvereiniteitsoverdracht (27 December 1949)
Source
Oom Ambon van het K.N.I.L., by G. W. T. Dames, Maj. Inf. K.N.I.L. b.d. (‘s-Gravenhage: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 1954), chapters “Tangsi en Tante,” “De buitenpost,” and the closing chapters on the Indonesian revolution.
Account from Atjeh by H.C. Zentgraff (1938)
Zentgraff gives the richest description of the tangsi in the Atjeh War corpus. The wacht doubled its posts automatically in five minutes when the bel rang; the klok of the bivak sounded five strokes when a patrol returned, so every wife knew dat haar man op komst is — dan gaat ze bakken en braden. The lontjeng maréchaussée — the cicade that chirped ten minutes before six — was the schildwacht’s post signal.
The tangsi of Blang Kedjeren — the most isolated post in Atjeh — had its own history of darkness. The Duivel op de Blang crisis of 1909–1910 — bloody misdrijven van militairen tegen militairen — arose om de vrouw after the infantry garrison was replaced by a full maréchaussée division. On 7 December 1926, a Gajoe murdered the sergeants Van Gent and De Gruiter vóór de tangsi; de toegeschoten sergeant van den Broek sloeg den moordenaar met één houw het hoofd af, waarna de romp, waaruit het bloed spoot, nog enkele passen voortstrompelde om toen ineen te zakken — als een product der fantasie van Poe.
The traditions of the tangsi — the tamoe-fonds, the gast der officieren for every stranger, the dardanellen who kept order, the fuiven and dansi-dansi — were the adat of the tangsi. Matatoela, the leading figure at Blang Kedjeren, vöòrzingt, vöòrdanst en…vöòrdrinkt. The alarmoefening with the ting ting of the bell was the tangsi’s test; het is voor een ieder duidelijk dat vooral bij een corps als dat der Maréchaussée respecteering van traditie noodig is.
Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia.