The thiplah-tano (Atjehnese, “half of the land”; Malay sebelah tanah) was the contract by which a non-indigenous cultivator in Atjeh — and, in a larger form, whole communities of clearers — surrendered half of newly cleared land, or half of the annual half-crop, to the oeléëbalang in return for admission to the soil and a starting capital.
The contract imposed on non-indigenous cultivators
Towards non-indigenous natives — Chineezen and Kingaleezen — the beschikkingsrecht asserted itself more strictly than towards Atjehnese. Such a cultivator was obliged not only to pay the haq radja taléë but in addition to enter into the thiplah-tano contract. Against receipt of a pangkaj (Malay pangkal), a small starting capital consisting of a buffalo, the necessary bibit (seed) and a belandja of twenty guilders as an advance for provisions, he bound himself to cede to the radja either half of the cleared land (thiplah-tano) or, each year, half of the half-crop; while half of the belandja had to be repaid in instalments.
So far as rice fields were concerned, the contract was granted only if the immigrant undertook to work a minimum area of five naleh of bidjeh, that is about 8,000 square metres or 0.8 hectare.
Against these burdens stood a real advantage: half of the cleared sawah became the “property” of the clearer, meaning that on departure he might even sell his half of the land, subject only to the obligation of granting the radja concerned a right of preference.
De Boer noted in a footnote that alienation to persons not belonging to the indigenous population had since been taken in hand by the Gouvernement, referring to article 15 sub I in conjunction with article 29 sub 3 of the Zelfbestuursregelen and to Politiek Beleid, pp. 111 ff. and 233 ff.
Geography of the institution
The institution existed among other places in Sawang (onderafdeeling (subdivision) Lho’ Seumaweh, afdeeling (district) Noordkust van Atjeh), but above all in Ndjong (onderafdeeling Sigli, afdeeling Pidië). D. W. N. de Boer left open the question — “nog na te sporen valt” — whether the large-scale haq thiplah-tano asserted by other zelfbestuurders (self-governing rulers), for instance those of Pidië, was an extension of this contract or a parallel institution.
The haq thiplah-tano in the large
Other self-governing rulers claimed a haq thiplah-tano over half of new sawah complexes won by whole gampongs or by cooperatives of their subjects through joint clearance and irrigation. The right (haq) to this large-scale levy was derived in the first place from sovereignty, and secondly was thought proper in view of the moral — and sometimes also technical and financial — support that the radja was accustomed to give to such large-scale clearances.
A newly won complex was then initially divided by the radja into as many equal parcels as there were persons who had taken part in the clearance; and to these clearers the full right of use over the parcel personally allotted to each was granted for three years. At the expiry of that term, however, the radja took back half of each parcel — thi-plah, Malay sebelah — as haq radja. Those portions of the sebelah-tanah’s that the radja could not exploit himself or through his nearest relatives he as a rule gave out at once in deelbouw to the holders of the other halves.
Exemption as an inducement to immigration
Being, as De Boer put it, economically calculating, the Atjehnese oeléëbalang not infrequently exempted colonists in particular districts from the haq thiplah-tano obligation for the first three years, in order to promote immigration into his landschap and especially into the toenong or glé, the uplands of his territory. The radja taléë was nevertheless collected on the occasion of the first harvest.
See Also
Source
Het recht op den grond 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.