The Bataq doeloe poeloh toedjéh — the “Twenty-Seven Bataks” (Malay dua puluh tujuh) — is the legendary immigration of a party of Batak settlers into the Gajolanden that established the colony of Wibasan to the west of Laut Tawar and later swarmed out from Bobasan to populate a wide territory, displacing the earlier Saëda-descended Boekét chiefs and founding the Redjë Tjèq polity. The Encyclopaedisch Bureau records that the immigration “nog door tal van legenden in de herinnering van het volk voortleeft” — still lives on in the memory of the people through numerous legends.
The colony at Wibasan
The original settlement at Wibasan was, the handbook notes, a “oorspronkelijk kleine kolonie” — originally a small colony — that has since “zich sterk uitgebreid” — strongly expanded. From Bobasan the settlers “uitgezwermd over een wijd gebied.” Strikingly for a Gayo context, in which the endemic pattern was the splintering of small snipperrepubliekjes, the colony “niets van haren onderlingen samenhang heeft ingeboet” — lost nothing of its internal cohesion. Prof. Dr. Snouck Hurgronje is quoted in the handbook (p. 151) as observing that “in heel het Gajöland met zijne tallooze snipperrepubliekjes” there is no commonwealth of such extent “welks deelen zoo innig verbonden zijn” — whose parts are so intimately connected.
The five original stammen
The genealogical units present in the first colony persisted after the expansion, and five oorspronkelijke stammen are still recognisable as the genealogical backbone of the Redjë Tjèq territory: (1) the Trélè-rë, headed by Rëdjë Tjèq, whose pëtoeo and imëm bear the superior titles Këtoeo Dalën and Imëm Tjèq; (2) the Tjélala, split by jealousy among the rédjë’s Gémbéra and Péngoeloe Sagi; (3) the Pëngi, divided into the Garang, Angën and Balohén lines; (4) the Linggö, partly under Péngoeloe Linggö and partly under rédjë Kemala and rédjë Kaja; and (5) the Moenté, distinguished into Moenté Padang, Moenté Gajö and Moenté Kala. With the exception of the Moenté Gajö — who actually descend from the wide-spread Löt stam of the Dërot area and were later incorporated — all trace their descent to the original 27 Bataks.
Displacement of the Boekét chiefs
The Saëda foundation-legend, “welke als de minst onbetrouwbare gevolgd wordt,” tells of a certain Saëda who emerged at Seroelë in the Dërotstreek from a piece of clay that had fallen from heaven, and who obtained from the Sultan of Atjeh the dignity of Rëdjë Boekét and a bawar of five ornamenten. Saëda settled in the Meerstreek and, with the title Mérhoem Meukoeta Alam, “vorst over allen werd” — became prince over all — until the “invasie der Bataq doeloe poeloh toedjéh.” In the resulting war the Boekét family “werd gedwongen te vluchten”; Saëda returned to Seroelë and disappears “voorgoed van het tooneel” — forever from the scene. Mérah Lama withdrew to Kébajakan, and Panglima Dagang to Meureudoe, leaving the Redjë Tjèq territory in the hands of the new Batak-descended settlers.
Significance
The immigration of the Bataq doeloe poeloh toedjéh is the foundational legend of the Redjë Tjèq polity and the touchstone of Gayo genealogical identity. Unlike the Boekét chiefs, whose genealogies dissolve into myth and ad hoc splits, the Redjë Tjèq stammen preserved a cohesion rare in Gayo political life — a cohesion that survived colonisation and that the Dutch administration recognised when it confirmed the Rëdjë Tjèq of Bobasan as the senior chief of the western Gayo lands.
See Also
- Redjë Tjèq
- Bobasan
- Wibasan
- Laoet Tawar
- Saëda
- Boekét
- Panglima Dagang
- Bataks
- Gajoland
- Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje
- Prang toedjéh tahoen
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. 94–96.