The Prang Rawa — also called the Rao War, in Dutch De Buitenbezittingen glossed as “de Prang Rawa = Rao” — was the armed conflict at the end of the eighteenth century between the Atjehers and Pedireezen gold-seekers descending from the uplands of the Kawaj XII into the coastal plains, and the Maleiers of the Westkust van Atjeh. The war ended with the permanent settlement of the Atjehers in the greater part of the Maleier colonies and the consequent Acehnisation of the Meulabôh region, a transformation whose effects still defined the political and ethnographic landscape of the Westkust when the Dutch took over the administration in the late nineteenth century.
Origins: gold and pepper
By the late eighteenth century the Maleier landschappen of the Westkust, “vooral door de pepercultuur,” had attained “groote welvaart” — great prosperity. This prosperity “verlokte” — tempted — many Atjehers and Pedireezen who had settled in the uplands of the Kr. Geumpang (the Kawaj XII) as gold-seekers. As the gold riches of the upland diminished, these settlers descended “naar de kustvlakten” — toward the coastal plains — in search of new opportunities. Their arrival inaugurated the hevigen strijd that the native tradition remembers as the Prang Rawa.
Course and outcome
The war, the Encyclopaedisch Bureau records, “eindigt met een tijdperk van z.g. de blijvende vestiging der Atjehers in het grootste deel der Maleische kolonies.” Of the Westkust landschappen only Tapa’ Toean succeeded in remaining “zuiver Maleisch”; the others — Kloeët, Blang Pidie, Lhòë Pawa, Manggèng and ultimately Meulabôh itself — were either strongly influenced by Acehnese notions of government or “geheel Atjehsch werden.” Meulabôh in particular became “in zeden en gewoonten vrijwel geheel Atjehsch,” even though, the handbook notes, “men ook hier nog vele sporen der vroegere Maleische overheersching terugvindt.”
Institutional consequences
The Atjehsch infiltration brought with it the territorial landschap model of the oelèëbalangs under a landschapshoofd, displacing the older Menangkabausche soekoe-based genealogisch bestuur of the Maleier dato’s. Where Atjehers and Maleiers intermixed, the Acehnese kawóm organisation likewise displaced the original Menangkabau clan order; panglima’s-kawóm arose beside the older soekoehoofden. The nivelsteerings-proces — the levelling process — continued, “nog steeds wordt voortgezet,” long after the original settlement, steadily eroding the older Maleian adat. The adat kamanakan of Menangkabau survived in Tapa’ Toean only until 1913, when the Governor, on the request of the Maleier chiefs of Laboean Soesa, Labuhan Hadji, Samadöea, Tapa’ Toean and Kandang, formally abolished it.
Significance
The Prang Rawa was the foundational demographic and political event of the modern Westkust. It transformed a Maleian-speaking, Menangkabau-adat littoral into a mixed — and in its southern half, predominantly Acehnese — society, and it explains the verwarde — confused — bestuursindeeling that Dutch administrators inherited and sought to rationalise in the early twentieth century. It also fixed the territorial division between the keudjeuroeënschappen of Seunagan and Kloeët and the three surviving Maleier dato’s of Meulabôh — the institutional landscape within which the colonial state would later operate.
See Also
- Westkust van Atjeh
- Meulabôh
- Tapa’ Toean
- Atjehers
- Pedireezen
- Maleiers
- Kawaj XII
- Oelèëbalangs
- Teukoe Tjhï’ Meulabôh
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), p. 51.