The revolt in Tjalang was the armed rising which erupted in the West-Coast subdistrict of Tjalang on the night of 9–10 March 1942 — the West-Coast counterpart of the revolt in Great Atjèh — under the leadership of Teukoe Sabi of Lageuën, “the bravest man of the West Coast,” and his brother Teukoe Poel, who announced himself as the “kepala berontak” (head of the revolt). Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan (Chapter III § 3) treats it as the third and most violent of the pre-invasion insurgent actions, “discharged itself as suddenly as it was violent,” in a region where “the standstill of time was reflected in the religious instruction” and where the spirit of the prang sabi (holy war) still slumbered close beneath the surface.
Background
The subdistrict of Tjalang, with its 21,000 inhabitants scattered across the landschappen of the Lam Beusóë valley and the Teunóm plain, was the most isolated of Atjèh’s coastal subdistricts. “The recently lifted inaccessibility of this area and the resulting spiritual isolation … had here, as in few other regions in Aceh, in many respects caused time to stand still.” The “old religious traditions of a devout Mohammedan conviction, which allows no room for ultimate resignation to a rule by unbelievers, remained here closer to the surface slumbering.” Continuous military vigilance was required: garrisons at Tjalang and Lam Nó and a detachment at Lam Soedjèn in Lhóng had “made intensive patrolling possible” — until their withdrawal during the German-war years.
The outbreak
The first West-Coast sabotage occurred on the night of 21–22 February 1942: “in the oelèëbalangship of Lhóng, the telephone connection between Koetaradja and the West Coast (an administrative telephone line managed by the engineers) was also cut.” On the night of 23–24 February 1942, “the West Coast line between Koetaradja and Lam Nó was sabotaged in four places.” The revolt itself broke out on the night of 9–10 March 1942. On 10 March “the liaison officer of Lam Soedjèn in Lhóng reported that during the past night Tjalang had been attacked by a band of malefactors.” The attackers, “estimated at 400 to 500 men,” plundered the public buildings and broke open the safes of the office of administration, “yielding the attackers ƒ 14,000, — a nice beginning for a war chest.” Teukoe Poel telephoned the office to identify himself as “kepala berontak.” Teukoe Keudjroeën Ibrahim of Kroeëng Sabé detained a police officer in his house, which “formed one of the operational bases for the attackers.”
Significance
The Tjalang rising was the only West-Coast manifestation of the 1942 insurgent movement and its most determinedly religiously motivated expression. Piekaar asks “how else is it to be explained that over this older generation, seemingly without any transition, the spirit of the prang sabi (Atj. holy war) became active again and they, as once in the Atjèh War, took up the fight with the infidels?”
See Also
- Tjalang
- Lam Nó
- Lhóng
- Teukoe Sabi
- Teukoe Hoesin
- Atjèh War
- Revolt in Great Atjèh (1942)
- Sabotage in Sigli (1942)
- Japanese invasion of Atjèh
- 10 March 1942
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Chapter III § 3 and Chapter V § 4.