L. C. Westenenk was a Dutch colonial official and ethnographer whose writings on the Sumatran interior — including Minangkabau studies and a 1922 article on “Rëntjong-schrift, II, Beschreven hoorns in het landschap Krintji” published in the Tijdschrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap — documented the rëntjong-schrift (rencong / surat ulú) script family that includes the pre-Islamic writing systems of Atjeh, the Gayo-Alas highlands, Kerinci and the Rejang country, and specifically the practice of inscribing buffalo horns as a documentation medium. Westenenk’s work is cited in Kreemer’s *De Karbouw* ([[1956)]] in connection with the Minangkabau buffalo-fight founding legend (where his Land en volk van Minangkabau and Opstellen over Minangkabau are listed alongside E. Dulaurier and A. Marre as authorities for the textual tradition), and his 1922 rëntjong-schrift article is listed in the Lijst van geschriften (bibliography) of De Karbouw (p. 268).
The Rëntjong-schrift article (1922)
Westenenk’s 1922 article “Rëntjong-schrift, II, Beschreven hoorns in het landschap Krintji,” published in the Tijdschrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, treated the pre-Islamic Sumatran script family — known variously as rëntjong, rencong, ulú, or surat ulú — that was used before the adoption of the Arabic-derived jawi script in Atjeh and the adjacent highlands of central and southern Sumatra. The article’s specific subject was the practice, attested in the Kerinci landschap of interior Sumatra, of inscribing buffalo horns with this script — a documentation medium that survives in scattered specimens and that links the material culture of the buffalo to the literary culture of pre-Islamic Sumatra. The script family itself extends across the highland belt from Atjeh through Gayo-Alas to Kerinci and the Rejang country of south-western Sumatra, and is one of the principal evidences of a pre-Islamic Sumatran literate culture that was, in Atjeh itself, eventually displaced by Arabic jawi and by the European script.
Minangkabau studies
Westenenk also wrote on Minangkabau — Land en volk van Minangkabau and Opstellen over Minangkabau — works cited in Kreemer’s De Karbouw (p. 209, footnote) in the list of authorities for the Minangkabau buffalo-fight founding legend. The legend, in which the political fate of the Minangkabau country was decided by a single combat between a Javanese buffalo (a large, fierce beast) and a Minangkabau buffalo (a starved calf with iron spikes attached to its head, which the Javanese buffalo mistook for its mother and was killed by when it pressed its head into the calf’s chest seeking milk), is attested in the Pasai chronicle and in a number of Sumatran and Javanese historical-literary texts, and Westenenk’s Minangkabau writings represent the early-twentieth-century Dutch ethnographic documentation of it.
Significance
Westenenk’s significance for the encyclopedia of Acheh history is twofold. First, his 1922 rëntjong-schrift article documented the pre-Islamic script family that included Atjeh’s own rencong/ulú script, and specifically the practice of inscribing buffalo horns as a recording medium — a connection between the material culture of the buffalo and the literate culture of pre-Islamic Sumatra that is otherwise poorly attested. Second, his Minangkabau writings supplied early-twentieth-century ethnographic authority for the Minangkabau buffalo-fight founding legend, a text central to the comparative historical-literary tradition of Sumatra and the adjacent archipelago.
Sources
“Rëntjong-schrift, II, Beschreven hoorns in het landschap Krintji,” by L. C. Westenenk, in Tijdschrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, 1922.
Land en volk van Minangkabau and Opstellen over Minangkabau, by L. C. Westenenk. De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), pp. 209, 268.
See Also
- A. Marre
- Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen
- E. Dulaurier
- Hikajat Radja-radja Pasei
- J. Kreemer
- Kreemer’s De Karbouw (1956)
- Krintji
- Rëntjong-schrift
- Westenenk’s Rëntjong-schrift, II ([[1922)]
L. C. Westenenk was a Dutch colonial official and ethnographer whose writings on the Sumatran interior — including Minangkabau studies and a 1922 article on “Rëntjong-schrift, II, Beschreven hoorns in het landschap Krintji” published in the Tijdschrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap — documented the rëntjong-schrift (rencong / surat ulú) script family that includes the pre-Islamic writing systems of Atjeh, the Gayo-Alas highlands, Kerinci and the Rejang country, and specifically the practice of inscribing buffalo horns as a documentation medium. Westenenk’s work is cited in Kreemer’s *De Karbouw* ([[1956)]] in connection with the Minangkabau buffalo-fight founding legend (where his Land en volk van Minangkabau and Opstellen over Minangkabau are listed alongside E. Dulaurier and A. Marre as authorities for the textual tradition), and his 1922 rëntjong-schrift article is listed in the Lijst van geschriften (bibliography) of De Karbouw (p. 268).
The Rëntjong-schrift article (1922)
Westenenk’s 1922 article “Rëntjong-schrift, II, Beschreven hoorns in het landschap Krintji,” published in the Tijdschrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, treated the pre-Islamic Sumatran script family — known variously as rëntjong, rencong, ulú, or surat ulú — that was used before the adoption of the Arabic-derived jawi script in Atjeh and the adjacent highlands of central and southern Sumatra. The article’s specific subject was the practice, attested in the Kerinci landschap of interior Sumatra, of inscribing buffalo horns with this script — a documentation medium that survives in scattered specimens and that links the material culture of the buffalo to the literary culture of pre-Islamic Sumatra. The script family itself extends across the highland belt from Atjeh through Gayo-Alas to Kerinci and the Rejang country of south-western Sumatra, and is one of the principal evidences of a pre-Islamic Sumatran literate culture that was, in Atjeh itself, eventually displaced by Arabic jawi and by the European script.
Minangkabau studies
Westenenk also wrote on Minangkabau — Land en volk van Minangkabau and Opstellen over Minangkabau — works cited in Kreemer’s De Karbouw (p. 209, footnote) in the list of authorities for the Minangkabau buffalo-fight founding legend. The legend, in which the political fate of the Minangkabau country was decided by a single combat between a Javanese buffalo (a large, fierce beast) and a Minangkabau buffalo (a starved calf with iron spikes attached to its head, which the Javanese buffalo mistook for its mother and was killed by when it pressed its head into the calf’s chest seeking milk), is attested in the Pasai chronicle and in a number of Sumatran and Javanese historical-literary texts, and Westenenk’s Minangkabau writings represent the early-twentieth-century Dutch ethnographic documentation of it.
Significance
Westenenk’s significance for the encyclopedia of Acheh history is twofold. First, his 1922 rëntjong-schrift article documented the pre-Islamic script family that included Atjeh’s own rencong/ulú script, and specifically the practice of inscribing buffalo horns as a recording medium — a connection between the material culture of the buffalo and the literate culture of pre-Islamic Sumatra that is otherwise poorly attested. Second, his Minangkabau writings supplied early-twentieth-century ethnographic authority for the Minangkabau buffalo-fight founding legend, a text central to the comparative historical-literary tradition of Sumatra and the adjacent archipelago.
Sources
“Rëntjong-schrift, II, Beschreven hoorns in het landschap Krintji,” by L. C. Westenenk, in Tijdschrift van het Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen, 1922.
Land en volk van Minangkabau and Opstellen over Minangkabau, by L. C. Westenenk. De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), pp. 209, 268.