Peutoea Gam Masèn — Peutoea (the kampong bestuur’s overseer) of Masén, a small locality on the Westkust of Atjeh — was an influential head of a small, mobile bende originating from Masén, and among the Atjehers known as a teacher of onkwetsbaarheid (invulnerability) and as the heerscher over de tijgers (Lord of the Tigers). He appears in Zentgraff’s book as one of the three targets named in the operational order that governor Swart gave to lieutenant Schmidt in February 1910 for the landschap of Tangsé.
Schmidt’s commission
Schmidt’s commission, as set out with the determination of the force he could dispose of, read:
“Het opsporen en tot onderwerping brengen dan wel onschadelijk maken van de vijandige elementen in het landschap Tangsé, met name: 1. de Tiro Teungkoes: Tgk. Tjhi Majèt en Tgk. di Boekèt (zoons van wijlen Tg. Tjhi Tiro) en hun aanhang. 2. T. Dagang Blang Djeurat alias T. di Tangsé, het vijandige hoofd van het tot de Kawaj XII behoorende gedeelte van het landschap Tangsé met zijn aanhang, waaronder Pang Tjoet Bén en Keutjhi Bén Man: 3. Peutoea Gam Masèn, een invloedrijk hoofd eener kleine beweeglijke bende, afkomstig van Masén (W. Kust) en bekend bij de Atjehers als leeraar in de onkwetsbaarheid en heerscher over de tijgers.”
Strength allotted: a first lieutenant, two Europeans, Ambonese and Inlandse sergeants, Ambonese and Inlandse corporals, seventeen Ambonese and seventeen Inlandse maréchaussée’s, a European corporal sick-attendant, a mandoer, and twenty-four dwangarbeiders.
The killing, 2 May 1910
Schmidt took a proper term for the preparation of this great clean-up, and did it systematically. It soon appeared that direct information about the schuilplaats of the Tiro-mannen from the bevolking was not to be had; though every man in Tangsé and the surroundings knew it, all kept silent as the grave, thanks to the great religious and political influence of the Tiro-family. So he was reduced to indirect information, and for this one possibility offered itself. The men hiding in the forests must, at set times, fourageeren in kampongs where the bevolking was well-disposed; therefore Schmidt based his informational work on the direction the fourageurs of the Tiro-oelama’s took.
On 23 April 1910 the column marched out of Tangsé with two brigades and eight days’ vivres, of which four days were op den man (carried on the man). That day the men clambered over the rocks at the origin of the Oloeë Laboe, and descended by a life-threatening slope. By the evening it was half-past six, and it turned out that waterfalls and almost perpendicular rock-walls prevented forward or backward movement, so that one had to pass a cold night on the stones; there could be no cooking and no fire because there was no wood. The next morning it cost three hours to climb the slope again, and for five more days one sought, now and then cutting a path, in that wilderness of mountain and forest, after the schuilplaats of Peutoea Gam Masèn, the heerscher over de tijgers, which would be known to the guide. On 2 May the vivres were exhausted, but they decided to push on and to gain at least certainty: whether the guide had lost his way or was misleading the patrol. The last rice was distributed, five ons per man, and the troop was warned that they might have to live on this for some days.
On 2 May, marching along the bank of the Kroeëng Seukoeleh, the guide suddenly let out a shout of triumph: he had recognised the path leading to the ladang of Peutoea Gam Masèn. And as if all fortune now came at once, on that path walked a fresh footprint, ahead of the troop. They crossed the deeply cut stream by a rattan cable, and crept with the greatest caution up to the ladang farther on. From the forest-edge they saw a man and two women on the ladang searching for cassava — wandering Atjehers plant them there for later profit. The brigade held itself dead silent; six picked men under sergeant Van Dongelen were sent out, going through the forest, to circle around the ladang. Though the distance was very small, they were given an hour and a half for it; they had to crawl almost continuously over the ground without making a sound; the breaking of a twig could have alarmed the people on the ladang. After an hour and a half came the dénouement; suddenly the maréchaussée’s stepped forward and called to the man to surrender.
The Atjeher, a big fellow with a black beard, did not hesitate for a moment but flew, rentjong in hand, at the two foremost maréchaussée’s. Some shots fell, but perhaps the Atjeher, despite his wounds, would still have escaped his wild attack, had not one of the maréchaussée’s placed himself before him and struck him down with the klewang. One of the women was seized; the other escaped. The seized woman was his daughter, who was later given back to her mother — the wife of the slain, who had escaped. The dead man was recognised as Peutoea Gam Masèn, and this was the end of the heerscher over de tijgers.
Significance
Zentgraff introduces Peutoea Gam Masèn in close conjunction with the Tiro-oelama’s and with T. Dagang Blang Djeurat as one of the three principal targets of Schmidt’s Tangsé-campaign of 1910. His fame as teacher of invulnerability and Lord of the Tigers places him in the same mystic world as Seupot Mata and Tengkoe Tjot Plieëng — the world of the Atjehsche ilmoe — and his death by the klewang is the classic Atjehsche ending: charging the kaphé with the rentjong.
See Also
- Schmidt
- Swart
- Tengkoe Majet di Tiro
- Tengkoe di Boekit
- Van Dongelen
- Tangsé
- Westkust
- Masén
- Aloeë Simi
- Korps Marechaussee van Atjeh en Onderhorigen
- Sjahid
- Prang sabil
- 1910
- Aceh War
Source
Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia. OCR-filename: 20260709_002148_DLP-81-Atjeh_OCR.txt.