Tengkoe di Barat — “Heer van het Westen” (Lord of the West) — was a oelama of the Northeast of Atjeh who was a pupil of Tgk. di Mata Ië and married to that oelama’s daughter. Among his followers was a certain Pang Djohan, a sly and handy companion who later turned out to be the deserted Menadonese soldier Kamby. Tengkoe di Barat, Zentgraff writes, was an Atjehsche Maarten van Rossum — the famous Guelders warlord who, in the sixteenth century, had terrorised the Bishop of Utrecht’s lands — for he wielded fire and sword not only against the Dutch but also against his own countrymen when this suited his tactics.
”Men schiet altijd over alles heen”
Often the Dutch patrols had him almost in their hands. Once he was within fifteen paces of the rifles over which rapid fire was given — he remained unharmed. On the report of this encounter, Van Heutsz noted: “Men raakt altijd, als maar een vizier wordt genomen voor korten afstand, en dan gecommandeerd: Omlaag aan!” — “One always hits, if only one takes the sight for short range, and then commands: Down, ready!” Men schiet altijd over alles heen — one always shoots over everything. His under-commander was Pang Lateh, the same who with Pang Nanggroë in September 1905 had brought Tjoet Meuthia and the adelaarsjong of Keureutoë to the mountains.
The end, 1912
Years they hunted Tengkoe di Barat, and for him the doom came in the course of 1912. Behrens, newly assigned to the maréchaussée, sat then with two brigades on his heels; in the spits walked an excellent spoorzoeker, the Ambonese sergeant Dambohpulu. This Dambohpulu found at the Aloer Soea the bekas of the fourageurs of the bende of the Tengkoe, and with the utmost difficulty the brigade could follow these well-concealed and partly hidden sporen. Dambohpulu, a twenty-four-carat bush-loper, walked at the spits, bent forward and scanning the ground and the surrounding growth.
So the brigades followed the spoor. From various signs it was clear that it was about five days old. At length Dambohpulu found very fresh bekas in karang-like ground; when it is so far, both commander and maréchaussée’s are seized by a nervous tension. They gained visibly on the bende — which could not be far off — and walked with the greatest possible speed, very cautiously, because the chance is gone if one is oneself seen or heard by an enemy always on the qui vive. That day the maréchaussée’s did not cook, and because the food had become scarce, Behrens picked the sixteen best maréchaussée’s out of the two brigades and sent the others back to the bivak. The pace of the pursuit was made still faster; it was now a keurbende.
Suddenly smoke was seen rising from a small aloer, and the mise-en-scène for the last act was hastily made ready. The sixteen men were divided into three groups, of which two were to make the encircling movement of the schuilplaats from which the blue smoke rose. A waterfall lay between that place and the maréchaussée’s; on hands and knees the men crept through the undergrowth, inaudible and invisible. From time to time one dragged oneself forward on the belly… it was now a matter of minutes. Below the waterfall stood four primitive hutjes, and in these sat, unconscious of the danger, Tengkoe di Barat with his wife and two followers who also had their wives with them, with four children, among whom two of the Tengkoe’s.
The death of the wife
The maréchaussée’s had crept forward to the side and above the hutjes; then the group under sergeant Hanff flew through the beekje to the waterfall and let itself, with the water, fall down to the hutjes. However the shock may have struck the Tengkoe and his people, they were used to war and immediately ready. The Tengkoe took up his position with his men between the great stones, and at once his wife stood naast him — beside him. He was already ready to shoot before Hanff was on his feet again; he aimed at the sergeant and pulled the trigger, but the shot failed, and the second too. The hand of his life hesitated for a moment before it should stand still forever. Then it was Hanff’s turn, and look: also his first shot failed. It was almost as if a judgement hung over them. Meanwhile the other maréchaussée’s fired; a bullet struck the Tengkoe in the right arm, which hung down limp, but he quickly passed his carbine to his wife and held the rentjong in his usable left hand. Then his wife came and placed herself vóór her husband.
So stood the wife before her husband, when one bullet mortally wounded both. He died very quickly, and she followed him an hour later. This was the end of Tengkoe di Barat, and of the other prominent oelama’s in that region, who chose sjahid above mèl.
Significance
Zentgraff pairs the death of the wife of Tengkoe di Barat with that of Tjoet Nja Din: “Is there a more beautiful death, worthy of a gifted poet, than that of the wife of Tengkoe di Barat?” The bullet that, marked by Fatum, went through the body of the wife and then through that of her husband, must have brought to her an emotion of bliss whose depth no one can fathom.
See Also
- Tengkoe di Paja Bakong
- Pang Nanggroë
- Pang Lateh
- Tjoet Nja Din
- Tjoet Gambang
- Behrens
- Hanff
- Dambohpulu
- Death of Tengkoe di Barat (1912)
- Westkust
- Sjahid
- Prang sabil
- 1912
- Aceh War
Source
Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia. OCR-filename: 20260709_002148_DLP-81-Atjeh_OCR.txt.