Toekoe Tjihiq Lamngga was an Atjehnese chief, son-in-law of the well-known Toekoe Nanta — one of the principal resistance leaders of the Second Expedition — and himself the leader of a much-feared armed band in the IV Moekims in 1876. He was the object of three Dutch operations in June and July 1876 and escaped all three.
The bandit chief of the IV Moekims
In the last days of May 1876 he was reported to have settled with about 100 men at Oedjong Blang Ganing, at the foot of the mountains south of Boekit Seboen; guides soon put his band at 200 men, partly rifle-armed. His threat weighed on the whole pacified district: the heads of the IV Moekims lived, in the words of the Dutch records, under the pressure of the panglimas and toekoes of the stubborn enemy, and it was in his name that he wrote — as reported at the end of August — to the chiefs of the IV Moekims to draw them to the war party.
Major Voigt’s expedition of 1–3 June sought him in vain: his band moved out of its refuge hours before the arrival of the column, whose officers believed they had been deliberately misled by the surrounding population. At the end of June he was reported near the bay of Kroeëng Raba; the purpose of the July sweep was fixed partly upon him. On 11 July he was confirmed at Leboe south of kampong Raba; the encircling march of 13 July across the river failed by an hour or two — the sheds at Leboe, with cooking pots still on the fire, showed how close it had come — and he was believed to have fled to Lepong. There, on 25 July, the people told Major Diepenheim that he had been wounded in the leg and that his band had dwindled to some twenty followers; no one could or would say where he was.
Significance
Toekoe Tjihiq Lamngga stands in the official history as the type of the band chief whom no column could catch on his own ground: warned always in time, protected by a population between two fires, and able to replace flight by arms whenever the Dutch posts — which he observed from the mountains — offered an opening. The founding of the post of Kroeëng Raba and the occupation march of 25 July were the colonial answer to his undestroyed presence.
See Also
- Voigt expedition to the IV Moekims (1-3 June 1876)
- Sweep of the IV and VI Moekims (8-15 July 1876)
- Reconnaissance to Lepong (25 July 1876)
- IV Moekims
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 204–225, 249.