The central highlands of North Sumatra are the mountainous interior of the northern part of the island, inhabited by the Gayos and the Alassers and separated from the populated lowlands of Acheh by a huge ring of forest. In The Achehnese Vol. I, this region figures as the strategic hinterland of the war in Acheh — a refuge, a recruiting-ground, and a natural fortress whose geographical inaccessibility shaped the course of the conflict.
A Huge Ring of Forest
Between the populated districts, Snouck Hurgronje writes, the Achehnese “finds sometimes jungles and sometimes swamps in which he can conceal himself; from the central highlands of North Sumatra where the Gayos and Alassers live, a huge ring of forest separates him.” In ordinary times the Achehnese makes clearings for pepper and rice fields in the jungle; in time of need such clearings offer themselves as excellent hiding-places over which bands can scatter themselves. For gampong-dwellers who do not wish to submit, the abandonment of their habitations is thereby rendered less distressing: they settle in the ladangs or open up new clearings in the jungle, “for preference, in out-of-the-way corners.”
A Refuge for Fugitive Bands
Thus the gampongs of Acheh and its dependencies became partly depopulated during the war, and the illimitable virgin forest became dotted, here and there, with temporary clearings used as the settlements sometimes of large communities, sometimes of petty bands, “situated as far as possible from any common path, very difficult to trace and as good as inaccessible for large military forces.” The people remaining in the gampongs in apparent submission really sided with the expelled section, so that the ladang-dwellers always found a cordial reception awaiting them in the gampongs, while the gampong-dwellers, when they had anything to their discredit, knew where they could safely retire to. Furthermore, “bands could count on safe hiding-places when they wished among the Gayos and Alassers, Mohammedan subjects of Acheh.”
The Habitat of the Gayos and Alassers
The central highlands are characterised as the home of two kindred peoples, the Gayos and the Alassers, both Mohammedan in religion and tributary to Acheh. The geographical isolation imposed by the surrounding ring of forest meant that expeditions against Malacca and Pahang, even at the height of the sultanate’s power, had to be undertaken by sea rather than across the highlands; and during the Dutch war, several military expeditions lasting weeks, “yes, and months,” were necessary towards the central highlands of the Gayos in order to track down the enemy. The highlands thus imposed a strategic logic on the Achehnese War, favouring the guerilla tactics of the defenders and frustrating the operations of large military forces.
See Also
- Gayo
- Alas
- Acheh
- Achehnese War
- General van der Heijden’s excursions (marches through the highlands)
- Tunong
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.