Gajo-land (Gayo Land) (interior highland region) is a location in or related to Aceh described in Jongejan’s Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu. Interior mountainous region of Aceh.
Type
interior highland region
Description
Interior mountainous region of Aceh. In the old days reachable only via bosch- and bergpaden (‘vrouwenwegen’ per Snouck Hurgronje’s ‘Het Gajoland en zijne bewoners’). Hoofdplaats: Takengon (on a lake). Gajoweg (103 km from Bireuën to Takengon) completed 1913. Site of Gouvernements Hars- en Terpentijnbedrijf, coffee and tea enterprises. Inhabited by the Gayo people (mentioned as distinct from Acehnese but their affairs also covered).
Significance
Gajo-land (Gayo Land) is recorded by Jongejan as part of the geography and historical landscape of Aceh.
See Also
Source
Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 20, 47, 62, 70.