The Gajo-weg (the Gayo road) was the road connecting the north-east coast of Atjeh with the interior Gayo highlands of central Atjeh, mentioned in Kreemer’s *De Karbouw* ([[1956)]] (p. 102) as the route along which, in 1917, Kreemer personally observed buffalo-cart (buffelkar) drivers using a kind of wooden brake-shoe (remschoen) on the steep descents — an observation that overturned the then-current Dutch ethnographic assumption that such braking technology was unknown in the archipelago. The Gajo-weg is the only piece of Atjeh infrastructure explicitly named in De Karbouw’s chapter on the buffalo as transport animal, and the 1917 observation is one of the few personally dated field observations that Kreemer records in the book.
The 1917 brake-shoe observation
The Gajo-weg passage in De Karbouw (p. 102) reads:
“Dat zij elders wèl voorkomen, bleek ons bij het passeren van de Gajo-weg (verbinding van de N.O.-kust van Atjeh met het binnenland) in 1917, toen wij de karrevoerders op de steile hellingen wel degelijk van een soort houten remschoenen zagen gebruik maken.” The observation is significant because it corrected a widespread Dutch ethnographic generalisation, derived from earlier writers, that the use of brake-shoes on buffalo-carts was unknown in the archipelago. Kreemer’s personal observation on the Gajo-weg in 1917 showed that, on the contrary, the drivers of buffelkars descending the steep gradients between the Atjeh coast and the Gayo highlands did make use of wooden brake-shoes — a small but valuable correction to the comparative ethnographic literature on transport technology.
The road’s historical context
The Gajo-weg, as a road connecting the Atjeh coast with the Gayo interior, belongs to the infrastructure of the late-colonial period — that is, to the period after the Dutch military conquest of the Gayo country in the early years of the twentieth century (the Gayo lands were brought under Dutch control in 1904, during the closing phases of the Atjeh War). The road thus post-dates the military pacification of the interior and represents the civilian-administrative integration of the Atjeh coastal and highland zones. Kreemer’s traverse of the road in 1917 — a date within the late-colonial peace — fits this chronological frame.
Significance
The Gajo-weg is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history as a documented piece of Atjeh infrastructure, as the type-locality of Kreemer’s 1917 observation on buffalo-cart brake-shoes, and as a material symbol of the late-colonial integration of the Atjeh coastal and Gayo highland zones that followed the Dutch military conquest of the interior. The 1917 observation also serves as a fixed chronological point in Kreemer’s own field-experience in northern Sumatra, alongside his earlier “verblijf in Atjeh” (stay in Atjeh) and his visit to the Gajoland recorded elsewhere in De Karbouw.
Sources
De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), p. 102.
Account from Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf (1925)
Gajo-weg was the 103 kilometre mountain road from Bireuen to Takengon at Laut Tawar, started by Colonel Van Daalen in 1904 and ready 1913.
Narrative construction 1904-1913
See detailed narrative in event article Gajo Road Construction 1904-1913. Built with much heerendienst and wegenfonds and country treasury support. Between Bireuen and Takengon excellent work enabling auto reach >1200m high health resort. At KM10 long bridge over Peusangan, hill alang-alang, view over northern plain, high plateaus 400-700m shy silence, shed personnel, Blang Rakal bivouac 767m zinc sheds, officer with brigade 20 men patrol collects tax, conifer high pines glory landscape not tjemara but pines, Boschwezen research resin turpentine pinus Merkusii very profitable, deep ravine Enang Enang narrow stony 100m descent deepest 600 above sea climb 930m, blangs, 30 leprous Gajo’ers expelled hut no doctor, search tea culture grounds trial, KM73 top Boer ni Geureudong 2900M and Boer ni Telong 2600M, Lampahan resting place inland travelers bivouac patrols, Chinese coffee farmer, carts draft animals Atjehers transport Bireuen-Gajo-land trip 105km 15 days night day, mountain slopes close swamp reeds mighty forest mountain wall ravine height 1485m KM95 opens view lake 260m lower, slow descent avoiding steep, garden plots Gajos settlement family Veenhuizen arriving past assistant-resident dwelling halt middle place under lököp royal tree indigenous where heads offered submission Van Daalen.
See Also
- 1917
- Aceh War
- Gajoland
- J. Kreemer
- Kreemer’s De Karbouw (1956)
- N.O.-kust van Atjeh
- buffelkar (Atjeh)
- Takengon
- Bireuen
- Laut Tawar
- Blang Rakal
- Veenhuizen Family
- Atjeh Tram
Source
Atjeh als land voor handel en bedrijf, by Dr. R. Broersma, Gebrs. Cohen, Utrecht, 1925, pp. 64-69.