The Gajoweg — the Gayo Road — is the military road in Aceh that begins at the bronze bust of Heinzenknecht on the yard of the controller at Bireuën and runs 103 km south to Takengeun on Laut Tawar (the lake of Takengeun) in the Gajolanden. The Gajoweg is the set-piece of the chapter Jagerslatijn in Oost-Indisch Journael by Merac (1947): its construction by Heinzenknecht under Van Heutsz, the hurried laying-out of the route on military command with the klewang in a direct southerly direction, and the costly affair of its construction — is the book’s set-piece of the colonial army’s road-construction in Aceh.
The Heinzenknecht bust
The Gajoweg begins at the bronze bust of Heinzenknecht on the yard of the controller at Bireuën. This worthy Bavarian — who, as the lieutenant’s inquiry revealed, was the type of the soldier-road-builder-and-bridge-builder under Van Heutsz, and par excellence a man of practice — laid this road. He was basely murdered by a forced labourer during that work. The bronze bust at the head of the Gajoweg is the book’s marker of the cost of the road’s construction: the soldier who laid the road was murdered by one of the forced labourers who built it.
The construction
The construction of the Gajoweg at a fast pace appears to have been a costly affair. The route was indicated on military command with the klewang — that is, the route was cut through the jungle with the klewang, the colonial army’s sword, in a direct southerly direction — and laid out in a hurry. The construction was therefore both military (the route cut by the klewang on military command) and hurried.
The route
The Gajoweg now runs to Takengeun on the beautiful lake in the Gajolanden, over a distance of 103 km.
At km 11 one passes the bridge over the Peusanganrivier, which carries the water of Laut Tawar to the sea. This bridge — one of the longest pile-bridges in the whole of the Dutch East Indies — is the book’s small marker of the hydraulic engineers’ work on the Gajoweg.
Then the climb of the road in the hilly terrain begins, and soon it zigzags through the forest. The bends are many, and on a journey to Takengeun one must suffer from car-sickness.
At km 36 the administrative border of the Gayo Lands begins. The landscape changed and became more park-like. Between the deciduous trees stood an occasional pine, and the further we came, the more elegant pine-trees there were in the land of the blangs (Gayo plains).
The sun was overpowering on the blangs, but a cool wind blew over the endless, rolling grass-plains. In the distance the blue mountain-ranges and volcanoes loomed up: the Boerni-dit and the Boer-ni-dat.
At km 46 was the halting-place Blang Rakal, 500-600 metres above sea level.
Significance
The Gajoweg is significant in Oost-Indisch Journael as the set-piece of the colonial army’s road-construction in Aceh. The book’s argument — that the construction of the Gajoweg was a costly affair, cut through the jungle on military command with the klewang, and that the soldier who laid it was murdered by one of the forced labourers who built it — is the book’s marker of the cost of the colonial army’s infrastructure in Aceh. The Gajoweg is also the book’s frame for the chapter Jagerslatijn: the lieutenant’s journey through Aceh follows the Gajoweg from Bireuën to Takengeun, and at Blang Rakal on the Gajoweg the lieutenant meets the old hunter Datoek. The Gajoweg is therefore both the colonial army’s infrastructure and the book’s frame for the inter-war memory of the Aceh war.
Account from DLP-84-Atjeh — engineering, roverbenden and the plantation frontier
The DLP-84-Atjeh pamphlet describes the Gajoweg as a mountain road constructed by the Dutch colonial administration to connect the interior Gajo highlands with the coastal regions of Atjeh. The construction required extensive blasting of rock — described as “a fine piece of Dutch engineering” — the building of large bridges over ravines, and the protection of workers from attacks by roverbenden (bandit groups) by soldiers. The road traversed steep terrain, necessitating the use of dynamite to create a serpentine path.
The opening of the Gajoweg facilitated trade, transport and the spread of plantation agriculture — rubber, oil-palm and sisal — from the interior to the coast, markedly changing the demographic composition of the east-coast districts.
Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)
Lamster recorded that “the Gajò road to the interior, laid out through heavy mountain terrain, was put in order for motor traffic.” Attacks on the road while under construction occurred repeatedly in Bireuën in 1910. In October 1911 Swart inspected Bireuën and Kr. Seumpo, “the last-named place was reached for the first time by car along the Gajò road.” The road opened a closed district, though tea and coffee achieved little there. Photographs in du Croo’s book show Swart travelling along the Gajòweg in 1909, with the builder of the road captain Heinzenknecht beside the lorry, and in 1910 before the pasanggrahan at Bireuen.
See Also
- Oost-Indisch Journael
- Heinzenknecht
- Bireuën
- Takengeun
- Blang Rakal
- Peusanganrivier
- Laut Tawar
- Gajolanden
- Boerni-dit en Boer-ni-dat
- Gouverneur-Generaal Van Heutsz
- Datoek
- Atjeh-oorlog
- H. N. A. Swart
- General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh (1943)
- Pacificatie van Atjeh
- Atjeh
Source
Oost-Indisch Journael: Palaver om de tafel met het gat, by Merac, Toekan-Serie no. 2, ed. G. L. Tichelman (Haarlem: De Gulden Pers, 1947), chapter Jagerslatijn.
DLP-84-Atjeh.pdf, pp. 8-9.
Generaal Swart, Pacificator van Atjeh (“General Swart, Pacifier of Atjeh”), by M. H. du Croo, Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with the collaboration of H. J. Schmidt, Titular Colonel K.N.I.L. (retired), with a foreword by His Excellency Lieutenant-General K.N.I.L. (retired) G. K. Dijkstra (Maastricht: N.V. Leiter-Nypels, 1943), Chapter XI, XIII and illustrations.