Gondberg — the “Gold Mountain” — was a mountain in the south-eastern interior of Groot-Atjeh, whose elegant cone — visible from the Dutch temporary post at Anagaloeng across the landtong (spit of land) washed by the Atjeh-rivier — was one of the principal topographical landmarks of the 1896 crisis. The mountain is named in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 as the landmark against which the besieged garrison at Anagaloeng oriented itself during the siege, and as the mountain that was said to have received its name from the gouden stralenkrans (golden halo) that surrounded it when the sun rose behind it.
The view from Anagaloeng
The Atjeh-Album records that the view from the walls of the benting at Anagaloeng took in, naar het Oosten over de landtong, die door de rivier wordt omspoeld, en waarachter heel in verte de elegante kegel van den Gondberg verrijst, die wellicht dien naam verkreeg naar den gouden stralenkrans, die hem omgeeft, als de zon achter hem opkomt — to the East over the spit of land washed by the river, behind which, far in the distance, rises the elegant cone of the Gondberg, which perhaps received that name from the golden halo that surrounds it when the sun rises behind it. The Gondberg was thus the principal eastern landmark of the besieged garrison, and its gouden stralenkrans at sunrise was the most poetic image in the album’s narrative of the siege.
The mountain wall south of Anagaloeng
The Atjeh-Album records that, ten Zuiden van Anagaloeng — to the south of Anagaloeng — there lay hooge en steile bergwand (a high and steep mountain wall),that zich als een renzenmuur op een uur afstand verheft — that rises like a fortress wall at an hour’s distance. The mountain wall was the principal southern topographical feature of the Anagaloeng sector, and it was the feature that distinguished the sound of the firing of the relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit — whose sound was niet weerkaatst … tegen den hoogen en steilen bergwand (not echoed against the high and steep mountain wall) — from that of the battle of Tjot Rang, whose sound voor de luisterenden te Anagaloeng anders … klonken (sounded different to the listeners at Anagaloeng). The Gondberg and the mountain wall together formed the principal southern and eastern topographical frame of the Anagaloeng sector.
Significance
Gondberg’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the principal eastern landmark of the besieged garrison at Anagaloeng in the spring 1896 crisis, and as the mountain whose gouden stralenkrans at sunrise gave the album’s narrative of the siege its most poetic image. The album’s explanation of the name — die wellicht dien naam verkreeg naar den gouden stralenkrans, die hem omgeeft, als de zon achter hem opkomt — is a popular-etymology note that connects the Dutch name Gondberg (Gold Mountain) to the visual phenomenon of the sunrise, and it is one of the principal examples of the way in which Dutch colonial place-naming in Atjeh translated Atjehnese topography into a Dutch poetic register.
See Also
- Groot-Atjeh
- Anagaloeng
- Acheh River
- Relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit (April 1896)
- Battle of Tjot Rang (14 April 1896)
- Aceh War
- 1896
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, p. 10 (Een Terugblik — Wat Reeds Verkregen Werd).