Leupoeëng

Note on the shared place-name. Two distinct Achehnese localities are referred to as Lepong (or Leupoeëng) in the sources: (i) a place on the Westkust near Lhong from which Teukoe Oemar was driven and to which he returned after the Dutch troops withdrew — the cause of the April 1897 punitive expedition (treated in the upper sections); and (ii) a landschap (district) on the east coast of Groot-Atjeh of which Teuku Umar was the hereditary hoeloebalang and which served as his principal power-base and refuge throughout the Atjeh-oorlog (treated in the lower sections). The two places share a name variant but lie on opposite coasts of the Achehnese heartland.

The Westkust Leupoeëng — account from Zentgraff’s Atjeh (1938)

Leupoeëng — also Lepong, in Van Daalen’s letters Lepong, perhaps Lhoeng — is a place on the Westkust of Aceh, near Lhong, from which Teukoe Oemar was driven and to which he returned after the Dutch troops withdrew. Nadat T. Oemar uit Lepong (Leupoeëng, ter Westkust) was verdreven, nestelde hij zich daar weer na het vertrek onzer troepen — after T. Oemar was driven from Lepong (Leupoeëng, on the Westkust), he entrenched himself there again after the departure of our troops. The neighbouring landschap of Lhong was fined f 30.000 because its oeléëbalang heulled (associated) with him, and, being unable to pay, was the object of the April 1897 punitive expedition.

The April 1897 expedition

Het was geen oorlog meer doch eene wraakoefening, deels op onschuldigen, welke tevens eene beleediging van ons leger werd — it was no longer war but an act of revenge, partly on innocents, which at the same time became an insult to our army. Kapitein Van Daalen’s pencil-notes from Bivak Tamoen record his disgust: ‘t Is beschamend en ik verlang daarom ook om hiervandaan te komen — it is shameful and I long to be away from here. The seized cattle, brought in prauwen (boats) to Koetaradja, died in part before the embarkation from lack of food; in heel de streek hing de stank van de verrotte dieren — in the whole district hung the stench of the rotting animals. The gold and silver ornaments of the women were taken — van de voeten der vrouwen nam men de enkelringen af, van hare armen de armbanden (from the feet of the women the ankle rings were taken, from their arms the bracelets).

Significance of the Westkust site

Leupoeëng is the Westkust place whose name, with that of Lhong, Zentgraff cites to explain the felle haat der Atjehsche vrouw — the fierce hatred of the Atjehsche wife. The case of Leupoeëng and Lhong in 1897 is the schandvlek (stain) that the high command at Koetaradja left on the army’s reputation.

The east-coast Lepong — account from ATJEH ‘96 (Kruisheer, 1913)

Lepong — written in Dutch as with Lejoong listed in the errata as a variant, and sometimes confused with Lampisang — was a district on the east coast of Groot-Atjeh of which Teuku Umar (Toekoe Oemar) was the territorial chief, and which served as Umar’s principal power-base and refuge throughout the Atjeh-oorlog. As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, Lepong was the place to which Umar fled after the three-day Dutch offensive of 23–25 May 1896, the place at which he held his council of approximately 20 June 1896 to appoint new panglima’s, and the object of the marine bombardments of 25 May and 4–5, 8–9 June 1896. Umar feared a marine bombardment of Lepong more than a land incursion into the VI Moekims.

Description and Location (east-coast Lepong)

Lepong lay on the east coast of Groot-Atjeh to the north-west of the VI Moekims and to the south of the Kroeng Raba bay. The landschap included the kampong of Lepong itself, the kampong of Lohong (also Loh’ Nga), the mosque of Lepong where Toekoe Djohan Lampasei stayed, and the Missigit Lepong fired upon by the marine in the bombardments of 8 June–9 June 1896. The landschap was bounded on the west by the sea, on the south by the IV Moekims and the heights of Boekit Seboen, and on the east by the Kroeng Raba river and the inland country toward Ana’ Galong. The Belang Kala-pas gave access south-westward into the inland VI Moekims, and the pepper gardens of Monbroeh in this pass served as refuge for the women of the VI Moekims.

Historical Background (east-coast Lepong)

Lepong had been the seat of Teuku Umar’s family for generations, and Umar held the title of hoeloebalang (territorial chief) of Lepong by hereditary right. From Lepong Umar had risen to prominence as a war-leader in the Atjeh-oorlog from 1873 onward, and his appointment as Panglima Prang Besar of the Government on 5 September 1893 had not displaced him from his Lepong power-base. Throughout his period of Dutch service (1893–1896) Umar used Lepong as a refuge for his valuables and as a strategic retreat, and the landschap was the principal source of his political legitimacy. After his defection of 29 March 1896 Lepong became the centre of his reorganised resistance.

Role in the 1896 Operations (east-coast Lepong)

Lepong was the principal geographic object of the marine bombardments of 25 May and 4–5, 8–9 June 1896 conducted by the marine from the Kroeng-Raba bay. On 25 May 1896 the marine bombarded Lepong in conjunction with the three-day Dutch offensive against the IV and VI Moekims. On 4 June–5 June 1896 the bombardment was repeated in support of the two-colonne operation; on 8 June–9 June 1896 the Missigit Lepong and Masdjid Lepong were fired upon. After the collapse of his stellingen in the IV and VI Moekims Umar fled eastward into Lepong, and at Lepong on approximately 20 June 1896 he held his council to appoint new panglima’s in succession to those killed or compromised. On 22 June 1896 the Ladoeng landing under Hansen was conducted to the south of Lepong, and the Glé Broeë stelling east of Kroeng-Kali was attacked on 23 June 1896. On 20 June 1896 a Dutch column under Okhuizen marched to Lepong and burned kampongs of the landschap. Teuku Umar’s letters to the Governor of Atjeh of 30 March, 12 April, and 23 April 1896 were all written at Lam-Pisang in the neighbouring IV Moekims, but Umar’s strategic centre of gravity remained at Lepong.

Significance (east-coast Lepong)

Lepong was the symbolic and political heart of Teuku Umar’s authority, and its bombardment by the marine was the principal Dutch means of striking at Umar indirectly after the failure of the three-day offensive to capture him. Umar’s fear of a marine bombardment of Lepong — greater than his fear of a land incursion into the VI Moekims — indicates the political and psychological importance of the landschap to his cause. The chandoeri (council) at Lepong of approximately 20 June 1896 demonstrated Umar’s continued ability to reorganise his forces even after the loss of his stellingen, and Lepong remained his base for the remainder of the Atjeh-oorlog.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

The column at Lho’ Nga drove Teukoe Oemar from Leupoeëng in 1898, “but his bands returned again and again, so that it lasted until 1898 before T. Oemar likewise withdrew to Pidië.” After the murder of C. H. R. Heins at Lhong on 13 July 1914, two groups were sent to Leupoeëng to prevent the affair spreading there.

In the eye survey of Groot-Atjeh (1937)

Leupoeng is named among the coastal and valley districts of Groot-Atjeh covered by Dr. C. E. Gomperts’s eye survey of 1937, in the list printed with the sketch-map of the afdeeling, alongside the VII Moekims Baet and Djeroë.

Source

Atjeh, door H.C. Zentgraff. Gedrukt bij Drukkerij “De Unie”, 1938, Batavia. OCR-filename: 20260709_002148_DLP-81-Atjeh_OCR.txt.

ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 72, 82, 138, 143, 148, 213, 217, 219, 230, 232, 233, 242, 319, 337, 341–344, 348.

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 III, XII.

Oriënteerend oogheelkundig onderzoek bij de Atjehsche bevolking van Groot-Atjeh gedurende 1937 (“Orienting Ophthalmological Survey among the Atjehnese Population of Groot-Atjeh during 1937”), by Dr. C. E. Gomperts, offprint from the Geneeskundig Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch-Indië, Afl. 19, Deel 80 (1940), pp. 1191-1238 (Batavia-Centrum: G. Kolff & Co.). Received by the editors 25 October 1939. Offprint DLP-157, Bibliotheek KITLV.

description	Two distinct Achehnese places share the name Lepong/Leupoeëng: a Westkust place from which Teukoe Oemar was driven and to which he returned (the 1897 punitive expedition against Lhong was the consequence); and an east-coast landschap of Groot-Atjeh of which Teuku Umar was territorial chief and which served as his principal power-base and refuge throughout the Aceh War.
tags	place, coast, aceh, aceh-war, westkust, 19th-century, achehnese, dutch, military, sultanate, east-coast, landschap, groot-atjeh, medicine, 1937
aliases	Lepong, Lhoeng, Leupeng, Leupong, Lampisang, Lejoong

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