Lok-Nga

Lok-Nga — Lhos Nga in older Dutch sources, Lhoknga in modern Acehnese orthography — was an Acehnese kampong and Dutch military bivouac on the west coast of Groot-Atjeh, south-west of the concentrated defensive line around Koetaradja, that was authorised as the site of a versterkt kampement (fortified camp) in August 1896 and that served as the principal Dutch base for operations on the west coast in the second semester of the 1896 campaign. Lok-Nga is one of the principal Dutch posts of the 1896 campaign in ATJEH ‘96 (1913).

Lhoknga — printed Loknga in the source — was one of the three Dutch bivouacs in Groot-Atjeh by which, according to Van Vlijmen speaking in the Tweede Kamer on 16 November 1897, the Dutch commanded the whole Atjeh-vallei.

Lho-Nga was the Dutch benting at Kroeng Raba on the west coast of Groot-Atjeh, standing not far from the point where the Kroeng Raba river pours into the Indian Ocean between rocks and cliffs, and the base of the patrol of 25 September 1897 to the Goeah Teroes cave. It is described at length in two of the sketches of P. H. R. Beuming’s Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh.

Topography

The bivouac of Lok-Nga stood on the west coast of Groot-Atjeh, south-west of the concentrated line, on the Ritieng bay (Kroeng-Ritieng-baai). The site was connected by sea to Olehleh and by land to the concentrated line through the Glé-Loedah pass. The Kroeng Ritieng river reaches the sea at Lok-Nga, and the bay offers a relatively sheltered landing-ground on a coast otherwise exposed to the swell of the Indian Ocean.

The 1896 campaign

Lok-Nga was the principal Dutch base for operations on the west coast in the second semester of the 1896 campaign. The Tweede Deel of ATJEH ‘96 records the machtiging verleend tot den bouw van een versterkt kampement te Lok-Nga (authorisation granted for the construction of a fortified camp at Lok-Nga) in August 1896 on the recommendation of Lt.-Kol. Van Heutsz, and the use of Lok-Nga as the base for the expedition to Lepong of 10–14 August 1896 under Kolonel Stemfoort. The bivouac was also the base for the marechaussée operations on the west coast in September–December 1896.

The occupation of Kroeng Raba (Lok Nga) of 15 July 1896 — a closely related event in the wiki — established the Dutch forward position at Kroëng Raba on the eastern wing; Lok-Nga served the same function on the western wing, providing the Dutch with a forward base for operations against Teuku Umar’s strongholds on the west coast.

Significance

Lok-Nga is one of the principal Dutch posts of the 1896 campaign in ATJEH ‘96 and the principal Dutch base for operations on the west coast in the second semester. The bivouac’s role as the principal Dutch forward position on the west coast made it a key operational feature of the 1896 campaign.

Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)

Lho’ Nga — pronounced Loh Na, modern Lhoknga — is the chief place (hoofdplaats) of the onderafdeeling Lho’ Nga of the afdeeling Groot-Atjeh, situated on the Westkust about 15 km from Kota Radja. The 25 and 26 moekims form the onderafdeeling Lho’ Nga. The road from Kota Radja goes through Lam Pisang — Lam being short for Dalam, palace — a small kampong now, formerly greater and more prominent, and further through a region with war-memory from the days of Oemar, when much was burnt down. Then the road breaks through the low mountains, the kloof Bradeuen (pronounced Bradun). Then one is in the 4 moekims that belong to the onderafdeeling Lho’ Nga, and one drives into a splendid tjemara-forest that stands right on the sea on a hilly ground with a lovely sandy beach before it. On Java and Sumatra one has on some points of the southern and western coast places that surprise by the impression of Western breadth and mildness which they at once give the visitor, accustomed as he is to the landscape in plain under an untempered broiling sun. Such a surprising place one finds at Lho’ Nga on the sea. The Deli-Atjeh-Tabak-Mij more than twenty years before Broersma’s visit made trials with tobacco in the 26 moekims as well as at Indrapoeri. Not much luck was had with the trials, though a good quality could be obtained. ‘Zoo heette het altoos, maar tot een duurzame onderneming kwam het niet. De reden was en is, dat men wel goede tabak verkrijgt, maar geen Deli-Langkat.‘

In the debate of 1897

Van Vlijmen attributed the improvement in the condition of the valley — at rest, with the population returned to its rice fields — to the establishment of the three bivouacs of Tjot Mautjang, Indrapoeri and Loknga: “Door die drie kampementen beheerschen wij de geheele vallei en tevens houden wij in ontzag de nog vijandige hoofden die zich hebben teruggetrokken in het bergterrein, omdat die posten in de onmiddellijke nabijheid daarvan zijn gelegen.” — By those three camps we command the whole valley, and at the same time we hold in awe the still hostile chiefs who have withdrawn into the mountainous terrain, because those posts lie in the immediate neighbourhood of it.

Context

Lhoknga lies on the west shore of the promontory of Groot-Atjeh, at the point where the valley meets the sea, and thus commanded the western approach to the Atjeh valley as Indrapoeri commanded the upper valley and Tjot Mautjang the centre. Its occupation belongs to the system of concentrated kampementen and mobile columns which the Minister of Colonies Cremer defended in the same debate as having been born of the pressure of circumstances after the failure of the geconcentreerde stelling.

Garrison and situation

At the period Beuming describes there was at Kroeng Raba a permanent military garrison consisting of a company of infantry with the necessary artillery to serve the benting guns, and four brigades of marechaussée; the whole was quartered in the benting Lho-Nga. The post had a sick-room and an officer of health, and possessed an eastern face on which the garrison could assemble to watch the return of a patrol.

The fortification lay lonely at the river mouth. Het bestendig ruischen der zee, wier golven zich tegen de rotsen braken, gaf aan het geheel iets droefgeestig eentonigs — the constant murmur of the sea, whose waves broke against the rocks, gave the whole something melancholy and monotonous. No warship ventured to approach that dangerous coast; only now and then were bold Acehnese smuggling prauws to be seen far out, rising and sinking on the waves before disappearing into countless unknown creeks along the strand.

Surroundings

The surrounding country is described in the sketch Een vreeselijke ontmoeting. Across the kali from the post lay an impenetrable wilderness of tropical growth — gigantic bamboo clumps, lianas hanging like countless arms, aloes with razor-sharp thorns — and behind it a broad lagoon, with the majestic Glé Aron range rising in the background and extensive primeval forests on its slopes. The slope fell away slowly to the sea, leaving only a narrow coastal strip between the Glé Loeda pass and the Kroeng Raba.

Life at the post in 1896 and the patrol of 1897

At the end of 1896 the district was unusually quiet, which Beuming ascribed to the vigorous pursuit of Toekoe Oemar after the three-day battle in the Beradin pass, and to the confidence-inspiring attitude of the local chief Toekoe Mahmoed. It was in this period that the garrison commander permitted bathing in the kali, which led to the crocodile encounter and to the permanent prohibition of bathing thereafter.

On 25 September 1897 the patrol under Captain J. N. C. Baron van Heerdt marched out of Lho-Nga against the band of Toekoe Hassan; the whole garrison stood on the eastern face to await its return, and the marechaussée brigades under Lieutenant C. F. A. Wagener marched from the same post in pursuit. The dead were carried the same day to Koeta Radja for burial on the Petjoet cemetery.

Beuming notes that by the time he wrote, in 1911, a gezondheidsetablissement — a sanatorium — had been established at Kroeng Raba, the climate being delightful under the constant sea wind.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

In 1898 the column at Lho’ Nga attacked Teukoe Oemar and drove him from Leupoeëng, though his bands returned repeatedly. The murder of the overseer C. H. R. Heins at Lhong on 13 July 1914 occurred in this sub-division; the controleur of Lho’ Nga left overland for Lhong with two groups that same morning.

Sources

Atjeh gedurende de tweede expeditie en later, Een Oud Officier, Batavia: Ogilvie & Co., 1876, pp. 16-20.

Maréchaussée station (1898)

the 1930 jubilee number of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië records the localisation of the Korps Maréchaussée in 1898: Staff at Koeta Radja; 1st Division at Selimoen; 2nd Division at Indrapoeri; 3rd Division at Tjot Mantjang and Glé Broet; 4th Division at Tjot Goet; 5th Division at Lam Baroe and Lho’-Nga. Lho’-Nga was the station of the 5th Division (with Lam Baroe).

By 1910 the corps had been redistributed to Blang Kedjeren, Meulaboh, Takèngan, Lam Meulo and Lho Soekon.

Source

ATJEH ‘96. Tweede Deel (2c Deel), door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L. (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913), Hoofdstuk IV, p. 50: Machtiging verleend tot den bouw van een versterkt kampement te Lok-Nga; Hoofdstuk IV, De tocht naar Lepong.

Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), passim.

Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer: Debatten bij de behandeling der begrooting van Nederlandsch-Indië voor 1898, uitgave van de Sociaaldemokratische Arbeiderspartij in Nederland (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br P95-178, p. 33.

Acknowledgement of sources. This article combines material from the publications cited above; the material newly added derives from Atjeh in de Tweede Kamer (Amsterdam: J. A. Fortuijn, 1897) and Een strijd in Atjeh (Rotterdam: N.V. Drukkerij Korteweg for the Vereeniging „SIMAVI”, 1934). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.

Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911; uitgegeven ten bate van het te stichten Herstellingsoord voor Rijks-Ambtenaren). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br N 82-144

Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.

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, IV, XII.

Het Korps Maréchaussée in Atjeh: De Atjehsche Garde, 1890 - 2 April 1930 (“The Corps of Maréchaussée in Atjeh: The Atjehnese Guard”), Extra Jubileum-nummer of Het Nieuws van den Dag voor Nederlandsch-Indië issued for the fortieth anniversary of the corps (1930), pp. 1-16. Offprint DLP-143, Bibliotheek KITLV, accession 621 116 794.

tags	place, post, kampong, aceh, aceh-war, colonial, dutch, groot-atjeh, kruisheer, 19th-century, military, lok-nga, lhos-nga, bivak, westkust, onderafdeeling, achehnese, 25-26-moekims, tjemara-bosch, strand, deli-atjeh-tabak-mij, bivouac, coast, 1897, benting, kroeng-raba, garrison, 1896, marechaussee, bay, coastal, settlement, geography
aliases	Lhos Nga, Lhong Nga, Lho' Nga, Lhoknga, the bivak of Lhos Nga, the fortified camp of Lok-Nga, Loknga, Lhok Nga, Lhoknga bivouac, benting Lho-Nga, Lhoknga benting, the benting Lho-Nga at Kroeng Raba, Lho Nga, Lho-Nga, Bay of Lho Nga

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