The Rijk Gasip — the kingdom of Gasip — was, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey of the Outer Possessions, the powerful pre-colonial Sumatran realm that, before the rise of the Sultanate of Siak, had stretched from the lower Siak River deep into the southern interior of Sumatra as far as the legendary Minangkabau kingdom of Pagarroejoeng. Destroyed in the early sixteenth century by the Atjehsche rijk in alliance with the orang-Pandan of the Petalangan country, Gasip left its name to the Soengei Gasip (the Gasip River), along whose banks — the Bureau records — “remnants of the kraton must still be found in the primeval forest”; and it left its political memory to the Siaksche hoofden who, even in the colonial period, traced the origin of their kabesaran (regal ornaments) back to the destroyed realm.
Geographical extent
The Bureau records the geographical extent of Gasip in a single, dense sentence: “In het Z. strekte zich het machtige rijk Gasip uit tot ver buiten de grenzen van het latere sultanaat Siak, terwijl in het N. de Bataks niet alleen het binnenland beheerschten” — “In the south the powerful realm of Gasip extended far beyond the borders of the later sultanate of Siak, while in the north the Bataks not only controlled the interior.” The Bureau further notes that Gasip, “dat zich tot diep in het Zuidelijk binnenland uitstrekte en daar grensde aan het mythische Minangkabausche rijk van Pagarroejoeng” — “which extended deep into the southern interior and there bordered on the mythical Minangkabau kingdom of Pagarroejoeng.” Gasip thus extended, in its greatest reach, from the lower Siak River south-westward into the central Sumatran interior, where it abutted the Minangkabau sphere of influence.
The kraton and the kabesaran
The Bureau records that the material memory of Gasip survived, in the early colonial period, in two forms. First, the ruins of the kraton: “Nog moeten in het oerwoud langs de Soengei Gasip overblijfselen van den kraton zijn te vinden” — “Remnants of the kraton must still be found in the primeval forest along the Soengei Gasip.” Second, the kabesaran — the regal ornaments — of the Siak chiefs: “er onder de Siaksche hoofden enkelen zijn, die den oorsprong hunner kabesaran’s (rijks-orna mentee) terugbrengen tot dat rijk” — “there are among the Siak chiefs some who trace the origin of their kabesaran (regal ornaments) back to that realm.” The Siak sultanate thus presented itself, in the early colonial period, as the institutional heir of Gasip — a claim that gave the Siak sultanate a historical depth that the Atjehnese destruction of Gasip had interrupted but not erased.
The destruction of Gasip
The Bureau records the destruction of Gasip in a single, dense sentence: “Het rijk van Gasip, dat zich tot diep in het Zuidelijk binnenland uitstrekte en daar grensde aan het mythische Minangkabausche rijk van Pagarroejoeng, werd in het begin der 16e eeuw in een oorlog tegen het naijverige Atjehsche rijk verslagen en verwoest” — “The realm of Gasip, which extended deep into the southern interior and there bordered on the mythical Minangkabau kingdom of Pagarroejoeng, was, in the beginning of the 16th century, in a war against the jealous Atjehsche rijk, defeated and destroyed.” The Bureau’s characterisation of the Atjehsche rijk as “naijverige” — “jealous” — signals its reading of the war as an act of Atjehnese preemptive aggression against a regional rival.
The destruction was carried out with the collaboration of the orang-Pandan — the inhabitants of the Petalangan country. The Bureau records: “Toen de Atjehers, met behulp van de orang-Pandan (de bewoners der Petalangan) Gasip overweldigd hadden, voerden zij de vorsten gevankelijk mede naar Atjeh en lieten het verwoeste rijk achter ten prooi aan ontbinding” — “When the Atjehers, with the help of the orang-Pandan (the inhabitants of the Petalangan), had overwhelmed Gasip, they led the princes away captive to Atjeh and left the destroyed realm to the prey of dissolution.” The deportation of the Gasip princes to Atjeh is, in the Bureau’s account, the closing act of the destruction: the political class of the destroyed realm was removed, and the territory was left to dissolve.
The Djohorese succession
The destruction of Gasip opened the lower Siak River to a new contender. The Bureau records: “Hiervan maakte de Sultan van Djohore gebruik om zich aan de monding der Siak-rivier te vestigen, terwijl de sage ervan spreekt, dat in het binnenland eene soort federatie van onafhankelijke kleine landschapjes ontstond, zooals de Tapoeng-streken (boven-Siak) thans nog vormen” — “Of this the Sultan of Djohore made use to establish himself at the mouth of the Siak river, while the saga speaks of it that in the interior a kind of federation of independent small landschapjes arose, such as the Tapoeng-streken (upper-Siak) still form today.” The Djohorese succession at the Siak River mouth — governed by a sjahbandar resident at Sabah Aoer — would, in turn, be overthrown by Radja Ketjil in the early eighteenth century, giving rise to the independent Sultanate of Siak.
Significance
The Rijk Gasip is, in the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s survey, the southern counterpart of the Batakrijk Aroe — the great pre-colonial realm of the southern East Coast, as Aroe was of the northern. Its destruction by Atjeh is the earliest of the Atjehnese interventions on the East Coast recorded in the Bureau’s survey, and the deportation of its princes is the precedent for the later, more systematic Atjehnese deportations under Iskander Moeda. The survival of Gasip’s memory in the kabesaran of the Siak chiefs is the institutional hinge by which the Siak sultanate presented itself as the heir of the destroyed realm — a claim that would, in the nineteenth century, underwrite Siak’s assertions of overlordship over the East Coast statelets.
Sources
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Afl. 3: Oostkust van Sumatra. Eerste Stuk, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1918), p. 102. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark LS.08781.
Nota omtrent het Rijk van Siak, by H. A. Hijmans van Anrooy, in Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, dl. XXX (1885).
See Also
- Siak
- Acheh
- orang-Pandan
- Petalangan
- Pagarroejoeng
- Soengei Gasip
- Sabah Aoer
- Djohor
- Radja Ketjil
- rijk Aroe
- Tapoeng-streken
- atjehsche-verovering-van-gasip-(begin-16e-eeuw)
- atjehsche-vernietiging-van-het-batakrijk-aroe-(c-1589)
- atjehsche-overheersing-der-noordelijke-kuststaatjes
- sultan-iskander-moeda’s-oostkust-veldtocht
- 1509
- 1511
- rijk Gasip
- Sumatra’s East Coast
Source
De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Afl. 3: Oostkust van Sumatra. Eerste Stuk, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1918), pp. 102–103. Universiteitsbibliotheek Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, shelfmark LS.08781.
Nota omtrent het Rijk van Siak, by H. A. Hijmans van Anrooy, in Tijdschrift van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde van Nederlandsch-Indië, dl. XXX (1885).