Tamiang

Tamiang (Achehnese: Teumieng; Malay: Tamiang) is a region on the east coast of Sumatra that, in the pre-colonial period, marked the eastern boundary point of the Aceh Sultanate and, in the colonial period, formed the southeastern onderafdeeling (sub-district) of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (Government of Aceh and Dependencies). Watered by the Tamiang and bounded on the south by the watershed that separates it from the residentie (residency) of Sumatra’s Oostkust (East Coast of Sumatra), Tamiang was the principal agricultural frontier of the Atjeh residency in the 1910s and, by the late colonial period, the site of the most productive oil field of the colonial Atjeh residency. According to C. Snouck Hurgronje, the limits of the whole Acehnese kingdom were placed by the Acehnese themselves at Teumieng (Tamiang) on the East Coast — though this referred to the outer kingdom, not to Great Acheh proper.

Tamiang as the Eastern Limit of Acheh

Tamiang (in the OCR of The Achehnese rendered Teumicng, more correctly Teumieng) is the region on the East Coast of Sumatra which the Achehnese themselves, in Snouck Hurgronje’s account, named as the eastern limit of the kingdom of Acheh. Together with Baros on the West Coast, it marks the boundary, in Achehnese conception, between the territory of the Sultans of Acheh and the country of the princes of Menangkabau farther to the south. Tamiang thus figures in Vol. I of The Achehnese as the south-eastern landmark of the loose Achehnese dominion, beyond which the authority of the Sultan gave way to that of the Minangkabau rulers.

Snouck Hurgronje writes: “The limits of the kingdom of Acheh in Sumatra are placed by the Achehnese themselves at Teumieng (Tamiang) on the East Coast, but far more to the South on the Western Coast, viz. at Baros or whatever other point they regard as marking the boundary between the territory of the princes of Menangkabau and that of the Sultans of Acheh.” This Achehnese definition of the kingdom’s extent is distinguished by the author from the much more restricted territory they describe as “Acheh” proper or “Great Acheh” — the kernel of the kingdom bounded by a line extending from Kluang on the West to Krueng Raya on the North Coast and passing through Reuengreueng, Pancha, and Janthoe.

The Tamiang country lay in the direction of the Alas highlands and the territories of the Gayos and Alassers, Mohammedan subjects of Acheh who served as a refuge for Achehnese bands in time of war. Although the political influence of the Achehnese sultanate at Tamiang was always looser than in Great Acheh proper, the inclusion of Tamiang within the Achehnese sphere is a measure of the wide extent, if mostly nominal, of the sultanate at the height of its power. On the sketch-map appended to Vol. I, Tamiang is shown as a subdivision on the East Coast, at the south-eastern corner of the territory covered. The island of Sampoe lies near Tamiang.

Beyond this notice, Vol. I has little to say of the political institutions or internal economy of Tamiang; it is treated as a boundary district rather than as a functioning part of the Achehnese state, and its people do not play an active part in the events narrated by Snouck Hurgronje.

Geographic Position and Border Significance

The onderafdeeling Tamiang occupied the southeastern corner of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden (Government of Aceh and Dependencies), where the territory of Atjeh abutted the Langkat sultanate and the broader residentie of Sumatra’s Oostkust. This was a landscape of river valleys and lowlands that sloped gently toward the Strait of Malacca, quite different in character from the mountainous interior of Groot-Atjeh (Great Aceh) or the rugged western coastline. The Tamiang River valley provided a natural corridor of communication between the Atjeh highlands and the east coast lowlands, and the communities of the Tamiang region had historically maintained close economic and social ties with the Malay polities to their south — ties that in many cases predated the establishment of the colonial border between Atjeh and Sumatra’s Oostkust.

The border between Atjeh and Sumatra’s Oostkust was, in many respects, an artificial line drawn by the colonial state to delimit the jurisdiction of two fundamentally different administrative systems. On the Atjeh side, the military-dominated Gouvernement (Government) exercised authority through a combination of direct rule and indirect governance; on the Sumatra side, the civilian Resident of Sumatra’s Oostkust administered a territory whose economy was dominated by European plantation interests and whose governance was oriented toward facilitating the plantation economy. The communities of Tamiang, situated at this administrative frontier, inevitably felt the pull of both systems, and their economic activities — trade in forest products, small-scale agriculture, and commercial exchanges with the ports of the east coast — connected them more closely to the world of Sumatra’s Oostkust than to the Atjeh highlands.

The Five Landschapjes and the Pre-Colonial Kingdom

By the time of the colonial handbook’s compilation, Tamiang was divided into five landschapjes (small polities):

The territory of the Keudjeuroeën Karang — northern upper-Tamiang
The territory of the Radja Bandahara — northern lower-Tamiang
The territory of the Keudjeuroeën Moeda — southern upper-Tamiang
The territory of Soetan Moeda (Indra Kesoema) — southern lower-Tamiang
The landschap of Soengei Ijoe

Each landschap retained its own version of the Datoeq Ampat Soekoe — the council of four soekoe (clan) chiefs that had been the constitutional core of the original Tamiang kingdom of Radja Mengkoeta — though the title had, as De Buitenbezittingen records, become “niets dan zinledigen titel voor een aantal hoogwaardigheidsbekleeders” (nothing but an empty title for a number of dignitaries).

The oldest history of Tamiang, De Buitenbezittingen records, tells of a single kingdom from which the present five landschapjes descended. A period of regeeringloosheid (anarchy) following a war with a Javanese prince gave the Batak immigrants near Tandjoeng Karang the opportunity to come to an understanding with the Acehnese Sultan. The Sultan’s sarakata (royal charter) appointed the Batak headman Radja Mengkoeta as vorst over Tamiang (prince over Tamiang); Radja Mengkoeta, in turn, appointed the Datoeq Ampat Soekoe — the council of four — to govern with him. After his reign the kingdom split into the two keudjeuroeëns of Karang and Moeda, and the later partitions produced the five landschapjes of the colonial period.

The Langkat Claim and the Dutch Transfer

The Sultan of Langkat’s claim to Tamiang rested on the fact that Tjoet Gát — the warrior who had led the combined Tamiang forces to victory against adventurers from Meureudoe — had been his subject. The grant of the Bandahara territory to Tjoet Gát’s heir was exploited by Langkat as a voorwendsel (pretext) for proclaiming its own suzerainty over the new landschapje. The subsequent appointment of Soetan Moeda Indra Kesoema as ruler of part of the Bandahara territory provoked the armed resistance of the next Radja Bandahara, supported by Atjeh and Langsa — a war that remained unresolved for years.

The Dutch were drawn into the dispute in 1861, confirmed the positions of the two Keudjeuroeëns and Soetan Moeda in 1865, and finally extinguished Langkat’s rights in the 1878 transfer. Tamiang was formally incorporated into the indirect bestuurd gebied (indirectly governed territory) of the Gouvernement in 1908.

The 1893 Expedition Against Tamiang

In 1893 a Dutch marine force under Heuter was dispatched to the area to suppress a cross-border insurgency that had been harassing Dutch positions in Atjeh. The operation, recorded as the expedition against Tamiang, involved a small naval contingent that secured the coastal town of Kuala Tamiang and conducted patrols inland. The operation is documented in C. J. O. Dorren’s marine-corps history, pp. 114–116.

The 1913 Atjeh-Tramway Extension and the Tamiangsche Moerassen

The Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account of the 1913 extension approvals places Tamiang at the centre of the projected southern extension of the Atjeh-tramway. By the G. Bn. of 17 June 1913 No. 59, 16 October 1913 No. 25, and 8 November 1913 No. 40, “the doortrekking was approved of the Atjeh-tram network from Koeala Simpang through Tamiang to Besitang, and from Pangkalan Soesoe to Telok Taboeban (on Arube Bay, with a good roadstead), while the connecting line between Besitang and Pangkalan Soesoe is also already in preparation.”

The Bureau’s account of the Aroe-baai-plannen (Arube Bay plans) then names the Tamiangsche moerassen — the Tamiang swamps — as the principal agricultural frontier whose reclamation would, together with the Arube Bay harbour project, transform the economic geography of the entire Atjeh residency. The Bureau writes that the defenders of the Aroe-baai-plannen “hope, by the laying of this connecting link, to see the first step taken toward the realisation of those future plans, by the export of the Atjehnese products (pepper, rubber, etc.) — which increases steadily with the reclamation of the Tamiangsche moerassen — to be led via Arube Bay.”

The 1914 Merger Proposal: From Atjeh to Langkat

At the Medan meeting of 14 January 1914, Resident Van der Plas proposed that Tamiang be added to the Langkat afdeeling (district) along with the Oostkust van Atjeh (East Coast of Atjeh). This proposal was part of a broader scheme to realign the administrative boundaries of the border region, bringing Atjeh’s eastern territories under the same administrative umbrella as the economically related Langkat and Deli sultanates. The logic of the proposal was straightforward: the communities of Tamiang had stronger economic and social connections to Langkat than to Koeta-Radja, and their governance under a Resident based in the east coast region would be more efficient and responsive to local needs than continued administration from the distant Atjeh capital.

At the Koeta-Radja meeting (19 January–20 January 1914), the proposal was modified but the principle of Tamiang’s transfer was confirmed. The revised plan created the combined afdeeling “Noord- en Oostkust van Atjeh behalve Tamiang” (North and East Coast of Atjeh except Tamiang), explicitly excluding Tamiang from the new Atjeh-based administrative unit and confirming its proposed transfer out of the Atjeh administrative structure and into the Langkat-based division. The very name of the new afdeeling — “behaleve Tamiang” (except Tamiang) — testified to the significance of this boundary adjustment, which was the only instance in the Atjeh reorganization where a specific onderafdeeling was carved out of a combined unit for transfer to another afdeeling.

Van der Plas stated at the Koeta-Radja meeting that the addition of Atjeh areas including Tamiang and Langsa to the afdeelingen Deli and Langkat should be left to the judgment of the Gouverneur van Atjeh (Governor of Atjeh). This deference to the Governor’s local knowledge reflected a recognition that border adjustments of this nature required an understanding of conditions on the ground that could not be fully captured in the minutes of a bestuursvergadering (administrative meeting). The provision also acknowledged the sensitivity of transferring territory out of the Gouvernement — a move that could be perceived as a diminution of Atjeh’s territorial integrity.

The Cultuurgebied

By the time of the handbook, Tamiang had become, with Langsa, the southern anchor of the East Coast Cultuurgebied (cultivation area). The 20 landbouw-concessies (agricultural concessions) in Tamiang — totalling 47,000 hectares — represented by 12 maatschappijen (companies) managing 17 ondernemingen (enterprises) (18 concessions), with a capital of f 17,250,000, made it one of the most heavily invested regions of the Gouvernement. The houtaankap (timber felling) on the Tamiang-Langkat border, conducted by Chinese panglongs (timber camps), was the most active timber industry of the territory.

The Tamiang Oil Block

The Tamiang oil block lies at the southern edge of the Atjeh residency, on the border with the residency of the East Coast of Sumatra. The Tamiang region — the basin of the Tamiang — is geologically continuous with the oil-bearing neogene anticlines of the East-Coast-of-Sumatra oil province, and the Tamiang block’s high productivity reflects its position within this productive neogene petroleum system rather than within the more difficult “steep folds” of the Atjeh interior proper. Van Bemmelen’s classification of Atjeh as one of the “steep folds (Atjeh, Borneo)” that “were repeatedly investigated by drilling but the results have not been encouraging” applies to the interior Atjeh fields (the East Atjeh block and the smaller Atjeh oil complex fields), not to the Tamiang block, which belongs to the more gently-domed East-Coast-of-Sumatra structural style.

For the full North-Sumatran production table see the entry on the East Atjeh oil block. The Tamiang block alone accounted for 709,625 of the 920,755 total tons of North-Sumatran production in 1940 (77.1 %), and 527,590 of the 728,682 total tons in 1941 (72.4 %). The drop in Tamiang production between 1940 and 1941 — a fall of 182,035 tons, or 25.7 % — is the principal cause of the overall North-Sumatran production decline between those years, and is consistent with the general contraction of East Indian oil production in 1941 as the colonial economy braced for the Pacific War. The operator of the Tamiang block was the B.P.M. (Bataafsche Petroleum Maatschappij), the Royal Dutch subsidiary that operated the great majority of the East Indian oil fields in the late colonial period.

Significance

Tamiang is significant in the encyclopedia of Acheh history at three principal levels. First, as the easternmost limit of the Acehnese sultanate in Snouck Hurgronje’s account, Tamiang marked the outer reach of Acehnese sovereignty before the Dutch colonial reorganisation. Second, as the onderafdeeling whose proposed transfer out of the Gouvernement was the principal boundary adjustment of the 1913–1914 Atjeh reorganisation, Tamiang illustrates the artificiality of the colonial border between Atjeh and Sumatra’s Oostkust, and the deeper economic and social pull of the east-coast plantation world on the communities of the Atjeh frontier. Third, as the site of the Tamiang oil block, the region was, by a wide margin, the most productive oil field of the colonial Atjeh residency, accounting for more than 70 % of North-Sumatran oil production in both 1940 and 1941, and representing the high-point of Atjeh’s contribution to the colonial East Indian petroleum economy.

In the Encyclopaedisch Bureau’s account, Tamiang is the principal agricultural frontier of the Atjeh and Dependencies residency in the 1910s — the swamp region whose reclamation would supply the export trade that the Aroe-baai-plannen were designed to channel through Arube Bay. The 1913 extension of the Atjeh-tramway through Tamiang to Besitang is the logistical infrastructure of this projected agricultural boom.

Account from De onderwerping van Atjeh (Van Heutsz, 1893)

In Van Heutsz’s 1893 tract De onderwerping van Atjeh, Tamiang — het Tamiangsche in Van Heutsz’s adjectival spelling — is the east-coast statelet at the eastern extremity of the Atjehnese Onderhoorigheden that served as the eastern limit of the rigoureuse blokkade the Regeering had prescribed in 1884 and that was to extend van Tamiang op de Oostkust tot Troemon op de Westkust (from Tamiang on the East Coast to Troemon on the West Coast). The statelet’s geographic position — at the eastern end of the Atjehnese coast, abutting the Langkat-Deli continuum of the east-coast Malay states — made it, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, both the prescribed eastern limit of the Dutch closure and the chief smuggling-route around the closure: the place through which, in 1890, het grootste gedeelte van de oorlogscontrabande en opium, die te Kemala binnenkwamen, ingevoerd waren via Tamiang (the greater part of the war-materiel and opium that came into Kemala was imported via Tamiang). Tamiang was also the family-base of Toeankoe Haschim — whose grandmother was a sister of the Radja Bandahara of Tamiang, and whose goendiq (concubine) was a Tamiang woman.

The eastern limit of the 1884 rigorous blokkade

The Concentratie of 19 August 1884 — ordered by besluit of the Gouverneur-Generaal and authorised by Staatsblad No. 105 van 1884 — prescribed, as its second operational component, a rigoureuse sluiting van het geheele kustgebied, d. w. z. van Tamiang op de Oostkust tot Troemon op de Westkust (a rigorous closure of the entire coastal territory, i.e., from Tamiang on the Oostkust to Troemon on the Westkust). Van Heutsz records the prescription in his catalogue of the Concentratiestelsel’s two parts: the rigoureuse sluiting of the entire coast from Tamiang to Troemon was the tweede deel of the Concentratiestelsel — the part that was van kracht getuigde (testified to strength) — as distinct from the non-interventie part that, in Atjehnese eyes, could only betoken weakness. Tamiang’s role as the eastern limit fixed the geographic scope of the prescribed closure: every kuststaatje from Tamiang round the entire coast to Troemon was to be closed to foreign trade, with the Dutch marine enlarged to enforce the seal.

The Regeering’s intent, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, was unambiguous: the volkomen afsluiting van het geheele gebied van Tamiang op de Oostkust tot aan Troemon op de Westkust lay in Hare bedoeling en in die van het Opperbestuur (in the Regeering’s and the Opperbestuur’s intent). The Demmeni partieele blokkade — the partial closure Demmeni actually imposed, combined with the soort scheepvaartregeling of 13 October 1884 — was, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, the operational default that converted the rigoureuse sluiting from Tamiang to Troemon into a partieele closure that left great stretches of the coast open. The result was the worst of both worlds — geen rigoureuse blokkade (no rigorous blockade) but also geen echte scheepvaartregeling (no true shipping-regulation).

The 1873 alt-history: the closure that should have been

Van Heutsz’s argument for the Tamiang-to-Troemon scope reaches back to the beginning of the war in 1873. The retrospective alt-history is recorded in his catalogue of the missed opportunities of the first years: had the Dutch held the closure from Tamiang to Troemon from 1873 onward, the chiefs of both Groot-Atjeh and the Onderhoorigheden would have had to submit after the Dutch successes of late 1873 and early 1874. The 1884 Concentratie was, in this argument, the belated operationalisation of the 1873 prescription, and the Demmeni partial application the second betrayal of it.

The 1890 smuggling-route around the closure

The operational reality of Tamiang under the Van Teijn closure of 1890 was the inverse of its prescribed role as the eastern limit of the closure: it became the chief smuggling-route around the closure, the channel through which the Kemala war-party drew its oorlogscontrabande en opium. Van Heutsz records the smuggling-route:

“ik herinner b. v. maar aan hetgeen hiervoren reeds gezegd is omtrent den uitvoer van peper van Simpang Anas, onderhoorigheden van Perlak, via Tamiang en Langkat, tot ontduiking van den hatsil en de opgelegde oorlogeschatting; ook de invoer van het benoodigde in dit staatje geschiedde langs denzelfden weg, terwijl het bekend is dat in 1890, tijdens de sluiting, het grootste gedeelte van de oorlogscontrabande en opium, die te Kemala binnenkwamen, ingevoerd waren via Tamiang” (I recall for example what has already been said above concerning the export of pepper from Simpang Anas, dependency of Perlak, via Tamiang and Langkat, to evade the hatsil [export duty] and the imposed war-levy; the import of necessaries into this statelet also took place by the same route, while it is known that in 1890, during the closure, the greater part of the war-materiel and opium that came into Kemala was imported via Tamiang).

The smuggling-route ran from Simpang Anas (a onderhoorighheid of Perlak) via Tamiang and Langkat to the Straits — a route by which the Simpang Anas pepper-growers evaded the Dutch hatsil (export duty) and the oorlogeschatting (war-levy). The same route carried the invoer van het benoodigde — the import of necessaries — into Simpang Anas, and in 1890 it carried het grootste gedeelte van de oorlogscontrabande en opium, die te Kemala binnenkwamen. Tamiang’s geographic position — at the eastern extremity of the Atjehnese coast, abutting the Langkat-Deli continuum of the east-coast Malay states — made it, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, the natural smuggling-channel around any closure that did not extend to and beyond the eastern limit.

The Haschim family-base

Tamiang was also the family-base of Toeankoe Haschim — the voornaamste hoofd van de tegenpartij (principal chief of the opposing party) whose manipulation of Toeankoe Mohamad Daoed and parallel central government at Kemala was, in Van Heutsz’s diagnosis, the principal obstacle to Dutch subjugation. Haschim’s father Toeankoe Kadir had married, in Tamiang, a sister of the Radja Bandahara of Tamiang — Van Heutsz records the marriage in his genealogy of the Haschim-line: De derde eindelijk Toeankoe Kadir huwde in het Tamiangsche eene zuster van Radja Bandahara en kreeg bij deze vrouw drie zoons en eene dochter. De drie zoons waren: Toeankoe Haschim, Toeankoe Machmoed en Toeankoe Radja Itam (The third, finally, Toeankoe Kadir married in the Tamiangsche a sister of Radja Bandahara and had by this wife three sons and one daughter. The three sons were: Toeankoe Haschim, Toeankoe Machmoed, and Toeankoe Radja Itam). The marriage-tie gave Haschim a Tamiang-family connection — a sister-in-law’s Radja Bandahara title and a Tamiang goendiq (concubine) who bore him his son Toeankoe Brahim.

The 1893 prescription: Tamiang as the eastern limit, retained

In Van Heutsz’s own 1893 prescription, Tamiang was retained as the eastern limit of the scheepvaartregeling. The prescription codifies the Tamiang-to-Troemon scope:

“Over de geheele kust van Atjeh — dus van Tamiang op de Oostkust tot aan Troemon op de Westkust — Groot-Atjeh niet uitgezonderd — moeten alleen eenige door ons aan te wijzen plaatsen voor den algemeenen handel worden opengesteld” (Over the entire coast of Atjeh — thus from Tamiang on the Oostkust to Troemon on the Westkust — Groot-Atjeh not excepted — only a few places to be designated by us must be opened for general trade).

The 1893 prescription was, in operational terms, the codification of the 1884 Concentratie’s intended scope — the volkomen afsluiting from Tamiang to Troemon — combined with the scheepvaartregeling of open ports at named places. Tamiang retained its role as the eastern limit of the closure, and the prescription’s emphasis on the snelvarende marine — the fast-cruiser marine — was, in Van Heutsz’s argument, the operational answer to the 1890 smuggling-route: a marine that could patrol the eastern stretches of the coast and intercept the prauw-smugglers who had run the closure via Tamiang in 1890. The prescription was the codification of the operational lesson the 1890 smuggling-route had taught — the lesson Van Heutsz would himself implement as Governor of Atjeh from 1898 onward.

Account from De Atjeh-Oorlog by J.A. Kruijt (1896)

Kruijt establishes the Tamiang river as the eastern boundary of Atjeh at the time of the Dutch declaration of war in March 1873: Atjeh consisted of the coastal strip on the northern point of Sumatra, running on the East Coast from the Tamiang river to the West Coast as far as the region of Troemon.

In January 1886 Nja Makam raided Tamiang and plundered in Langkat; many statelets on the East Coast helped him. The raid was one of the principal acts of Atjehese aggression against the Dutch sphere of influence in the period of the concentration system.

In 1892–1893, under Deijkerhoff’s governorship, Nja Makam — as the Sultan’s authorised agent, provided with the Sultan’s tjap (seal), with much following, and helped and housed by Dutch “friends” — travelled the coastal statelets raising money and people to the East Coast as far as Tamiang to cause unrest. He brought the Dutch tobacco and petroleum districts into violent turmoil, and the Dutch had the greatest difficulty in 1892 and 1893 to drive him from his positions on the Tamiang-rivier. The contrast between the well-administered East Coast, with its centre at Edi, and the unrest caused by Nja Makam in the Tamiang region is one of the principal illustrations in Kruijt’s brochure of the failure of the Dutch policy of using Atjehese auxiliaries against Atjehese enemies.

De onderwerping van Atjeh, door J. B. van Heutsz, Majoor der Infanterie, gewezen Chef van den Staf in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. ‘s-Gravenhage: De Gebroeders van Cleef; Batavia: G. Kolff en Co., 1893, esp. pp. 30, 32, 36, 50, 64, 72, 77. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-107-De_onderwerping_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.

Account from Verkenningen in Atjeh (1923)

Tamiang — properly Temiang, but the spelling Tamiang is the usual one — is the stroomgebied (river-basin) of the Simpang-kiri and the Simpang-kanan, which together form the Tamiang river, in the south-eastern corner of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. Before 1908 it formed part of the gewest Oostkust van Sumatra, to which it belongs by reason of its Malay and Batak population, but in that year it was detached and added to the afdeeling Oostkust van Atjeh as a separate onderafdeeling with its chief place at Koeala Simpang. Broersma opens his Verkenningen in Atjeh with Tamiang, the first Atjehnese territory a traveller meets coming south from the Deli-spoor.

Historical Background

The Atjehnese sultanate had early shown a tendency to southward expansion, and the Tamiang grooten were not able to withstand it. When the Atjehnese wished to harm the Kompenie, their bands visited Tamiang for that purpose. The first attempts of European entrepreneurs to settle in Tamiang suffered greatly under the raids of Atjehnese and Gajos; even in Langkat the first enterprises were troubled. Pepper-planters, wanderers and raiders continually disturbed the regions near the Aroe-baai, and the whole of Tamiang remained unsafe. Only in 1898 did Tamiang share in the general improvement of the situation, when the Atjeh-weg was about to reach Koeala Simpang, and the opening of Tamiang to private enterprise was a token of confidence in the security of oil-winning and tobacco-cultivation.

The First Tobacco Experiments

The Deli-Mij. received a large land-grant there, and after a trial opened the tobacco-estates Sekrah I, II and III. After a few years it closed those estates, because the tobacco did not succeed to its wish, and gave back the grounds. The Tabak-Mij. Arendsburg had likewise acquired grounds, opened the estates Simpang and Soengei Lipoet, and closed them after a year or two. Finally, a Rotterdam Deli-Mij. also failed at the same time with the estate Gedong Bidra. The tobacco proved unable, even under orderly conditions, to become Deli-tobacco. Yet Tamiang was to wait only a few years to become a cultivation-land: on the fields given up by tobacco there appeared the entrepreneurs of rubber, coffee, or oil-palm cultivation. The movement began slowly about 1910 and accelerated about 1915; first came rubber and coffee, then oil-palm.

The Estates

The estates lie north and south of Koeala Simpang, through which the Atjeh-tram runs. One of the oldest and largest of the companies is the Soengei Lipoet Cultuur-Mij, founded in 1908 with predominantly Belgian capital. In 1910 were formed the Tamiang Landbouw-syndicaat and the Tamiang Rubber-Syndicate. The Société financière des caoutchoucs is the holding company for many Tamiang estates — for example, Soengei Lipoet and Mopoli with rubber and oil-palm, Batang Ara with rubber, Medang Ara and Semadami with oil-palm and rubber. The great rubber-estate Simpang-kiri is a Belgian company. The rubber-lands Rantau, Tamiang and Oepah, formerly of the Tamiang Landbouw-syndicaat, now belong to the Anglo Dutch. The older estate Tandjong Semantoh now belongs to the Borneo Rubber Compagnie, a Japanese-owned body; a large younger one is the Aloer Djamboe of the Handelsvereeniging Amsterdam. The oldest Tamiang planter, H. C. Reuter, who sold Tandjong Semantoh to the Japanese, is now the owner of the young estate Rimba Sawang.

Soil and Cultivation

The soil-chemist F. C. van Heurn, in his Gegevens betreffende den bodem van Sumatra’s Oostkust, gives the following verdict on the soils of Tamiang: the tertiary hill-land differs from the mountains of the same formation in that its surface consists mainly of clays and clay-stones, while the marls and sandstones — elsewhere appearing as sandy hills — are here in the minority. The sandy patches are as unfruitful as the sandy tertiary soils of Bengkalis, but the clays, with proper drainage, possess excellent properties for European cultures. Broersma comments drily that Van Heurn does not say how the clays have proved those excellent properties — ‘door de nu bestaande aanplantingen misschien? Maar dan is het bewijs van te weinig omvang.’

The general impression of the Tamiang estates is one of onfrischheid, of neglect. Two evils in the treatment of rubber-gardens — the schoonwieden (clean-weeding) and a heavy tap — have left traces which a better management may not be able to remove. When clean-weeding was given up as wrong, the managers swung to the other extreme, with the result that alang-alang stands in many gardens. To have green manure, many managers planted mimosa, which they now try to get rid of because it spreads too much, and which they wish to replace with vigna oligosperma, which however does not everywhere grow readily. The laying out of drains has not been successful on all estates, and the water will not run off. It is certain that not all the lands planted with rubber and oil-palm in Tamiang are suitable. There are gardens in which ten- and twelve-year-old trees look as if they were six. Poor in leaf and yellow at the tops are whole groups. It happens that oil-palms stand in peat-ground, by which they lie down and take fresh root. Rubber-trees show the same trick. Curiously enough, the fruit-bearing of such trees is sometimes abundant. But that can only be a temporary vigour, and strength wasted on poor grounds cannot bring planting to full growth.

Soengei Lipoet and Palm-Oil

The estate Soengei Lipoet, one of the largest in Tamiang, has a planting of more than seven hundred bouw of oil-palm besides 2.800 bouw of rubber. It lies right on the tram-line and is not far from the Aroe-baai, so that this estate may consider undertaking its own despatch. The preparation of palm-oil at Soengei Lipoet began in 1919. At first it was half-mechanical, half-manual, but gradually it became wholly mechanical. The fruits are brought on narrow-gauge rail; the nuts of other estates also arrive by the Atjeh-tram. After passing the weighbridge, the fruits are thrown onto platforms for storage and for sorting into first, second and third quality by ripeness and size. All fruit is processed into oil within twenty-four hours. The first pressing yields the best oil, suitable for margarine; the second pressing yields a second quality used for soap. The estate sends its oil to Marseille, Antwerpen, Rotterdam, London and Liverpool. The kernels are sent to Europe in sacks; the oil in casks of oak staves, 550 kg each. The estate has had as much as 16 percent wastage.

Administrative Position

The importance which Tamiang has is derived from the great agricultural industry. It is not erfpacht (hereditary lease) that is granted here or elsewhere in the afdeeling on the grounds, but a vergunning tot landbouw (licence for agriculture), so that no mortgage can be taken on the land. The payment for it comes six-tenths to the government and four-tenths to the landschap. Tamiang is in essence not an Atjehnese landschap. The chief place Koeala Simpang received an extension in the good years, thanks to the presence of about twenty estates in the neighbourhood; and now it shares the silence that was imposed on the cultures.

Account in du Croo’s Generaal Swart (1943)

The estate area created on the east coast from 1910 “also laid the foundation for the financial prosperity of the sub-divisional treasuries of Tamiang and Langsa,” according to Jongejans.

Account from Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh (1923)

Tamiang — “Temyang” in Joh. Langhout’s spelling — was the sub-department of Atjeh immediately bordering the East Coast of Sumatra residency, the part of the province where the first private estates appeared (by 1908), and which by 1923 held the concessions of the Société Financière des Caoutchoucs (Soengei Lipoet, Batang Ara, Semadam), the Palmeraies de Simpang Kanan, the Simpang Kiri Cultuurmaatschappij and the Tengoelan Cultuur Maatschappij — the district treated in Langhout’s chapter “Buitenlandsch kapitaal in Atjeh”.

The first estates

Private agricultural enterprises, of which in 1908 only a few were found, and those in the sub-department Temyang, gradually extended, so that slowly in this sub-department and in that of Langsa a great number of rubber-, oil-palm- and coconut-enterprises arose; the agricultural concessions issued numbered in 1918 141 over the whole province, of which 68 in exploitation. From 1911 a stream of natives and Foreign Orientals, who found there an ample existence, entered the province in consequence of the steady extension of the cultures on the East Coast.

The foreign plantations

Under Franco-Belgian auspices the Société Financière des Caoutchoucs opened in Temyang a series of enterprises for the winning of caoutchouc, coffee, rubber and palm-oil: Soengei Lipoet (opened 26 February 1908; from 30 ha to 5,751 ha by 1922 with 3,600 coolies; coffee changed for oil-palm in 1918), Batang Ara (18 January 1911; 86 ha to 1,739 ha, 742 coolies) and Semadam (1913; over 515 ha). The French company “Palmeraies de Simpang Kanan” opened on 28 April 1914 the estate Simpang Kanan (650 ha Hevea rubber and some 70 ha oil-palm), worked beside by the Simpang Kiri Cultuurmaatschappij (founded 22 March 1913, some 600 ha rubber), while the Tengoelan Cultuur Maatschappij likewise possessed enterprises in the Atjehnese district. The tramway’s baanvak Koeala Simpang–Soengei Lipoet opened in 1914, carrying the line into this estate district, on the way to Besitang (1915–1916).

Name and frontier

The older geography of the region surfaces in the history of the Treaty with the Sultan of Siak (1858): Siak, freed from Atjeh since 1705, placed itself with all dependencies “stretching to the Tamiang river” under Dutch supremacy — the boundary-river whose basin formed Atjeh’s later south-eastern sub-department.

Account from Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu

Most easterly onderafdeeling of Aceh; opened for landbouw-concessies. Tertiair gronden enabled an important rubber and palm oil culture center. Malay or mixed Acehnese-Malay population; less resistanceto Dutch rule than pure Acehnese areas. Financieel bloei of its onderafdelingskas from rubber cultivation.Onderafdeeling on Oostkust; rubber cultivation; BPM 5A contract block containing Rantauoil field (one of most productive in N.I.).Onderafdeeling in the afdeeling Oostkust van Atjeh. Originally part of Sumatra’s Oostkust, transferred to Atjeh about four years after Singkel (c. 1908Region; one of the few areas where large-scale agricultural enterprise (withLangsa) is of much significance.

Source: J. Jongejans, Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 98, 105, 184, 189, 190, 194, 195, 305, 327, 329, 411.

Source

The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906. Chapter I, § 1, p. 1.

De Buitenbezittingen, Deel II, Aflevering 2: Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 15, 77–82, 232–234.

De Buitenbezittingen 1904 tot 1914, Deel I, bewerkt door het Encyclopaedisch Bureau, Mededeelingen van het Bureau voor de Bestuurszaken der Buitenbezittingen, Aflevering X (Weltevreden: Landsdrukkerij, 1917), pp. 69–70 (section “De Atjeh-tram”).

Notulen der bestuursvergaderingen ter bespreking van de verdere voorbereiding eener hervorming van het bestuurswezen in Nederlandsch-Indië (Batavia: Landsdrukkerij, 1914), pp. 118, 358.

The Geology of Indonesia, by R. W. van Bemmelen, Vol. II: Economic Geology (The Hague: Government Printing Office; Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), p. 9 (Table 4: Oil production in the East Indies in 1940 and 1941).

De Geschiedenis van het Nederlandsche Korps Mariniers van 1665–1945, by C. J. O. Dorren, 1948, pp. 114–116 (page 16 of the OCR source).

De Atjeh-Oorlog: Kort Overzicht van Oorsprong, Verloop en Gevolg, door J. A. Kruijt. ‘s-Gravenhage: Loman & Funke, 1896. Chapter I (geography), Chapter IX (the 1886 raid), Chapter XII (the 1892–1893 expedition). pp. 14, 50, 64.

Verkenningen in Atjeh, by Dr. R. Broersma (De Locomotief, October 1923), chapter II, ‘Tamiang’, pp. 5–12. Also Gegevens betreffende den bodem van Sumatra’s Oostkust, by F. C. van Heurn (c. 1923), p. 103.

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 XIII.

Vijftig jaren economische staatkunde in Atjeh, by Joh. Langhout (The Hague: N.V. Boekhandel v/h W. P. van Stockum & Zoon, 1923), pp. 18, 106–107, 136–138, 188–190.

Land en Volk van Atjeh Vroeger en Nu, by J. Jongejans, Oud-Resident van het Gewest Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, with a foreword by Dr. H. Colijn (Baarn: Hollandia Drukkerij N.V., c. 1938), pp. 98, 105, 184, 189, 190, 194, 195, 305, 327, 329, 411.

description	Region on the east coast of Sumatra; eastern limit of the Aceh Sultanate, Dutch onderafdeeling of the Gouvernement Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden, agricultural frontier, and oil block.
tags	place, region, onderafdeeling, tamiang, border-region, atjeh, oostkust, administrative-division, oil-field, sumatra, colonial, dutch, aceh, buitenbezittingen, tramway, agriculture, river-basin, achehnese, oostkust-van-atjeh, pepper, rubber, oil-palm, petroleum, landschap, administration, east-coast, estates
aliases	Tamiang (Sumatra), Tamiang region, Tamiang Valley, Aceh Tamiang, Tamiang Regency, Teumieng, Teumang, Teumicng, Tamiangsche landschapjes, Landschap Tamiang, Tamiang (Atjeh), Tamiang (block), Tamiang oil field, Tamiangsche moerassen, the Tamiang swamps, Tamiangsche, East Limit of Acheh, Tamiang River, Temiang, Tamiang river basin, Tamiang landschap, onderafdeeling Tamiang, Kroeeng Tamiang, Temyang, Tamyang, Tamiang (onderafdeeling)

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