gaudenz domenig The Kerinci longhouse Ethnographic materials and comparative observations

Introduction

Kerinci is a fertile river basin situated in the upper courses of the large river sys- tem of the Batang Hari, whose tributaries cover most of the province of . The region, politically the westernmost regency of Jambi, has longstanding cul- tural ties with neighbouring West to the north and Rejang Lebong to the south. Its architecture shares connections most notably with West Sumatra (Minangkabau). This has sometimes led to regarding the Kerinci house as a mere variant of the Minangkabau type. The longhouse of Kerinci, however, remains among the least studied house types of . Although it shares many features with the Minangkabau house, more research must be done before we can draw conclusions about the relation between the two. This contribution is based largely on a field study done by a group of researchers from Kerinci, whose unpublished report (Alimin et al. 1998) is frequently quoted on the following pages. Apart from that, I draw on pub- lished sources and on observations that Reimar Schefold and I made in the summer of 1995 on a short visit to the area,1 as well as on my experience in

1 In September 1995 Reimar Schefold and I, guided by Depati Alimin of Sungai Penuh and Jet Bakels, spent two days looking at traditional houses in the area. Time only permitted us to take some notes, make sketches of interesting details, and begin a provisional survey of one house. What we saw convinced us that Kerinci architecture should be made the subject of a field study, but seeing no possibility to have this done by our Leiden team, we later asked Depati Alimin if he could organize a study by researchers from Kerinci. Fortunately, he agreed to set up a project team with Muhamad Ali Surakhman doing the research, Wijaya Kusuma making the drawings, and he himself as the organizing consultant. To indicate our specific interests, I then put together a list of 28 questions and two drawings based on our cursory survey of 1995, which we sent to Depati Alimin. In the following three months our Kerinci collaborators did the field research, after which they sent us a detailed report as well as a number of photographs and technical drawings. This report and its appendices will be quoted here collectively as Alimin et al. 1998.

Boek Huizen.indb 391 7-10-2008 17:12:29 392 Gaudenz Domenig

comparative studies of Indonesian architecture. Not long after we visited Kerinci a big earthquake destroyed many build- ings. When Depati Alimin’s team went to work in the summer of 1998, a house we had surveyed three years earlier had been taken down by its owner. By now, many of the houses that were still standing in 1998 may have vanished as well. According to Jaspan (1976:140), who visited Kerinci in 1963, with the exception of those in Sungai Penuh few traditional houses remained at that time. The old Kerinci architectural tradition may therefore be said to belong mainly to the past, which explains why in this contribution I normally use the past tense even when describing traditional buildings that have occasionally survived. Although it may take many more years until the last traces of the old architecture vanish, the Kerinci longhouse belongs to those house types of Indonesia that urgently need attention as long as useful field research is still possible. The present article is intended to initiate this effort and to demon- strate that the Kerinci longhouse demands study by future researchers. As for the few notes on religious rituals and ideas associated with the house, it should be noted that they regard traces of pre-Islamic customs that have been observed in the twentieth century and are still important today. Generally speaking, the people of Kerinci are now adherents of Islam. In the 1920s, one author wrote that there was still ‘a strong animistic substratum’ and described a harvest ritual that included summoning a spirit under a ban- yan tree.2 However, to what extent such beliefs and practices are still associ- ated with the Kerinci house today is a question that needs further inquiry. In what follows I first give an overview of the longhouse in the village context and of several other building types such as the granary, the meeting house, the drum house, and the grave house. The main part describes the individual family house as part of a longhouse with respect to spatial struc- ture, social use of space, ritual aspects, and matters of construction. After that, the discussion turns to some ideas that were associated with the house, such as the tree image, timber orientation, and cosmic symbolism. The final sections deal with the problem of understanding the Kerinci longhouse in relation to other longhouse types of western Indonesia. Historical and com- parative materials are used to outline a model for explaining how the unu- sual type of the Kerinci longhouse might have emerged through processes of transformation over time.

My special thanks go to Depati Alimin and his team, without whose efforts this contribution could not have been written. I am also thankful to Sandra Taal for a Dutch translation of the report, to Robert Wessing for correcting my English, and to Reimar Schefold for discussions about the topic, for his critical reading of the manuscript, and for his persistence in wanting a contribution on Kerinci included in this volume. 2 Witkamp 1923:265. See also Bakels 2000.

Boek Huizen.indb 392 7-10-2008 17:12:29