G. Asnan Transportation on the West Coast of Sumatra in the Nineteenth Century

G. Asnan Transportation on the west coast of Sumatra in the nineteenth century In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, On the roadThe social impact of new roads in Southeast Asia 158 (2002), no: 4, Leiden, 727-741 This PDF-file was downloaded from http://www.kitlv-journals.nl Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:06:04AM via free access GUSTI ASNAN Transportation on the west coast of Sumatra in the nineteenth century A number of travellers to the west coast of Sumatra in the first quarter of the twentieth century were very much impressed by the state of the roads there; they wrote that the west coast of Sumatra was the region with the best and longest roads outside of Java. They also noted that people there were famil- iar with many kinds of transportation (Asnan 2001a:4). The infrastructure and means of transportation were West Sumatra's most important assets in the early twentieth century. Not only did the roads connect the various dis- tricts and towns within West Sumatra, they also linked West Sumatra with other regions of Sumatra. The means of transport were not owned by a small group of people; they benefited almost all strata of society. From 1900 on, a road connected West Sumatra with Tapanuli and Medan. Since 1916, a road has linked Bukittinggi (West Sumatra) and Pekanbaru (Riau) and in 1921, the road connecting West Sumatra with Jambi and Kerinci was opened (Colombijn 1996:390-4). Pedati (buffalo-drawn carts) and automobiles were the most common means of transportation. West Sumatra was known as one of the few regions outside Java that had a considerable number of automobiles. The total number of automobiles in West Sumatra in the early 1920s was estimated at more than 3,000 and by the late 1920s it had more than doubled to 7,000 (Harahap 1926:114-5; Willink 1931:755; Schrieke 1955:270). The good condition of overland transportation in the twentieth century, in terms of both infrastructure and conveyance, did not come out of the blue. Many historical sources from the early twentieth century - such as monthly and annual reports of the local government, memories van overgave (reports written by a resigning civil servant for his successor), reports of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Padang, and local newspapers - demonstrate that the sophisticated condition of transportation at the time was the result of earlier developments (Asnan 2001a:5). This article describes the development and condition of road transportation on the west coast of Sumatra in the nineteenth century. The decision to focus on the nineteenth century is based on the fact that the embryo of today's administrative region of West Sumatra Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:06:04AM via free access 728 Gusti Asnan was formed during that period. The formation of West Sumatra as an administrative unit and the prosperity of this region in the nineteenth century were closely related to the development of transportation. Four questions are dealt with in this study. First, what was the condition of overland transportation, mainly consisting of footpaths, prior to the development of roads? Second, how did a road network emerge in the nineteenth century in interaction with political and economie changes of that time? Third, what did the software, the means of transportation, which made use of the roads, look like? Fourth, what were the cultural and social consequences of the emergence of a road network? Before discussing these four questions, I shall first describe the geographical circumstances of West Sumatra and sketch its emergence as a social and political unit, two aspects that played an important role in the development of land transportation. The geographical situation The west coast of Sumatra, or West Sumatra in short, is a name that was introduced and popularized by Westerners, in particular by the employees of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC). In thé beginning, this name had only a geographical meaning, but after the VOC opened an office there the name also acquired political significance. The area became an administrative unit called 'Hoofdcomptoir van Sumatra's Westkust'. At the time, that administrative region's territory consisted only of several coastal towns and their direct environs. After the VOC's bankruptcy, the English East India Company briefly con- trolled the area, but in 1819 England handed it over to the Netherlands Indies government. In 1825, the Dutch formed an administrative region at the level of a residentie here, naming it Residentie Padang. In 1837 the status was raised to gouvernement and the region was called Gouvernement Sumatra's Westkust. One important difference between the VOC and Netherlands Indies administrations was in territorial area. In the Netherlands Indies colo- nial era, the territory stretched far into the interior and was almost identical to the present province of West Sumatra. The Gouvernement Sumatra's Westkust consisted of two parts: the coastal area, named Padangsche Benedenlanden, and the interior area, called Padangsche Bovenlanden. There are significant differences between the coast and the interior. The average elevation óf the coastal region is only 50 metres, while the interior lies about 650 metres above sea level. Almost all human settlements in the interior were located on hills and mountain slopes near one of several mountain peaks. Geographically, the Padangsche Benedenlanden consist of coastal lowlands. The lowlands are a narrow strip, Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:06:04AM via free access Transportation on the west coast ofSumatra in the nineteenth century 729 because in several places the mountains rise directly from the ocean. Several rivers flow though the coastal region and some fishing villages and coastal towns were found in the estuaries. The interior, or Padangsche Bovenlanden, forms part of the Bukit Barisan mountain range, stretching from the northwest to the southeast of Sumatra. The Padangsche Bovenlanden are fertile and richly endowed with mineral deposits, compared to the coastal region. The fertile land enables people living in the highlands to make agriculture their main livelihood. Wet-rice cultivation, the cultivation of several cash-crops, gold and iron mines, and products from the rainforest made the Padangsche Bovenlanden an important region on the trading map of Sumatra from the fourteenth century on (Miksic 1985). Because of natural conditions, the rivers that rise in the interior and empty in the west have fast currents and are for the most part unnavigable. For a long time, the only way the people from the interior could visit the coast and vice versa was by using footpaths. Thefootpaths Until the middle of the nineteenth century, footpaths were the sole infrastructure for land transportation, making the relationship between the coastal and interior regions possible. Since the early history of this region, footpaths had been used to meet the need of people living in the interior for salt from the coast. When speaking of 'the early history', alluded to in the tambo, the tradi- tional historiography of the local people, I am referring to the period before the establishment of the Minangkabau kingdom in 1340 (Toeah 1989:53). Up until the mid-nineteenth century, there were at least five groups of footpaths connecting the coast with the interior (Asnan 2000:131-3). Starting in the north, the first group was in Pasaman. There were two well-known footpaths in this region: one connected Air Bangis and Rao, the other linked Sasak with Lundar and Bonjol. The second group was in Agam and consisted of one path that led from Tiku, along the right bank of Antokan River and the north side of Lake Maninjau, to Bukittinggi. The third group was known as the Padang Panjang group. It connected the coastal towns of Pariaman, Ulakan, Koto Tangah, and Padang via Kayu Tanam, at the bottom end of the Anai Gorge, with Padang Panjang, at the top end of the gorge. From Padang Panjang the path branched out again towards Bukittinggi and Tanah Datar. The fourth group was the Tanah Datar group, connecting coastal towns like Koto Tangah and Padang to Tanah Datar, via towns around Lake Singkarak. Thomas Stamford Raffles descended in 1818 using this route. The fifth group was the Solok group, consisting of two footpaths. The first connected Padang and the XIII Koto Solok region; when Raffles entered the Padangsche Downloaded from Brill.com10/02/2021 04:06:04AM via free access 730 Gusti Asnan Bovenlanden in 1818 he followed this path. The second path connected Bandar X and the southern part of Solok. The division of footpaths into five groups was based not only on their geographical position, but also on kinship relations between coastal and interior peoples. The first group, for instance, located in Pasaman, also represented the blood relationship between the people living in Air Bangis and Sasak on the coast and those living in Rao, Lundar, and Bonjol in the interior. Tambo of Air Bangis and Sasak report that their ancestors came from Rao, Lundar, and Bonjol (Tambo Air Bangis n.d.:4-5) and traders in Air Bangis and Sasak represented their clan members in the corresponding places in,the interior. Along the same lines, the people of Pariaman, Koto Tangah, Padang, and Bandar X related that their ancestors came from Agam, Tanah Datar, and Solok (Saleh 1965:160; Amran 1981:312-3; Tambo Kambang n.d.:l). In the beginning, that is, until about the fifteenth century, the footpaths were used only by the mountain people, who needed salt. They travelled to the coastal region to make or purchase salt. This partially explains why people living on the coast generally originated from a region in the interior at the same latitude.

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