PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

JOURNAL MALAYAN BRANCH, ROYAL ASIATIC SOC., VOL. XII, PART III. PLATE II.

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

NEGRI SEMBILAN

The History, Polity and Beliefs of the

Nine States

BY '.

1~ . o. WINSTEDT C.?<I.G., D.LlTT. (Oxon).

General Adviser, J ohore.

" ,. ,-

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

PART l.

HISTORY

OF

NEGRI SEMBILAN

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

CONTENTS.

Part I.

HT TORY.

1. The N ine State

2. From the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth 'entury

PAGE

41

42

3. l ohor, the Dutch and tbe Bugis 47

4. Minangkabau Ascendancy 59

:> . British In tervention 64

Part II. THE MIN ANGKABA POUTY.

6. Mother-Right and the Tribes 77

7. The Tribal Law of Property 83

8. Criminal Law 85

9. The Political System:- 87 The Elder

The Tribal Chief

The Territorial Chief

The Ruler

Part III. MINA GKABAU BELIEFS.

10. The Medicine-Man

11. The Shaman and the Shaman 's Familiars

12 . The Sacred Place

13 . Muslim Influence

Bibliography.

KP JB 594

816346

97

1·02

105

108

110

23 AUG 1995 erpus n egar&

Malaysia

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

THE NINE STATES. :\egri Sembilan, or the Nine States, is a confederacy unknown

to the Portuguese d 'Eredia in 1613, to the author of the Malay Annals in 1612 and to the Dutch merchants in their Daghregister or daily journal which has been printed down to 1682. The original confederacy must have been created after the coming of Raja i\l elewar, founder of the present royal house, in 1773 A.D. ''"hat States originally formed the Jine is uncertain. \\ as it ever a confederacy or even a congeries except in name? The usual list is: Klang, Sungai Gjong _ -anir.g, Rembau, Jelai , lu Pahang, Jelebu, Johol and Segamat. That list aives the States in the order in which they occur in history as more than place names, though it is not the Ii t of any confederacy. All these places had Minang­kabau settlers, but Xanina was always vassal to the owners of :\1alacca Klang was subject first to the Malay .Sultans of Malacca and Johor and then became Bugis, Segamat was always a fief of those same Malay Sultans, Ulu Pahang and Jelai always subject to the rulers of Pahang. There may have been imperium in imperio, :\1inangkabau sett1~rs in places subject to other than Minangkabau rule yet accepting a Yam-tuan of their own race as arbiter of quarrels between themselves. But if there was a real confederacy, it was that extant to -day and its constituent states were Sungai Ujong, Rembau, Jelebu, Johol Ul u Muar, 1nas, Gunong Pasir, Terachi and Jempul. ~Iostly the settlers were agriculturists, but it must ha 'e been their experience of gold-mining in Sumatra that led a few of them as far afield as Jelai in Pahang.

41

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

FROM THE ,FOURTEENTH TO THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

There was a settlement on the Klang river in the middle of the XIVth century. It is mentioned as subject to Majapahit along with Pahang, Ujong Medini , Langkasuka, Kelantan , Trengganu, Dungun, Muar, Tumasik (Singapore) , Sang Hyang Ujong, Kedah and Jerai in the Javanese poem , N agarakrtagama, composed by a Buddhist courtier Prapanncha in honour of Hayam Wuruk, the famous conqueror of ancient Singapore.

The next reference to it is in the Malay Annals. In the reign of Muzaffar Shah, ruler of Malacca from about 1445 to 1458, the people of Klang deposed an unnamed chief (penghulu) and asked Malacca to appoint another. Sultan Muzaffar appointed a member of the Bendahara family , Tun Perak, who holding no court office had married and settled at Klang. When the Siamese attacked Malacca and Muzaffar Shah called up all his fighting men, Tun Perak brought not only the men but their families to Malacca, explaining that men fight even more fiercely for their women and children than for their rulers. Struck with this, the Sultan made him a herald at court and detained him at Malacca where in time he rose to be Bendahara. In the time of 'Ala 'u'd-din, first Sultan of Johor , the chief of Klang was entitled Mandulika: perhaps this, a title appearing on the 14th century Trengganu stone, had always been the style of the Penghulu of Klang.

Sang Hyang l :jong of Majapahit days appears in the Malay Annals as Sening Ujong and in Negri Sembilan folklore as Semujong, finally being corrupted to Sungai Ujong. Before the time of Mansur Shah, Sultan of Malacca, who reigned from about 1458 until October 1477, Sang Hyang U jong had belonged to two Malacca chiefs: namely to the Bendahara Paduka Raja , Tun Perak, once chief of Klang, and to the Sri Nara 'diraja , Tun 'Ali, brother-in-law of Sultan Muhammad Shah (1424-46) , and husband of Tun Perak's sister Tun Kudu, whom Sultan Muzaffar (1445-1458) had divorced to give him. The partition of the fief may have followed the retirement of the half-caste Sri _ -ara 'diraja from the great office of Bendahara in favour of the Malay Tun Perak. Anyhow a Penghulu at Sang Hyang Ujong named Tun Tuakal (or probably Tawakal " Submissive to God's Will " ) offended Sultan Mansur Shah, who had him executed and bestowed the undivided fief solely on Sri Nara 'diraja. Tun Tuakal has survived in Sungai Ujong folklore as Tun Tukul " Mr. Hammer " and has been provided with a mythical brother , Tun Landas " Mr. Anvil," the two of them being credited with having used their instruments to circumcise the impervious Batin Iron-Claws, an aboriginal chief of Sungai Ujongl

42

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

From the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. 43

There is an interesting Malacca survival in Kegri Sembilan custom. The waris or heirs of territorial titles generally belong to a few privileged families inside a tribe unknown in Sumatra, termed the Biduanda tribe. These waris, as we now know, were members of the noble family of the Bendaharas of old Malacca. But who were their often backward and simple associates, the Biduanda? Biduanda was a polite term at the old Malacca court for protected persons who were either not Muslims or were recent converts to I slam. The earlv Chinese settlers on Bukit China were called in the Malay .4nn~ls Biduanda China. The name still survives in egri embilan for a band of Jakun, that is of Proto­Malay heathens. In Rembau the office of territorial chief or Un dang rotates between privileged families (waris) in the Biduanda Jawa and the Biduanda Jakun, and a typical bit of Sumatran folklore ascribes the inclusion of Javanese and Proto- 1alays in the Biduanda tribe to miscegenation on the part of descendants of the Bendahata Sekudai! Actually the nomenclature must mean exactly what it says. The old Malay empire of :NIalacca recognized certain early « Javanese " (a term then including Sumatrans) and Proto-i\Ialay converts to Islam in Rembau and termed both Biduanda : later i\Iinangkabau influence turned them all into a tribe, the Biduanda tribe. As might be expected, Rembau has the biggest number of Biduanda of any of the States, because it border on Malacca and it was there that NIalacca s trade first attracted early settlers, dealers in tin and jungle produce: moreover, unlike -aning it was far enough 'away not to have to discard all relics of old i\lalay sovereignty after the P.Drtuguese conquest. A few colonists went further afield. In Sungai jong and Jelebu, the tin di stricts, Biduanda predominate, because it was tin above all that led adventurous Malaccans up the jungle-lined rivers and those adventurers descendants saw to it that the later Minangkabau immigran ts got only agricultural land and did not usurp the tin­fields. Kot till about 1820 did the Biduanda tribe . .of Jelebu adopt exogamy splitting into two for that purpose and allowing one of the divisions to adopt the fictitious name of a Minangkabau tribe l Again in Johol the Minangkabau predominance oj • Four Tribes has never obtained ; the Biduanda tribe outnumbers the other three tribes together and in it the Minangkabau rule of exogamy does not prevail. In Johol when a Proto-.Malay becomes Muslim, he becomes a member of the Biduanda tribe, while, at the election of an -ndang or even of a Minangkabau tribal headman, the Batin or chief of the heathen Proto- 1alays for the district attends and has his say. As a fossicker for tin and gold the Proto-Malay must have been valuable in old Johol.

For not only did Klang, Sungai jong, aning and Rembau exist in Portuguese times; d Eredia s map shows also Johol and Jempul as place-names. Who were the inhabitants of these places other than aborigines is uncertain. Undoubtedly Klang and

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

44 History of Negri Sembilan.

Sungai TJjona owed their early comparative importance to the existence of tin -fields. d'Eredia records that the yearly output of tin from Klang was more than one hundred bares and from Penagi (now called Penajis) more than one hundred . ' The earth is dug out of the mountains and placed on certain tables where the earth is dispersed by water in such 'a way that only the tin , in the form of grains, remains on the tables: it is then melted in certain clay moulds and by a process of casting is converted into large slabs which are called ' lock slabs ' of two hundred and fifty slabs to the bar." That there was tin-mining at Kenaboi in Jelebu even in the neolithic and bronze ages is known from the discovery there of tiny socketted bronze axe-heads, stone discoidal circlets small clay crucibl es and a stone cross-hatched bark-cloth pounder. At Klang too there have been found a bronze bell-like article and three iron tools of a type common in prehistoric sites in Malaya.

"hen did the ~:rinangkabau colonists reach Malacca s hinter­land? t Pengkalan Kempas in the Sungai Ujong territory, among a number of megalith~ of Sumatran type, is a stone orved with inscriptions both in Arabic and in umatran ~lal ay (in old-Javanese characters derived from the Adityawarman inscriptions of the Minangkabau or Padang Highlands, Sumatra). The date in both inscriptions corresponds to 146 7 A.D. and the Arabic inscription records that it was the time of Sul tan Man ur Shah. It marks the grave of one Ahmad , cal led Majanu and Shaikh, who according to the Sumatran inscription came downstream to play a dirty trick and was defeated , caught and died a low death (presumably at the hands of the execu tioner ) , while according to the Arabic inscription the gr:Jve is a mansion of peace, a place of goodness, and the peace and help of God are invoked for its occupant. There is one doubtful word followed by a puzzling title in the Sumatran inscription: ? nakal1ak Tun barah kalang katangkap. One ingenious commentator finds in Tun barah kalang the Indo-Chinese title Pm-Klang, though why a stone apparently erected by Sumatran ~lalays should use a composite title half ~lalay half Siamese is inexplicable. Can it be Tun Perak Kalang to whom the inscription refers as the contemporary Raja? Just as aboriginal folklore has turned Tun Tuakal into Tun Tukul , so its " B3.tin Merah Galang " seems -to represent " Tun Perak Ka:lang , and corroborate the inter­pretation of this stone. The fact that the inscribed stone is surrounded by megaliths of !\Ilinangkabau type suggests that Shaikh Ahmat or his followers were early Minangkabau immigrants Minangkabau gold was famous and Correa and d'Albuquerque speak of it being brought to Malacca to exchange for Coromandel stuffs.

By the XVth century A.D. the immigration of Sumatran agriculturists had become large as Portuguese historians confirm. As early as 1586 the Minangkabaus behind Malacca abandoned their friendly relations with the Portuguese and took the side of the Sultan of Johor in an attack on Malacca, devastating the

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

From the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century. 45

country-side and cutting off supplies. So numerous and formidable they were that an expedition of one hundred Portuguese and six hundred natives, mostly equipped with fire-arms, took the field , found the lVIinangk:\baus 2,000 strong drove them out of their viilage and set fire to it. The Portuguese marched to Rembau , which a Johor captain h'ld fortified ; but before their arrival he had fled . The villagers of Rembau pleaded innocence and were spared.

Again. Writing in 1613 Godinho d 'Eredia speaks of most of the inland country as " uninhabited and deserted except in the district of Nany " (Naning) * " which is occupied by Mommcabos engaged in the trade of betre" (betel ) " an aromatic plant which is chewed with a mixture of chalk and areca in order to tone the stomach. These Monancabos with their stocks of betre come down from -any to the Pangkalan whence they proceed by boat to the market-place at Malacca." d'Eredia terms these Naning :VIinangkabaus vassals of Portugal. Like Rembau, Sungai Ujong and Klang, the little State of Janing had been part of the Malay kingdom of Malacca before the arrival of the Portuguese in 1511 , though it is unknown who were then its inhabitants: if in 1586 it could muster 2,000 l\1i nangkabau fighting-men (and it required 7eO trained soldiers to subdue it) , then Naning must have had settlers from Sumatra for at least a century and probably far longer. In 1613 d'Eredia records that " past _Jany one proceeds to Rombo, head of the Malayo villages in a territory which belongs to the Crown of Johor: Rombo also is peopled by Monancabos." In 1634 Barretto de Resende wrote, evidently of Naning: " Inland the land " (that is, l\1alacca) " borders on that ·of the Manamcabos, Moors of a land called Rindo " (? Lindu or Ecembau) , " vassals of the King of Pam " (namely Pahang) , " and close by live five or six thousands of the same Manamcabo Moors, vassals of His :\Iajesty " the King of Portugal , " under the government of a Portuguese married man of Malacca called Tamungam," or Temeng­gong, " an office conferred by the Viceroy. To him:' they owe obedience and should one of these Moors die without heirs, the said Tamungam inherits his property, and if there are 'Eeirs he makes an agreement with them and receives ten per cent,. upon such goods as he thinks fit. At the present day a Portuguese holds the office for life. These Moors cultivate extensive land by which they maintain themselves. They ,especially cultivate the betre. They purchase tin from the inhabitants of the interior and bring it to Malacca." In his report, dated 7 September 1641 , to the Council of India on the past and present condition of Malacca Schouten tells us more: " For the control of the Minang­kabau and Malay vassals of the villages Kaning and Ringy, a burgher was appointed Tommagon or bailiff for life . He adjudicated

* 1\' ote.- -It is quite unlikely that in this context the word means " a large wasp." In Khassi naneng = "from above." (JRASSB ., 1917, LXXVIII p. 252 ) ; up the Perak river is a spot called laning.

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA