The Blood of Resistance

KOMPAS/DWI BAYU RADIUS

Kremov Pictures founder, Darwin Mahesa edited images for the film Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa in Cilegon, Banten, on Wednesday (16/8/2017).

The Sultanate of Banten as a sovereign state ended when Sultan Agung Tirtayasa lost a war on 14 March, 1683 with the VOC, which had been granted the octrooi (patent) rights by the Dutch government.

The octrooi rights gave the VOC quasi-government authority. The sultan was imprisoned in Batavia for nine years until his death. The defeat of Banten was blamed on the betrayal of Pangeran (Prince) Gusti or Abdul Kohar, the sultan's eldest son who turned into an enemy accomplice.

In a special talk show, Melawan Lupa (opposition against claims of being forgetful) on Metro TV on 18 Jan., 2022, Mufti Ali, a historian and professor of the history of Islamic thought at the Banten-based State Islamic University of Sultan Maulana Hasanuddin, said that the sultan was furious to learn about Pangeran Gusti's betrayal. "[He] therefore transferred the status of crown prince to his second son, Pangeran Purbaya.”

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The ordination of Pangeran Purbaya or Hasan Jamil as crown prince was made formal in an oath-taking ceremony led by grand mufti Syeh Yusuf Al Makassari. He was the great-grandfather of Sheikh Ahmad aka Batin Tikal, who was hailed as the greatest resistance fighter against Dutch colonialism in what is now known as the Bangka Belitung Islands province.

Vicious conspiracy

According to Mufti Ali, Pangeran Gusti sent letters seven times to VOC Governor-General Cornelis Speelman to ask for his help to restore his position. The deposed prince promised to relinquish almost the entire territory of the Sultanate of Banten to the VOC, which covered the sultanate’s entire territories in Sumatra, Priangan, West Kalimantan, and the territory on the Java Island up to the boundary of the Cikande River, next to today’s Serang.

He and the VOC caught his father in a despicable conspiracy. He was appointed sultan by Speelman and bestowed the title “Sultan Haji”.

A number of princes, with territorial authorities in Java and Lampung were killed on his order. He said he had the right to do whatever he wanted to.

Denys Lombard's book Nusa Jawa Silang Budaya (Java island and the cross culture) and Claude Guillot's book Banten: Sejarah dan Peradaban Abad X-XVII (Banten in the 10th-17th centuries) describe Pangeran Gusti as savage and vicious. He concocted an allegation that led to the murder of his father's sibling and sultanate’s high-ranked retainers. Old members in the sultanate’s nobility were sent to exile in Lampung. A number of princes, with territorial authorities in Java and Lampung were killed on his order. He said he had the right to do whatever he wanted to.

The conquest of Banten, which Speelman finally accomplished, had been mandated to his governorship predecessor Rijkloff van Goens but failed. In his letter to the VOC supreme council, or Heeren Zeventien, on 31 Jan. 1679, Van Goens said that Banten had to be conquered, even destroyed, or else the VOC would vanish.

The fate of Pangeran Purbaya as the crown prince of the Banten Sultanate was grievous, with him being exiled to Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, India. After 14 years in Nagapattinam, his banishment period continued in Batavia.

The disappearance of the Banten Sultanate appears to have been followed with literary castration of its past history in the post-independence Indonesia. The name of Sultan Agung Tirtayasa was changed to Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa.

Based on the 17th century’s written narrative in Sadjarah Banten (Banten history), Sultan Agung Tirtayasa, or Abdul Fatah, was the correct name, instead of Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa.

The name of Sultan Agung in Sadjarah Banten, which was written in modified Arabic script called pegon, was changed by Titik to Sultan Ageng in the Indonesian-translated version of the text.

Titik Pudjiastuti, philologist and professor of the Cultural Sciences School, University of Indonesia, has incorporated the narrative in Sadjarah Banten into her book Menyusuri Jejak Kesultanan Banten (tracing the trails of the Banten Sultanate). The name of Sultan Agung in Sadjarah Banten, which was written in modified Arabic script called pegon, was changed by Titik to Sultan Ageng in the Indonesian-translated version of the text.

The change from “Sultan Agung” to “Sultan Ageng” officially began during the New Order era. Via presidential decree No. 045/TK/1970, Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa, or Abdul Fatah, was conferred the title of national hero of Indonesia, but he was mentioned as Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa. What was the New Order's motive in changing Sultan Agung to Sultan Ageng? It remains unclear.

Based on the official document on genealogy submitted by Pangeran Purbaya, then the sultanate’s crown prince, at the request of Governor-General Joan van Hoorn in 1704, the family lineage of the Banten Sultanate went back in connection with Demak Islamic kingdom. Purbaya's ancestral name from Demak lineage was Ko Po. He was the biological father of Cu Cu, who later married the daughter of the king of Majapahit and earned the title Pangeran Aria Sumangsang. Purbaya’s ancestor from Banten lineage came from Hadramaut, Yemen.

Sadjarah Banten mentions that Ko Po came from Muchul, which was once under the Ming Dynasty in East Asia. The area was referred by manuscript researchers as Moghul.

The cemetery park took 16 years to build under supervision of Zheng Ho.

Our family's engagement with the Ming Dynasty began from the Demak period to the Banten period. During his trip to China, my brother Tubagus Budi Tikal visited the Ming Dynasty ancestral tomb in Changping, east of Beijing. There resided Emperor Yong Le, who was known to have sent Zheng He to explore the world. There is also the tomb of Emperor Chenghua, the biological father of Princess Ong Tien and the father-in-law of Syarif Hidayatullah. The cemetery park took 16 years to build under supervision of Zheng Ho.

In the year when Sultan Agung Tirtayasa was defeated by the Dutch, the last Southern Ming Emperor, Zhu Shuqui or Prince Ningjing, was toppled by the Manchu Dynasty and committed suicide in Taiwan. Serving the colonial imprisonment in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Island, my grandfather Tubagus Abdul Malik was released in 1950. It marked an end to the long struggle by our ancestors and our hostilities with the Dutch.

ARSIP PRIBADI

Linda Christanty

LINDA CHRISTANTY, Woman of Letters and Cultural activist

(This article was translated by Musthofid)