ofthe SAME TREE

the Petalangan and the Minangkabau may have intensified in the seventeenth
century with the large movements of Minangkabau out of their homeland
down the rivers to the east coast. 44 According to Petalangan traditions, when
the last ruler died without a successor, the kingdom was dissolved and the
people fled to the forest (talang) and became the ancestors of the Petalangan.
No corroborating documents have been found that mention the Gassip kingdom,
though one Dutch account claims that it existed only for a brief time
from the late sixteenth to the early seventeenth centuries. 45
The relationship between the Petalangan and the Malayu courts continued
with the foundation of the Siak kingdom by Raja Kecil sometime in
1722–3. 46 In the nineteenth century the Malayu offices of bintara kanan and
bintara kiri were appointed by the court to serve as intermediaries between
the sultan and the Petalangan. Among the duties requested of the Petalangan
were building fortifications when required, assisting in the ruler’s travels, and
delivering some of their rice harvests in exchange for salt and iron goods at
a price fixed by the ruler. Specific pengkalan, or posts, established at strategic
market crossroads in the interior, were designated as the points of exchange.
The Petalangan were exempt from participation in foreign wars but were
expected to maintain the security of the interior. 47
The Petalangan are also linked to the kingdom of Pelalawan, located in
the area bearing that name on the Kampar River. Little is known about the
origins of this kingdom, which was autonomous but subordinate to the Siak
kingdom established by Raja Kecil in the early eighteenth century. Approval
of the four Pelalawan datu was essential for any claimant to the Siak throne,
and Pelalawan was one of only three areas where the descendants of Raja Kecil
originated. 48 The Petalangan would have been valuable to the Pelalawan ruler
because of their role in collecting forest products.
Malayu rulers did not interfere in the customary laws of the forest people.
Because the batin were believed to have an affinity with spirits and the
supernatural, 49 they were given the authority to deal with land issues within
their jurisdiction. This was especially important among the Petalangan, who
distinguished between various types of land. There was the “village land”
(tanah kampong), where the homes of the people could be built; the “orchard
land” (tanah dusun) for their fruit trees; “swidden land” (tanah peladangan)
for dry rice cultivation, where a year of cultivation required a five-year fallow
period; and the “protected forests” (rimba larangan), which were divided
into the “reserved forest” (rimba simpanan), the area of special fauna and
flora, and the “reserved stands of sialang trees” (rimba kepungan sialang), or
trees infested with honey bees. These lands were not simply to provide for
the physical well-being of the community but were a source of social and
spiritual knowledge. 50 Rights to the land were determined by the tombo or
210 Chapter 7