Residents live on as trace of Dutch colonial era erodes.

Pisang Gadang Island may only be 2 kilometers in circumference, but it was very important during the Dutch colonial era. It is 1.7 km from Air Manis Beach, a leisure destination in Padang, West Sumatra, known for its Batu Malin Kundang or a folklore-based “curse stone”.

The island served as a port not long after the Dutch East India Company (VOC) took control of Padang in the 17th century. The VOC earlier built a fort for maritime defense, as well as a trade office, on Cingkuak Island, South Pesisir regency, West Sumatra, to ward off the Acehnese as well as British forces.

From Cingkuak, the VOC seized Padang three years later and set up a stronghold and commercial hub in Muara Padang, followed by a port for its monopoly of spices. But as this port was found less suitable for big vessels, the VOC then built a roadstead port (reede in Dutch) on Pisang Gadang, 3.2 km from Muara Padang.

A Dutch colonial map shows that there were once three small wharves on this island’s eastern part. Today only one is left, which is 30 meters long, and a cemetery. This wharf only has its two ends intact, with the middle 13-meter section in ruins. The graveyard is in bad repair, with only a few graves remaining.  

A 2-meter tombstone stands in the graveyard bearing the name of a Dutch naval officer, JP Uyttenhooven, who died in Saribanoa, Sipora Island, on April 13, 1859 at the age of 24. Two other soldiers accompanying him were apparently Javanese and were killed in a Dutch expedition aboard the steamship Montrado deployed to conquer Mentawai.

A shorter gravestone only indicates the presence of fallen victims without names, and still another one lying on the ground mentions the name of a soldier, WE Van Spencler, who died on April 4, 1890 from injuries sustained on Weh Island, Aceh, three-and-a-half-months earlier.

Vanishing: The ruins of a lighthouse on Pisang Gadang Island. (JP/Syofiardi Bachyul Jb)
Some 19 km from Pisang Gadang in the direction of the Indian Ocean there’s a tiny 16.6-hectare island called Pandan Island. Located 22.5 km from Muara Padang, it also has a colonial structure believed to have been a roadstead port like that on Pisang Gadang Island. An old map describes it as a large building with a wharf and a road leading to it.

At present, the building’s fairly high walls are still standing but the wharf and road are gone. It is unknown what the function of the building was, but some people say it was a warehouse used to store goods unloaded from berthing ships when Pisang Gadang port was too crowded. Others claim that the big building was once a prison. Locals say that the graves of the Dutch were also once to be found on the islet.

A researcher of small islands in West Sumatra from the school of fishery, Bung Hatta University, Harfiandri Damanhuri, expressed concern over the neglected buildings of colonial heritage on both islands.

“I’ve visited the islands several times and heard the stories of local people and fishermen about such structures being destroyed, looted or torn down, but so far there’s been no government protection,” he told The Jakarta Post.

He said the broken gravestone on Pisang Gadang resulted from the desecration of the grave to search for gold buried with the dead body. White marble slabs with inscriptions in the cemetery were also stolen. Another account said the rails and wagon used to transport coal from the warehouse to the wharf on the island disappeared in the 1980s.

A team for data recording of West Sumatra maritime heritage from the Cultural Heritage Preservation Agency (BPCB) of West Sumatra, Riau, and Riau Islands under Yusfa Hendra Bahar has admitted that it had not yet recorded all the colonial buildings on these islands.

“The wharf and fort on Cingkuak Island have been officially named cultural heritage sites, while we’re gathering data on Pisang Gadang Island and haven’t yet reached Pandan Island,” he said. According to him, the wharf and cemetery on Pisang Gadang could be declared cultural heritages.

Andalas University historian Gusti Asnan said the sea transportation heritage of the Dutch colonial era on the western coast of West Sumatra had definitely changed a lot and some of it had been lost due to the lack of attention since the Japanese occupation and Indonesia’s independence.

Test of time: The remaining structure of a Dutch port on Cingkuak Island. (JP/Syofiardi Bachyul Jb)

Residents live on as trace of Dutch colonial era erodes.

Pisang Gadang Island may only be 2 kilometers in circumference, but it was very important during the Dutch colonial era. It is 1.7 km from Air Manis Beach, a leisure destination in Padang, West Sumatra, known for its Batu Malin Kundang or a folklore-based '€œcurse stone'€.

The island served as a port not long after the Dutch East India Company (VOC) took control of Padang in the 17th century. The VOC earlier built a fort for maritime defense, as well as a trade office, on Cingkuak Island, South Pesisir regency, West Sumatra, to ward off the Acehnese as well as British forces.

From Cingkuak, the VOC seized Padang three years later and set up a stronghold and commercial hub in Muara Padang, followed by a port for its monopoly of spices. But as this port was found less suitable for big vessels, the VOC then built a roadstead port (reede in Dutch) on Pisang Gadang, 3.2 km from Muara Padang.

A Dutch colonial map shows that there were once three small wharves on this island'€™s eastern part. Today only one is left, which is 30 meters long, and a cemetery. This wharf only has its two ends intact, with the middle 13-meter section in ruins. The graveyard is in bad repair, with only a few graves remaining.  

A 2-meter tombstone stands in the graveyard bearing the name of a Dutch naval officer, JP Uyttenhooven, who died in Saribanoa, Sipora Island, on April 13, 1859 at the age of 24. Two other soldiers accompanying him were apparently Javanese and were killed in a Dutch expedition aboard the steamship Montrado deployed to conquer Mentawai.

A shorter gravestone only indicates the presence of fallen victims without names, and still another one lying on the ground mentions the name of a soldier, WE Van Spencler, who died on April 4, 1890 from injuries sustained on Weh Island, Aceh, three-and-a-half-months earlier.