Cut Nyak Dhien
#WomensHistoryMonth
Cut Nyak Dhien (1848-1908) was an Acehnese guerilla leader who fought the Dutch colonial forces in pre-independence Indonesia.
Cut Nyak Dhien was born in 1848 into an aristocratic family in Lampadang, in VI Mukim district, Aceh. Her father, Teuku Nanta Setia, was a top military officer and member of the ruling aristocratic class of the Aceh sultanate, while her mother was also from an aristocratic family.
At the time, Lampadang was part of an independent principality known as the Sultanate of Aceh Darussalam, in northern Sumatra, that had not been conquered by the Dutch.
Cut Nyak Dhien received education in Islam and household matters. When she was 12, her parents arranged her to marry Teuku Cek Ibrahim Lamnga, a son of an aristocratic family.
The Dutch declared war on Aceh in 1873, starting the Aceh War. They successfully captured the Sultan’s palace in 1874. In 1875, Cut Nyak Dhien and her baby, along with other mothers, were evacuated to a safer location, while her husband and father fought the Dutch.
In 1878, during the Battle of Sela Glee Tarun, both her husband and father were killed. Swearing revenge against the Dutch colonizers, she took up her husband’s command of the Acehnese guerrilla force.
One Acehnese leader, Teuku Umar, was so impressed by her courage and determination that he proposed to her. Cut Nyak Dhien first refused but later accepted his marriage proposal after he agreed to her condition that she be allowed to continue to fight.
Cut Nyak Dhien and Teuku Umar were married in 1880 — their wedding was said to have greatly inspired Acehnese fighters. The couple soon had a daughter, Cut Gambang. Cut Nyak Dhien was very determined to stay in the war so she took her daughter while she continued leading the guerilla force.
The Aceh War continued through the last quarter of the 19th century, with the Dutch establishing control over major Acehnese cities, including Kutaraja and Meulaboh. However, they failed to subdue the countryside, where Cut Nyak Dhien and Teuku Umar led the guerrilla warfare.
In 1893, as the situation of the guerilla fighters worsened, Teuku Umar made a daring plan in which he and 250 Acehnese fighters pretended to surrender to Dutch officers, leaving Cut Nyak Dhien in charge of the remaining Acehnese force.
The fighters were welcomed, and the Dutch even made Teuku Umar an officer in their force. For months, he maintained the ruse, waiting for the right opportunity, which came when he was ordered to lead an attack against guerrilla-controlled villages. Instead, Teuku Umar and his compatriots deserted, taking with them large caches of Dutch ammunition and heavy weaponry.
In 1899, Teuku Umar was killed during an Acehnese attack on Meulaboh. Following the death of her husband, Cut Nyak Dhien continued to lead the Acehnese armed resistance, which over time increasingly consisted of both men and women.
After two decades spent living in the jungle, she suffered from a variety of medical problems. Although some of her troops urged her to surrender to the Dutch so she could seek treatment, she refused.
She found herself surrounded in 1901 after the Dutch received a tip-off on the location of her camp — possibly from someone in the resistance who betrayed her. She fought fiercely with a small group of loyal fighters, with her wielding a traditional Acehnese dagger at the time of her capture. Her daughter, Cut Gambang, escaped and continued to carry out sporadic guerrilla actions, but by 1904, Aceh was effectively under Dutch control.
Fearful that Cut Nyak Dhien’s continued presence in Aceh would inspire Acehnese to carry out more rebellions, the Dutch exiled to her to Sumedang, on the western part of Java island.
She lived her remaining years among people who not only had no knowledge who she was but also who spoke Sundanese, a different language which she did not understand. She nevertheless impressed them with her knowledge of Islamic texts in Arabic. Teaching Quranic recitations in Sumedang, she was called by the locals “Dhien Ibu Perbu” (“Dhien the Queen”).
She died in exile on 6 November 1908 and was buried in a local cemetery for the noble residents of the town of Sumedang.
After Indonesia’s independence, Cut Nyak Dhien was declared a national hero by the country’s first president, Sukarno, on 2 May 1964.
