JAMBI
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Jambi was the site
of a well-established, powerful Srivijayan
kingdom that engaged in trade throughout the Strait of Malacca and
beyond. It succeeded Palembang to the south, which was a frequent military
and economic rival, as the later capital of the ancient kingdom. The move to
Jambi was partly induced by the historic 1025 raid by pirates from the Chola
region of southern India that destroyed much of Palembang. In the
middleages Jambi was a part of the Malacca Sultanate
and later of its successor state the sultanate of Johor
which was split up by the Anglo Dutch Treaty of 1824 in a Dutch and a British
sphere of influence. In 1833, minor
conflicts with the Dutch, who were well established in Palembang, meant the
Dutch increasingly felt the need to control the actions of Jambi. They
coerced Sultan Facharudin to agree to greater Dutch presence in the region
and control over trade, although the sultanate remained nominally
independent. In 1858 the Dutch invaded Jambi with a force from Batavia. They
met little resistance, and Sultan Taha fled to the upriver, inland regions of
Jambi. The Dutch installed a puppet ruler, Nazarudin, in the lower region,
which included the capital city. For the next forty years Taha maintained the
upriver kingdom, and slowly reextended his influence over the lower regions
through political agreements and marriage connections. In 1904, however, the
Dutch finally managed to capture and kill Taha, and in 1906, the entire area
was brought under direct colonial management. With the end of
the period following the death of Jambi sultanate sultan Taha Saifuddin on
April 27, 1904 and the success of the Dutch controlled areas of the Sultanate
of Jambi, Jambi then was made a Residency of Nederlandsch Indiė. Jambi's
first Resident O.L. Helfrich appointed by the Governor General by Decree No.
20 dated May 4, 1906 and his inauguration held on July 2, 1906. In 1938 Jambi
Residency (Residentie Djambi) became a part of Sumatra Province. In
1942 it was occupied by the Japanese Army. After the war Jambi Residency was
incorporated into Sumatera Tengah (Central Sumatera) and after the rebellion
of the generals in 1958 and the dissolution of Sumatera Tengah it was
upgraded to a province. |
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Through the
ages the political symbols valid in Jambi
may have been of the Hindu-Buddhist
and Muslim kind. The Muslim political symbols may have been used also by
Jambi sultanate but nothing is known about it. After 1906 the political symbols
of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands were valid and in the time of Japanese occupation those of
the Japanese Army and the Japanese Empire. These
were followed by the arms of the Republic of
Indonesia. From the time
of Jambi Sultanate we know the flags of the sultan himself, and the flag of
the commercial nobility:[1]
Flag of the Sultan, also the flag for war
Flag
of the Commercial Nobility A specific
emblem for Jambi was only adopted after the residency was upgraded to a
province. The arms show: Arms: Parted per fess Or and Azure, in chief
a mosque Argent its stone basement proper (grey); in base a lotus-shaped bowl
Or, its stem charged with a gong and a keris per pale, and rising from waves
of the sea, all proper. Motto: SEPUCUK JAMBI SEMBILAN LURAH (The Precious Jambi of the Nine Village Chiefs) in black lettering on a yellow scroll. š See illustration in the head of this essay
The five-cornered shield is for the Pancasila |
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ARMED FORCES |
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Today Jambi is controlled by Kodam II/Sriwijaya. |
The arms of Jambi Police shows, on the usual shield per bend sinister Or and Sable, a black disc charged with the gong, the keris and the waves from the provincial arms. |
© Hubert de Vries
2010-11-29
Heraldry of the World