Alahan Panjang is a village in the ''
kecamatan
In Indonesia, district or ambiguously subdistrict, is the third-level administrative subdivision, below regency or city. The local term is used in the majority of Indonesian areas. The term is used in provinces in Papua. In the Special Regio ...
'' of
Lembah Gumanti,
Solok,
West Sumatra
West Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. West Sumatra borders the Indian Ocean to the west, as well as the provinces of ...
,
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
. The village is located on
Kerinci Seblat National Park's eastern slopes, at an altitude of , near
Mount Talang. Situated between Alahan Panjang and the other nearby major town of
Muara Labuh are the subvillages of Air Dingin Barat, Alang Laweh, and Sungai Kalau II.
Economy
It lies in the valley of the same name in northern
Minangkabau Highlands
The Minangkabau Highlands (, Minangkabau language, Minang: ''Minang Darek'') is a mountainous area in the province of West Sumatra, located around three mountains—Mount Marapi, Mount Singgalang, and Mount Sago—in west-central Sumatra, Indon ...
, producing
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds.
Types of polyisoprene ...
,
coffee
Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
,
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
,
yams,
maize
Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago from wild teosinte. Native American ...
,
tobacco
Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...
and
banana
A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...
s and using a high amount of pesticides.
The area is poor, dominated by arid farming,
and notable
wet rice production.
European firms have established mining exploration in parts of Alahan Panjang.
History
Alahan Panjang was the stronghold of the Indonesian hero
Tuanku Imam Bonjol (1772–1864).
After 1848, the government constructed a secondary road between Alahan Panjang and
Solok, West Sumatra, located to the east.
Historically,
tiger hunting
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is a large Felidae, cat and a member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Asia. It has a powerful, muscular body with a large head and paws, a long tail and orange fur with black, mostly vertical stripes. It is ...
has been a problem that threatens the predators in the area; in 1935 alone some 500 tigers were shot by local
poachers.
Alahan Panjang, along with
Padang
Padang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of West Sumatra. It had a population of 833,562 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 909,040 at the 2020 Census;Bad ...
,
Pariaman
Pariaman ( Jawi: ), is a coastal city in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Pariaman covers an area of , with a coastline. It had a population of 79,043 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 94,224 at the 2020 census;Badan Pusat Statis ...
,
Silungkang,
Sawah Lunto,
Sijinjung and
Suliki, has been cited as an area which had particularly active communists in local politics.
The area was affected by the
Alahan Panjang earthquakes in 1943.
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Djaksa van Alahan Pandjang TMnr 60002686.jpg,
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Groepsportret Alahanpandjang TMnr 60003023.jpg,
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Begraafplaats Alahanpandjang TMnr 60003075.jpg
File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van een haj (hadji) Alahanpandjang TMnr 60003024.jpg
Notable people
*
Andjar Asmara – (1902–1961), dramatist and filmmaker
*
Rohana Kudus – (1884–1972), the first female Indonesian journalist, worked in Alahan
References
{{commons category
Populated places in West Sumatra