Takengon is a town in

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. The town itself sits on three administrative districts of the

Central Aceh Regency Central Aceh Regency ( id, Kabupaten Aceh Tengah) is a regency in Aceh Special Region (''Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam'') of Indonesia. It is located on Sumatra island. Formerly this regency covered a much larger area; in 1969, the Southeast Aceh Re ...

- Bebesen, Kebayakan, and Lut Tawar, and acts as the seat of Central Aceh Regency. The town is in the highlands of western Sumatra, situated on the shores of Lake Laut Tawar. The region around Takengon is well known for its coffee. Takengon is a plateau with cool air with an altitude of about 1200 m above sea level. Around Takengon there are many tourist attractions, including Lake Laut Tawar in Laut Tawar sub-district, Bebesen sub-district and Kebayakan sub-district, Puteri Pukes Cave in Kebayakan sub-district and Pantan Terong in Bebesen sub-district. Takengon residents consist of various tribes and ethnicities. The majority of Takengon's population is Gayo people or as they're usually called, "urang Gayo", besides that there are many other tribes such as

Acehnese people The Acehnese (also written as Atjehnese and Achinese) are an ethnic group from Aceh, Indonesia on the northernmost tip of the island of Sumatra. The area has a history of political struggle against the Dutch. The vast majority of the Acehnese p ...

, Javanese,

Batak Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, ...

, Minangkabau,

Karo people (Indonesia) The Karo, or Karonese, are a people of the ''Tanah Karo'' (Karo lands) and part one of Batak people sub-ethnic group from North Sumatera, Indonesia. The Karo lands consist of Karo Regency, plus neighboring areas in East Aceh Regency, Langkat R ...

, The Mandailing and Ethnic descendants of

Tionghoa Chinese Indonesians ( id, Orang Tionghoa Indonesia) and colloquially Chindo or just Tionghoa are Indonesians whose ancestors arrived from China at some stage in the last eight centuries. Chinese people and their Indonesian descendants have ...

. The Gayo are the native people of Takengon.

History

During the 11th century, a Gayo kingdom known as Linge existed in the vicinity of Takengon in Central Aceh. Following the

Aceh War The Aceh War ( id, Perang Aceh), also known as the Dutch War or the Infidel War (1873–1913), was an armed military conflict between the Sultanate of Aceh and the Kingdom of the Netherlands which was triggered by discussions between represe ...

and the intrusion of Dutch colonialism, the region was established as an ''Onderafdeeling'' in 1904, with Takengon as its seat. Due to Takengon's location in the highlands, Dutch authorities assumed that it would be able to sustain commercial plantations, and despite the poor road connections and infrastructure in the region agricultural commodities became making inroads in Takengon. 1914 saw the opening of a road connecting Takengon to

Bireuën Bireuën or Bireun is an Indonesian town, the seat of the Bireuën Regency government in the Aceh Special Territory of Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian ...

, allowing the entry of commercial firms who opened pine and

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

plantations. Following Indonesian independence, Takengon was organised as the administrative seat of

, which initially also included modern Gayo Lues and Bener Meriah until they were split out in 1974 and 2003 respectively.

Transports

Takengon is served by the Bener Meriah Rembele Airport , which on March 3, 2016, has been improved to accommodate bigger airplanes with 30 by 2,250 metres square runway, 95 by 150 metres square apron and 1,000 metres square terminal to serve up to 200,000 passengers per year. Currently Rembele Airport has about 4,000 passengers a year.

Climate

Takengon has a

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southea ...

(Af) with moderate to heavy rainfall year-round.

Gallery

File:Laut Tawar Lake.jpg, Laut Tawar Lake File:Takengon2.JPG, Takengon

References

Populated places in Aceh Regency seats of Aceh {{Aceh-geo-stub