Saturday, May 14, 2011

Bencoolen

Bencoolen? does it mean something?  At the present time, the word of Bencoolen is well known as Bengkulu. If the word of Bencoolen was an English-like word, this word must have referred to something. It is speculated that the word of 'Bencoolen' was originally an abbreviation for  a 'land' that had so many 'coal' in a 'bent' areas. 'Bent' explained that the topographic of Bengkulu, which  is dominantly classified as hilly topography. So, people in the past simply marked this area as a 'bent coal land', which was later accidentally abbreviated Bencoolen'. Does it really make sense? Well, at least this article try to explain something.  

4 comments:

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  2. Pak Rozi,

    There are many versions of the word “Bengkulu” origin. However, if the word "Bengkulu" was originally of "Bent Coal Land", it means that the word "Bengkulu" exist simultaneously with the arrival of White. Yet far before the White arrived, the word resembling "Bengkulu" had already known, namely "Bangkahulu".

    According to a legend, "Bangkahulu" was originaly a story that in the past there were found so many corpses lied up to upstream area of river Serut. The corpses were dead human due to warfare between kingdom of Aceh with the Royal of Sungai Serut troops.

    The White called the region or nation or people in the region "Bangkahulu" with "Bencoolen". It perhaps precisely “Bangkahuluan” A common term for White to mention a particular nationality or people, for example Sabahan, Sarawakian, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Javanese, Sumatran, Morrocan, Indian, Persian, and others.

    Regard,

    Suharyanto

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  3. Another version is claimed that the word of Bengkulu was initially derived from "Bang" and "Kulon", javanese vernaculars [you may find this articles in the Sriwijaya flight magazines, May 2011 edition]. This statement seems to be more speculated. That article explained that "Bang" means "coastal" and "Kulon" means "west". So. they believed that Bangkulon, to describe coastal area in the western part of Sumatera, was the initial name of Bengkulu. So, ... so many versions huh..? :-).

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  4. Hmmm... "Bang Kulon"? we may also find it at http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengkulu.

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