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Art and Culture |
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Acheh is often called "Serambi Mekkah" (The Verandah of Mecca). No wonder that the dominant religion in Acheh is Islam (Moslem). Of Acheh's about 4 million inhabitants, are Moslem (98.11%) and remainder are Protestants (1.32 %), Roman Catholic (0.16%), Hindu (0.02 %) and Buddhist (0.37 %). Even though the Achehnese are very strong believers and often called fanatics by other Indonesian. They are very open minded and understanding towards other people's religious needs. Churches and temples are always found in towns of Acheh. In 1990 there were a total of 2359 Mosques, 6408 Meunasah (Moslem house of worship), 2955 Mushallas (simple place of worship), 91 church/school and 6 Bhuddish Temples. Islam literally means peace, surrender, obedience and submission. Islam (Moslem) stands for complete submisson and obedience to the only God, Allah. Islam (Moslem) claims the right to govern and control every aspect of lives of its believers. It recoqnizes man's material, intellectual and emotional urges and the need to fulfill them. Yet, in achieving these goals, Allah can not be forgotten. With that mind, Moslem perform five obligations, The so called Five Pillar of Faith, i.e. confession of faith (Syahadat), prayers five times a day (Shalat), fasting in month of Ramadhan (Puasa), almsgiving (Zakat) and pilgrimage to Mecca if capable (Haji). At the age of seven, children start to learn the prayers and tenets of Islam and to recite from the Koran (Al Qur'an). Boys and girls start to have religious duties and obligations at the onset of puberty. Knowledge and understanding of Islam make an individual into moral being capable to distinguish right from wrong. The religious leaders who teach the children ( Teungku/Tgk) make children into rational beings. Communion with Allah can only be achieved through prayers five times a day. The title "Teungku (Tgk)" is given to prominent religious leader. Title "Tuanku" or "Sayed" and " Teuku (T)" is used descendants of important land owning families during the sultanate, and title "Cut Nyak" or "Po Cut" and "Cut",are used for female of these fammilies. The following descriptions about culture including architecture,crafts, adat ceremonies, etc. tend to apply to the coastal Achehnese group.
- The hilt of the rincong is in the shape of 'ba' Siwah Siwah is another important Achehnese blade which is generally known as the ceremonial dagger and usually used by the Sultan and men of the subtantial wealth. It differs from the rincong in appearance in that it has a more bulbous hilt. The siwah scabbard is usually more highly ornamented than a rincong scabbard. The decoration on these fine-old weapons befits their royal heritage. Precious jewels, ivory and intricate gold filigree work adorn at the upper end of the scabbard where the blade enters the sheath. Some siwahs have straighter blades than rincong, however, both blades are sharpened on one side only, and end in a sharp point. Peudeung The Peudeung is a kind of a long sword and was very populer during the Achehnese wars. In Acheh, every peudeung has aname based on the shape of its hilt, for example 'hilt like the tail of a cat', (gagang ekor kucing) 'hilt like the mouth of crocodile' (gagang mulut buaya) 'hilt like the horn of a deer', (gagang tanduk rusa) 'hilt like the legs of a horse', (gagang kaki kuda) and 'hilt like the tail of a duck' (gagang ekor bebek). The hilt of a peudeung is usually decorated with a 'tampok', a smaller version of the star shaped ornament worn on top of the traditional, royal Achehnese hat. The history of peudeung may trace back to 17 century. There is an Achehnese sketch dated in the century, an Achehnese man, show him sporting a strap over his shoulder through which two long peudeung protrude. As a verandah of Mecca, songs and dances which come from Acheh generally reflect Islamic prayer art. In old times dances were either performed at the courts for sultans and their guest or in the villages as entertainment after hard work in the fields. Today dances are mostly performed at special government functions, but in many areas local dancing traditions and groups carry on the heritage. Each region of Acheh has own version of dances or its own indigenous ones. The costumes used are basically long sleeved tops and sarongs wrapped around the waist and colors are often brilliant. Women usually wear head pieces, but the use of jewelry depends on the aspect of life that is depicted by the dance. The Achehnese dance all have certain characteristics in common. Islamic values are often spread in Acheh through the dances. The dances deal with daily social activities. All Achehnese dances are performed by a group and are dynamic with stepping feet, beating of chests, hips and shoulder Achehnese music performed on tradition string, wind and percussion instruments. Most of them seem to have Chinese origin, but at least the "arbab" is indigenous. The "arbab" is a three string zither made of wood from the jack fruit tree. The strings are made of very strong bambo, rattan, or from horse tail horse. One example of wind instrument is the "seurunee kalee ", which is a single reed wood-wind with one hole in the back and seven in the front. Other include various kinds of bamboo fluetes, such as "buloh peurindu", "bansi" and "suling". Gong are made of brass or dried goat skin and are sounded with padded wooden hammers. They come in three sizes and called "gong" , "canang", and "mong-mong". The "Rapaii Pasai" is tambourine made of goat skin. The "Rapai Pasai", for example, was introduced by the Samudra Pasai Kingdom as an instrument to call citizen to gather. The "Tak Tok" is made of bamboo and is very simmilar to Javanese "angklung". The players of traditional instruments are usually men, while women sing and play tambourines. A traditional band consists of leader, four or five players and one or two boy sopranos. In Acheh there are 50 types of dance, 20 kinds of music, 10 form of literature and 9 tradition arts, some of which are described below. Some of the popular dances are: Ranub Lampuan Peumulia Jamee Seudati
Saman
Meuseukat Pho Laweut Tarek Pukat Marhaban Rapai Geleng
' Rapa-ii Geleng ' Perang Sabil Bines Didong Ul-Ula Lembing Alee Tunjang Daboih Lansir Madam
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cheh
has a lot of potential cultures which are basically colored by Islamic
religion. There are three major ethnic groups in Acheh; Achehnese, Gayo
and Alas. The Achehnese are most numerous and inhabit the coastal areas
of the region. However, in west and south Acheh, they intermingled with
west Sumatra, which reflected in language, design and customs. The Gayo
and Alas tribes are numerically minor groups who inhabited the highland
of Acheh. The Gayo live in central Acheh while the Alas in southeast
Acheh.
Achehnese
villages usually lie in the middle of cultivated areas where the houses
are hidden among the trees for shade and coolness. An older traditional
house is built without using any nails. The house held together with
cord or pegswhich are made too small for its hole and is kept in place
by large wedges.
An
Achehnese house stand on pillars which is well designed for the climate.
It is composed of five divisions (rueung). 16, 20 or 24 sturdy pillars,
usually 6-8 feet in height, rise perpendicularly up from the floor,
providing space for air circulation and for people to move about
comfortably.
Standard
traditional Achehnese clothing for men includes full cut black trousers,
a black top with long-narrow sleeves with one botton at the neck. A silk
cloth (kain songket) is bounded around the waist, and a rencong
is tucked into the belt. On the head is a kupiah meukeutob topped
with a gold star shaped ornament (tampok kupiah). It is bound with a
woven square of silk.
The
women wear gold embroidered, black trousers which are narrow at the
ankle and very broad at the waist. The blouse is also embroidered, and
is yellow, green or red in colour. The sarong is a women silk
fabricdecorated with gold or silver thread (kain songket). This is held
in place a large gold belt. On the head is adorned with an array of
golden flowers with called Bungong Ok and Patam Dho or
Kulah Kama. Necklaces cascade from the neck to the waist. The
arms are adorned with many bracelets, and the fingers are graced with
rings, too.
Rincong
is a special Achehnese dagger which had been so important during the
Achehnese war. Now the dagger is popular as a completion of the
traditional attire, and nice souvenir from Acheh, too. Rincong blades are
mode of metal, while the hilts and scabbard are from ivory, wood (kayu
kemuning), or buffalo hom. Anatomishable steel is used for blades that
will be fitted with buffalo hom hilts and scabbards. While a brass alloy
is used for those with scented wood orivory hilts and scabbards. Hom,
wood, and ivory are not the only materials used for roncong hilts and
scabbards, silver and gold may also be used. The shape of rincong is
from the invocation of 'Bismillahirrahmanirrahim' (in the name of Allah,
the merciful and compassionate). The component parts of rincing is
likened to individual letters of the Arabic script of phrase 'Bismillah'
as follows :
The
"Seudati" dance existed in pre-Islamic times, but became a way
to spread Islamic value to the Achehnese people. The name can de derived
from the "syahadatain" which means confession of faith by
saying " Kalimah Syahadat". "Seudati" is performed
by 8 male dancers commanded by a leader ("syeikh") and his
assistant ("apet syeikh") . Two narattors read a poem. It is
danced in standing position and starts with "saleum" (salam).
Only stepping feet, snapping fingers and beating of chests accompany the
movements. The Seudati Inong is the same dance, but performed by
women
"Saman"
the most popular dance in Acheh and the dance that has become well-known
abroad with the name "Thousand hands". It has its origin from
the Alas ethnic group and is normally performed to celebrate the
birthday of the Prophet Muhammad S.A.W. and other important occasions.
Eight to twenty male performers kneel in a row on the floor and make
different kinds of torso movements accompanied by songs, clapping hands,
slapping chests, slapping hands on the floor, etc. The songs are praises
to Allah or prayers. The dance starts with slow movements and increases
its tempo gradually to great speed and finally come to a sudden stop.
There are many different regional versions of "Saman" 
'
Saman Inong '
