Idja pinggang — Atjehnese ija pinggang, “hip-cloth” or “loin-cloth”, from ija “cloth” + pinggang “hip, waist” — is the sartorial sjibbolet (shibboleth) of Atjeh Islam for both sexes, named in Prof. Dr. Kernkamp’s chapter De invloed van den Islam in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946). Kernkamp introduces it in the course of his discussion of Islamic clothing markers: “Certain garments were indeed positively considered as marks of Muslim dress. In Atjeh the great piece in the crotch of the wide trousers, nowadays almost only worn by women, served as such. Very special in Atjeh was the hip-cloth (idja pinggang) for both sexes the sjibbolet of Islam, a conception that is strongly wearing away.”
The clothing marker
Kernkamp’s account places the idja pinggang alongside the Javanese koepiah (skullcap) and the Arab-style turban as one of the positive sartorial markers of Muslim identity in the Indies. What distinguishes the Atjeh case is the marker’s application to both sexes (rather than only to men) and its specifically Atjehnese form: a hip-cloth wound round the waist over the wide trousers, serving both as a practical garment and as a visible sign of the wearer’s Muslim identity. The same section notes that, by 1946, the marker was “strongly wearing away” (sterk afslijt) under the influence of European clothing, which “the younger generation in particular increasingly takes on” — though Kernkamp notes that “a certain reluctance against wearing a tie and especially against wearing a hat or tropical helmet” persisted among Atjehnese men.
The idja pinggang is to be distinguished from the generic Atjeh idja (cloth) — which is the subject of a separate Atjeh concept entry — by the specific addition of pinggang (hip), which marks the hip-cloth as a particular sartorial form rather than as cloth in general. The Atjeh *koepiah* (skullcap) is the complementary male head-covering, also named in the same chapter of Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk.
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, the idja pinggang is significant as the most distinctive Atjehnese sartorial marker of Islamic identity. Kernkamp’s note that the marker was “strongly wearing away” by 1946 — that is, on the eve of Indonesian independence — captures a specific moment in the long Atjehnese transition from the late-nineteenth-century dress code (in which the idja pinggang was a positive mark of Muslim identity) to the late-colonial and post-colonial dress code (in which European clothing was increasingly adopted). The same transitional moment is recorded in Kernkamp’s note that Atjehnese men “sometimes” wore a simple head-cloth, “but much more commonly a sort of cap (koepiah)”; only “a few prominent Teungkoe’s … wear a turban on Arab model.”
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- invloed van den Islam — influence of Islam
- Teungku — religious teacher (Atjeh form)
- Teungkoe — religious teacher (Atjeh form)
- idja pinggang — hip-cloth (Atjeh sartorial marker of Islam)
- idja — cloth
- pen — open/wide (Atjeh concept)
- koepiah — skullcap
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Atjehers — Acehnese
- Acheh — Aceh
- Java — Java
- Prof. Dr. — Professor Doctor
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
- Idja
- Koepiah der Atjehers
- Penajoeng
- Haddji-title prestige in Atjeh (Mellema 1947)
- Acheh
- Teungku
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- W. J. A. Kernkamp
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), p. 87 (chapter De invloed van den Islam door Prof. Dr. W. J. A. Kernkamp).