The Keudjroen-loeëng — also written Keudjroen loeëng, Keujruen lueng, Küdzhüën Lüëng — was the Atjèhse office of irrigation official, charged with the supervision of the irrigation water (loeëng) distribution, which had existed long before the Dutch coming to Atjèh and which the 1923 brochure of the Atjeh-Instituut recommended to revive as the principal Atjèhse institutional vehicle for the improvement of the water distribution in the rijstbouw.
The Pre-Dutch Office
In connection with better water distribution, the Atjeh-Instituut brochure recalls an office that already long before the Dutch coming to Atjèh had existed: that of the keudjroen-loeëng. The office was the principal Atjèhse institutional means of supervising the distribution of the irrigation water — the loeëng (the Atjèhse word for irrigation channel or watercourse). The office was, in the pre-Dutch period, in the gift of the oeleebalang (the Atjèhse district chief), and the holder of the office was responsible for the maintenance and distribution of the irrigation water in the oeleebalang’s territory.
The Revival
To revive this institution, experiments had already been made, and indeed in Pidië, where for that office were chosen younger brothers or close relatives of landscape-heads. The experiment was only partially successful, and indeed because no schooled personnel could be disposed of. Only after those involved had worked for a couple of years with the Irrigatiedienst could something be expected of their appointment as keudjroen-loeëng; in Pidië, the rice-land par excellence, for example, three keudjroen-loeëng could be appointed — for the irrigation areas of the Pidië-rivier, the Kroeëng Tiro, and the Kroeëng Teupin-Raja.
Significance
The keudjroen-loeëng is the Atjèhse office of irrigation official, charged with the supervision of the irrigation water distribution, which had existed long before the Dutch coming to Atjèh and which the Atjeh-Instituut brochure of 1923 recommended to revive as the principal Atjèhse institutional vehicle for the improvement of the water distribution in the rijstbouw. The revival of the office — in Pidië, the rice-land par excellence — was one of the principal Dutch-Atjèhse institutional experiments of the post-war period.
See Also
- Rijstbouw
- Atjehsche Irrigatiedienst
- Pidië
- Pidië-rivier
- Kroeëng Tiro
- Kroeëng Teupin-Raja
- Oeleebalang
- Loeeng
- Sawah
- De Rijkdom van Atjeh (1923)
- 1923
Source
De Rijkdom van Atjeh, uitgegeven door het Atjeh-Instituut, Amsterdam, 1923. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-110-De_rijkdom_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 14–15.