Oepah poela (Atjehnese, the “planting wage”) was the wage paid for the planting-out of rice in Atjeh, and one of the variable elements by which the several forms of mawaih were distinguished from one another.
In the mawaih forms
Under mawaih bahagi lhée the rice-field holder supplied the ground, plough cattle and bibit, and contributed half of the oepah poela, the cultivator retaining one-third of the product. Sometimes the mawaih-giver contributed two-thirds of the planting wage because he could otherwise find no one to work his fields — as in the landschap (territory) Aréë in the onderafdeeling (subdivision) Sigli, a land of traders who had to offer better terms to draw workers from other landschappen (territories). Under aboen meu’oeë the giver bore the whole of the oepah poela alone, and the cultivator received only one-fifth of the harvest.
See Also
Source
Het recht op den grond in Atjeh, by D. W. N. de Boer, dated Scheveningen, November 1931, pp. 59-80. Offprint DLP-141, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, ‘s-Gravenhage; Bibliotheek KITLV accession 0060 4460 60 081470 428.