Poephon blang (in Kreemer’s spelling; modern Atjehnese peuoe blang or peuseumbong blang) is the Atjehnese rite of the first inauguration of field-work — the consecration of the rice-fields and the plough-cattle at the start of the agricultural year, performed by a malim (a scriptural scholar skilled in calculating auspicious moments and versed in the secret lore of rice-cultivation) who, with completely shaved head, goes to the field at midnight, draws the first furrow-lines with his parang (machete) while muttering an incantation, and returns home. The rite is the Atjehnese analogue of the cognate field-consecration ceremonies of the wider archipelago — the herdersfeest of Java, the mandjangog kandang of the Minangkabauers, the palili-feest of South Celebes, the masarampoe of the To Rongkong, and the motinoe-woei baoela of the To Bada — and is the only Atjeh-specific topic given its own indexed slot in the table of contents of Kreemer’s *De Karbouw* ([[1956)]] (p. 178).
The rite
The poephon blang passage in De Karbouw (pp. 177-178) reads:
“Ongeveer een maand vóór men met ploegen aanvangt, heeft in Groot-Atjeh de eerste veld-kandoeri* (offermaaltijd) plaats, welke dienen moet, om het welzijn van het ploegvee en van het veld, dat pas zijn oogst geleverd heeft, ook voor de toekomst te verzekeren. Na deze heilmaaltijd is het werken op het rijstveld gedurende drie dagen verboden (pantang). De aanvang der werkzaamheden geschiedt door een of andere malim (schriftkundige), bekend met het berekenen van gunstige tijdstippen, en ook overigens op de hoogte van de geheime wetenschap, behorende bij de rijstbouw. Met geheel kaal geschoren hoofd, gaat hij te middernacht naar het veld, omdat iedere ontmoeting van mens of dier zijn tocht vergeefs zou maken. Met zijn kapmes trekt hij nu enige strepen over de akker, als maakte hij de eerste ploegvore, prevelt een bezweringsformulier en keert daarna huiswaarts. Deze eerste inwijding der werkzaamheden op het veld noemt de Atjeher poephon blang. Naar men ons in Groot-Atjeh vertelde, zou de malim in het Pederse bij deze sakramentele handeling gebruik maken van een zeer klein gouden ploegje, dat hij even over de te bewerken bodem schuift. Evenals het ijzer, heeft ook het goud, naar Atjehse begrippen, magische potentie.”* The structural elements of the rite are:
- Timing: about a month before ploughing begins.
- Preceding rite: the first field-kandoeri (offer-meal) in Groot-Atjeh, to secure the welfare of the plough-cattle and of the field that has just yielded its harvest.
- Taboo: after the holy meal, work on the rice-field is forbidden (pantang) for three days.
- Performer: a malim — a scriptural scholar (schriftkundige) skilled in calculating auspicious moments and versed in the secret lore of rice-cultivation.
- Purification: the malim has completely shaved head.
- Timing of the rite itself: midnight — because any encounter with man or beast would make the journey in vain.
- Act: the malim draws some lines across the field with his parang (kapmes / machete), as if making the first plough-furrow, mutters an incantation, and returns home.
- Variation in the Pederse: in the Pederse (Pidie) region, the malim uses a very small golden plough (zeer klein gouden ploegje) at this sacramental act, which he slides lightly over the soil to be worked — gold, like iron, having magical potency in Atjehse conception.
Magical and Islamic syncretism
The poephon blang is a document of the syncretism of pre-Islamic rice-cultivation magic with Islamic scholarly culture in Atjeh. The performer — the malim — is a scriptural scholar (a learned Muslim), but his role in the rite is to calculate auspicious moments, to draw the first furrow-lines at midnight while muttering an incantation, and to deploy the magical potency of gold (in the Pederse variant). The combination of Islamic scholarly authority with pre-Islamic rice-magic is characteristic of the Atjehnese village religious complex, in which the teungkoe meunasah (village religious official) and the malim (scriptural scholar) functioned as the principal ritual specialists and in which the Islamic ritual calendar (the *maq meugang* slaughter-days, the *hakikah* newborn-sacrifice, the *Koeroebeuën* Id al-Adha sacrifice) was layered onto a pre-Islamic substrate of rice-cultivation rites and buffalo-rituals.
Significance
Poephon blang is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history as the principal documented Atjehnese field-consecration rite — the rite that integrated the buffalo-drawn plough, the rice-cultivation calendar, and the Islamic-scholarly magical complex into a single midnight ceremony performed by a malim at the start of the agricultural year. The rite is the only Atjeh-specific topic given its own indexed slot in the table of contents of De Karbouw, and is documented in Kreemer’s *Atjeh* (vol. I, p. 471; vol. II, pp. 578 vg.) and re-cited in *De Karbouw* (p. 178). The Pederse variant, with the tiny golden plough, documents the regional variation of the rite within the Atjehnese cultural sphere and the Atjehse conception of gold as a metal of magical potency analogous to iron.
Sources
De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), pp. 177-178.
Atjèh, by J. Kreemer, vol. I (1922), p. 471; vol. II (1923), pp. 578 vg.