The installation of a new Sultan of Acheh — also called the coronation of the Sultan — was the principal ceremonial of the Achehnese court, the solemn installation by which a newly chosen sultan was wedded to his country. As C. Snouck Hurgronje describes it, the ceremony “was and remained a contract with the three panglimas” of the sagis or main divisions of the kingdom, “though the choice of a sultan was governed to a great extent by entirely different influences.” The sultan’s own proper uleebalangs “played more or less the part of masters of ceremonies, while the kalis and ulamas gave as it were their blessing to the marriage of the raja with his country.” The great officers of state, the chiefs of the three sagis, and the heads of the traditional tribes (sukeës) all took part, with the hereditary head of the Ja Sandang tribe — the Kali Malikon Ade — acting as master of ceremonies.
The Ja Sandang Legend and the Master of Ceremonies
The ceremonial role of the Ja Sandang at the installation is explained by a legend current among the Achehnese. According to this story — unreliable as history but much more generally current than the traditions preserved by K. F. H. van Langen — one of the Sultans of Acheh once found himself constrained to go and enforce in person his authority over the district of Pidie. His route thither lay through Lam Panaih in the XXII Mukims. Here he suffered from thirst, but none was found to bring him anything to drink, till at last a man of humble rank brought him milk in a bamboo vessel (peuchò’), which he carried in the way expressed by the word sandang (suspended by a cord passing over the shoulder).
The Sultan was extremely grateful and invited him to come to him when the war was over and His Majesty had returned to the Dalam, as he wished to give him an earnest of the honour and favour in which he held him. “But how,” objected the old man, “shall an insignificant person like myself be recognized as he who helped to assuage your thirst, and admission to the Dalam be accorded me?” “You must,” replied the Sultan, “twist a white cocoanut spathe round your head by way of sign, and hang your bamboo vessel over your shoulder as it now is.” Ja Sandang did so, and both he and his descendants enjoyed the utmost consideration at the Court.
Later on, the ruler of Acheh who reformed or endeavoured to reform the administration of justice chose his court judge from the tribe of Ja Sandang, which had meantime greatly increased in dignity. This official received the title of Kali Malikul-Adil (Malikon Ade), and the judicial office — or at least the title appertaining to it — remained hereditary in his family. The later bearers of this title gradually acquired the position of masters of ceremonies at the Court. Those who have seen them in the exercise of their functions at the installation of a new Sultan can testify that on such occasions the Teuku Kali wore a white cocoanut spathe under his head-cloth, and a blunderbuss attached to a leathern belt passing over his shoulder. The reason given for adhering to this adat (custom) is that the titular “judge” appeared also in the character of the representative of his tribe, the Ja Sandang. As, however, customs change with lapse of time, the later Sultans had permitted the holders of this office to exchange the bamboo vessel for a blunderbuss and to hide the cocoanut spathe to some extent beneath their head-cloth.
The members of the Ja Sandang tribe are not allowed to eat the flesh of white buffaloes or the salt-water fish alu-alu, both of which are tabooed (pantang) for them — prohibitions which date from pre-Mohammedan times and which perhaps argue a much greater antiquity for the sukeë than the Achehnese themselves are aware of.
Election and Recognition
The installation followed upon an election which was usually decided by war between the different parties. At the election of a new Sultan, the scale was turned not so much by the support of the panglimas as by that of the real wielders of power in each sagi: the chief uleebalangs of the XXVI Mukims (Teuku Ateue’ and Teuku Imeum Tungkob), of the XXII Mukims (Teuku Ba’et and Teuku Waki Chi’ Gampong Baroh), and of the XXV Mukims (the two Ne’s and Teuku Nanta Seutia). A debate lasting some weeks was first held by the three panglima sagi and other influential chiefs — in consultation, so far as they thought necessary, with the kalis and ulamas — to determine the most suitable candidate for the vacant throne. “When their final decision had been sealed by the payment of the ‘wedding’ presents to the three panglimas, a favourable day was fixed for the ceremony.”
The Ceremonial of Installation
The most characteristic features of the ceremony, as related to Hurgronje by eye-witnesses of the last sultan’s coronation, took place on a square platform of stones somewhat roughly piled together, called the branda seumahla or prana seumahla, which stood within a low enclosing wall near the royal abode and the bale ròïh in which the sultan received his guests. The platform “seems only to have been used for coronations and was suitably decorated on these occasions; at ordinary times it was neglected, so that anyone passing through the Dalam or Kuta Raja would hardly notice it.”
During the forenoon of the day, the court dignitaries whose offices had not shared the universal downfall were at their posts — especially the Panglima Meuseugit Raya, whose duty it was to keep order in the Dalam, and the Teuku Kali Malikon Ade, who performed his functions within the space surrounding the branda seumahla, with his blunderbuss hanging from his shoulder and a white cocoanut spathe wound in his head-cloth. The new sultan took his seat on the platform, while the three head kalis of the sagis and some of the principal ulamas ranged themselves behind him, and a huge crowd watched from a little distance.
The first to approach were the panglima of the XXVI Mukims and Teuku Ne’, both of whom, accompanied by their attendants, advanced close to the wall within which the platform stood. One of the kalis, Teungku Lam Paya of the XXV Mukims, thereupon recited a form of nomination introduced by the words from the Quran (IV, 62): “Obey Allah and his Messenger and those among you who be clad with authority.” This utterance was repeated in a loud tone by the Teuku Kali so that all the people might hear. After the conclusion of the form of nomination, the Teuku Kali called the panglima of the XXVI Mukims thrice in succession by his official title, to which the latter and his followers replied each time with a loud “deelat!” — almost equivalent to “Yes, Your Majesty!” The panglima then drew aside to make room for his fellow-official of the XXV Mukims; with him, and after him with the panglima of the XXII Mukims, the above ceremony was repeated. The official order of precedence of the three sagis on ceremonial occasions was thus XXVI, XXV, XXII — an order “always that here given,” although “judging by their relative importance the order of precedence should be reversed.” With the kali pronouncing the formal nomination in the presence of the assembled chiefs and people, the ceremony was complete.
The Ceremony as Contract and Sacrament
The coronation thus differed from a European consecration in being, in form, a contract rather than an unction. The sultan was not so much anointed by the clergy as installed by his uleebalangs, with the religious officers acting as witnesses and blessers. Yet the ceremony did confer a kind of sacrality on its recipient. As Hurgronje notes, “the Dalam (usually called Kraton by the Dutch) and all that it contained, including the sultan himself, were since the earliest times the objects of a somewhat extraordinary reverence in the minds of the Achehnese, though this never prevented them from making a football of the sultanate at their pleasure.” This feeling was “founded partly on the fact that the Dalam was the centre and apparently the origin of the glory of a past almost fabulous in comparison with later times, and partly on the kindred fact that the Achehnese (though wrongly as we have seen) ascribe all the adats of the country to the earlier sultans.” The coronation was thus at once a political compact among the chiefs of the sagis and a quasi-sacramental act which imparted to the new sultan something of the kramat — the miraculous favour of God — by which he was thereafter regarded.
See Also
- Sultan of Acheh
- Dalam (Sultan’s Court)
- XXVI Mukims
- XXV Mukims
- XXII Mukims
- Panglima Meuseugit Raya
- Teuku Kali Malikon Ade
- Kali Malikul Adil
- Teungku Lam Paya
- Teuku Ne’
- Teuku Ateue’
- Teuku Imeum Tungkob
- Teuku Ba’et
- Teuku Waki Chi’ Gampong Baroh
- Teuku Nanta Seutia
- Lam Panaih
- Pidie
- Sarakata
- Van Langen
- Letters patent with the ninefold seal to Panglima Meuseugit Raya
- Kuta Raja
Source
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A. W. S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R. J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E. J. Brill, 1906.