Kumunjong was the Achehnese custom of visits of condolence paid to the family of a deceased person. The visits began immediately after the death and lasted as long as seven days. Men who came to pay these visits were generally received in the space beneath the house (yubòh), while the women paid their tribute of sympathy within the house itself. Each of the fellow-villagers of the departed who came to offer condolences received a present of from five to fifteen cents, a small token that marked the formal acknowledgment of sympathy by the household of mourning.
On these occasions the usual display of oratory was conspicuous by its absence. As Snouck Hurgronje observes, in Acheh the native was most chary of his words both in congratulation and condolence. There was, however, one curious custom which formed part of the condolences of women. When a friend came to express her sympathy, a female relation of the deceased—or, in her absence, a stranger who was good enough to act as her deputy—had to “make the visitor wail” (pitinoe or pubac). This she did by herself crying loudly as she embraced her guest, whereupon the latter also shed some theatrical tears and gave vent to a sound as of sobbing. After this they acted as though nothing had occurred and ate and drank what was set before them. As may be imagined, where there were so many visitors, the strength of the kinswoman who did the wailing eventually became exhausted; and when a new guest arrived, there often ensued a discussion in the back verandah as to who should undertake the duty.
The kumunjong belonged to the wider complex of Achehnese funeral observances, of which the structural core was the series of commemorative kanduris: the kanduri of the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 10th days, the kanduri of the 44th day, the kanduri of the 100th day and the annual kanduri to’ thon. Where a man died at a distance from his wife and family, as often happened in the maritime and pepper-planting communities of the East and West Coasts of Acheh, an official notice of the death was sent, accompanied by some garment of the deceased. This notice was usually long preceded by the news or rumour of the death, but that did not prevent the “arrival of the clothes” (ka tri ija bajèe, as it was called) from giving rise to a perfunctory loud wailing followed by the kumunjong of friends and neighbours with its attendant ceremonial.
The restraint of Achehnese condolence—its refusal of lengthy speeches and formal lamentation—was characteristic of the people. Snouck Hurgronje notes that the Achehnese distinguished carefully between moë (“to weep”), bac (“to lament”), and meunyabèh (the mentioning of the deceased’s name with endearing epithets or descriptions of his virtues—e.g. “my heart, the apple of mine eye” hōh atèku, hijih mataku). The last was done by a woman on the death of a child, brother or sister, or of her parents, but not of her husband, as this was prohibited by feminine modesty. On the West Coast especially there survived the adat known as muphoʿ, looked on with strong disfavour by the pious, in which some five or six days after a death, men, women and girls assembled together in the house, the walls of which were partly removed, the women performing a dance in which they raised one leg repeatedly—a practice that fell outside the more sober ceremonial of the kumunjong proper.
See Also
- Kanduri of the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 10th Days
- Kanduri of the 44th Day
- Kanduri of the 100th Day
- Tahlil
- Kanduri
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.