Note on nomenclature. The North-East Monsoon is known in Achehnese as musem tiniu (also spelt musem timu or musim timu, “east-season”). The Dutch and older English sources use the abbreviation “N.E. Monsoon”; modern scholarly usage prefers “North-East Monsoon.” All forms denote the same monsoon season in the Acehnese calendar.
The N.E. Monsoon (Achehnese musem tiniu, “east-season”) was the northerly monsoon season which set in around September, marking the close of the favourable period for voyages from the capital of Aceh to the West Coast and the opening of the dangerous season for shipping to the North and East Coasts. Like its counterpart the S.W. Monsoon, it was punctuated by a brief interval of calmer weather, the prediction of which was a prized science among Acehnese sailors and traders. The arrival of the musem tiniu marked the onset of dangerous weather for shipping between the capital Kuta Raja and the northern and eastern coasts of Aceh; mariners generally suspended such voyages until the succeeding musem barat brought favourable conditions, although the calendar contained a brief respite within the season itself.
The Season and Its Intervals
In the Achehnese calendar the musem tiniu commenced in keunong lhang (the tenth keunong of the Achehnese year, falling about September) and continued through the early months of the year. Although the season was dangerous for voyages from the capital to the North or East coast, the first keunong of the year — keunong dua ploh lhèë (falling about January) — contained a remarkable period of from five to seven days during which the voyage could be undertaken without risk: a “sort of interval in the N.E. Monsoon.” This brief period of calmer weather was regarded as a sort of interlude in the musem tiniu, and was eagerly exploited by traders and travellers who had been detained for months by the stormy weather of the early monsoon.
Acehnese sailors and traders set a high value on the knowledge of the exact times when these intervals took place, asserting that there were certain signs by which they could be ascertained each year, but that there were only a few who possessed the requisite knowledge. The interval in the N.E. Monsoon was, however, of less importance to traders than that of the S.W. Monsoon, because there was a better supply of all necessaries on the North and East Coasts. The interval of the S.W. Monsoon, by contrast, gave access to the rantòs, the wild and inhospitable districts on the West Coast which separate the larger settlements from one another and are the field of the pepper-planters’ labours; nothing could be obtained in those districts during the S.W. Monsoon itself, and whoever succeeded in conveying thither a cargo of pots and pans (kanèt blangbòng), clothing, salt, sugar and molasses was certain to return home with a handsome profit.
The Kanduri La’ot at Ulee Lheue
The opening of the musem tiniu in keunong lhang was also the moment at which the second of the four divisions (lho’) of the seine-fishers of Ulee Lheue celebrated its kanduri la’ot or sea-feast, a propitiatory rite held at the commencement of each monsoon by the fishing community. The N.E. Monsoon had its chief ceremonial significance at the kanduri la’ot, the annual sea-feast held by each lho’ (division) of the seine-fishers of Ulee Lheue to invoke God’s blessing on the labours of its pawangs. The time chosen for this feast was that when the fishery enjoyed a compulsory holiday owing to the rough weather brought on by the changes of the N.E. and S.W. monsoons.
Thus the foreshore at Ulee Lheue was divided for the pukat fishermen into two lho’s, one of which gave its religious feast in keunong 17 (about April, at the beginning of the S.W. Monsoon), and the other in keunong 5 (about September, at the beginning of the N.E. Monsoon). The pawangs of the lho’ bore the expenses of the feast, but could claim a contribution of about four dollars from each of their contract buyers. The musem tiniu was therefore a season of contrasting associations: dangerous for deep-sea voyages, but marked by communal rites that bound the fishing population of the coast together in shared anticipation of the season’s challenges.
Place in the Achehnese Calendar
Like the other major divisions of the Achehnese year, the musem tiniu was reckoned by reference to the keunongs — the twelve (sometimes thirteen) annual markers which combined Muslim month-names with a fixed numbering system independent of the Hijrah calendar. The Achehnese recognised that Allah’s established custom was to bring definite states of weather in each keunong, although pious teachers admonished their fellow-countrymen against treating the keunongs themselves as the cause of drought and rain.
Significance
The musem tiniu thus structured both the commercial and ritual life of the Acehnese coast: it suspended long-distance trade with the northern and eastern coasts of Aceh for months at a time, while at the same time imposing a compulsory holiday on the seine-fishers of Ulee Lheue, whose kanduri la’ot at the opening of the season gave ritual expression to the shared vulnerability of the fishing community before the dangers of the monsoon. The brief five-to-seven-day interval in keunong dua ploh lhèë — predictable only to a few specialist sailors — formed the only window in which detained traders could complete the voyages that the early monsoon had interrupted.
See Also
- S.W. Monsoon
- Kot blang
- Kanduri la’ot
- Ulee Lheue
- Banda Aceh
- Kutaraja
- North Coast
- East Coast
- West Coast
- Achehnese calendar
- Keunong
- Aceh
- Pawang
- Pukat fishery
- Pepper planting in Aceh
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.