The piiphon padi — the “commencement” or “inauguration” of the padi — was the ceremony by which the planting-out of the rice-seedlings from the nursery into the umong was begun in Acheh. It was accompanied by the observance of the peusijue’ or “cooling,” which formed the customary accompaniment of a whole host of important acts and undertakings in Achehnese life, and it marked the moment at which the standing crop was, so to speak, formally installed in the field.
The ceremony of cooling
For the cooling of the umong, the Achehnese employed leafy fronds of the pineung (betel-nut palm) and the plants called mane-manoe and sisijue, which were tied together and soaked in flour and water (teupong taweue), to besprinkle the centre of the rice-field. After this was done, the green besom was planted right in the middle of the umong. Some omitted the sprinkling of flour and water, and simply planted the bundle of boughs in the centre. Both methods alike were known as piiphon padi. The ceremony was thus a particular application of the universal Achehnese rite of peusijue’, the same “cooling” that was used at births, at marriages, at the setting-up of the principal pillars of a house, and at every other crisis of domestic or communal life.
The order of planting
After the piiphon padi the planting began from the centre outwards. This order was not accidental: it corresponded to the symbolism of the green besom planted in the middle of the field, which marked the heart or navel of the umong, the point from which the life of the crop was to radiate. The ceremony was thus at once a magical rite — the cooling and securing of the crop against malignant influences — and a practical device for ordering the labour of planting. The same combination of the magical and the practical characterised all the operations of Achehnese rice-culture, from the tabu or broadcasting to the seuneulong or nursery-planting.
The number forty-four
The piiphon padi was connected with one of the most pervasive numerological observances of Achehnese custom. The Achehnese endeavoured, if possible, to plant out the seedlings on the forty-fourth day after the sowing of the nursery, “and with this,” Snouck Hurgronje observes, “we may compare the ‘removal of the oven’ (bōh dapu) 44 days after child-birth and the setting-up of the tombstone 44 days after death; indeed a special value is universally attached to that number.” The piiphon padi thus fell into a pattern that linked the rhythms of agriculture to those of birth and burial, and gave to the commencement of the padi something of the solemnity of a human rite of passage.
See Also
- Peusijue’
- Tabu system of sowing padi
- Seuneulong system
- Musem peutie blang (closed rice-field season)
- Musem ludih blang
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.