The Rabò annual seven-day feast — described in Kreemer’s *De Karbouw* ([[1956)]] (p. 246) as a “kermis der losbandigheid” (carnival of debauchery) — was the annual seven-day beach festival held by the inhabitants of the VI Moekim’s of Groot-Atjeh on the islet of Rabò near Poelo Breuëh (Poelau Bras) off the north-western coast of Groot-Atjeh in Atjeh, the seventh day of which culminated in the ritual sacrifice of a buffalo that was first stabbed in some body part and then led bleeding over all the rice-fields “so that none of them should miss the disaster-averting sprinkling with its blood,” before being ritually slaughtered and consumed. The feast is documented by Snouck Hurgronje in Snouck Hurgronje’s De Atjehers ([[1893-94)|De Atjehers]] (vol. II, p. 315) and is the most fully documented Atjeh-specific instance of the bebloeding of rice-fields by means of a stabbed and bleeding buffalo.
The rite
The Rabò feast is described in De Karbouw (p. 246) in a passage that fixes its duration, its location, its performers, its ritual climax, and its agricultural sanction:
“Op het nabij Poelo Breuëh (Poelau Bras) gelegen eilandje Rabò in Groot-Atjeh plegen de bewoners der VI Moekim’s elk jaar aan het strand een zevendaags feest te geven. De zevende dag van deze ‘kermis der losbandigheid’ offert men een buffel, die eerst in een of ander lichaamsdeel gestoken en dan bloedend over alle rijstvelden wordt heengeleid ‘opdat geen daarvan de onheilwerende besproeiing met zijn bloed misse.’ Daarna slacht men het dier op rituele wijze en nuttigt zijn vlees. Het verzuim hiervan zou een jaar van misgewas tengevolg hebben.” The structural elements of the rite are:
- Duration: a seven-day feast (zevendaags feest), of which the seventh day is the ritual climax.
- Location: the beach of the islet of Rabò, near Poelo Breuëh (Poelau Bras), off the north-western coast of Groot-Atjeh.
- Performers: the inhabitants of the VI Moekim’s of Groot-Atjeh — the federation of six mukim (Islamic administrative units) that formed the territorial core of the Groot-Atjeh heartland.
- Character: a kermis der losbandigheid — a carnival of debauchery, suggesting a festival that combined ritual with licence.
- Ritual climax: the sacrifice of a buffalo on the seventh day, achieved by first stabbing the animal in some body part and then leading it bleeding over all the rice-fields, “so that none of them should miss the disaster-averting sprinkling (besproeiing) with its blood.”
- Communal consumption: the buffalo, after the bleeding-procession, is ritually slaughtered and its flesh consumed.
- Sanction: neglect of the rite would result in a year of crop failure (misgewas).
The ritual logic
The Rabò rite exemplifies the wider archipelagic pattern of bebloeding — the magical sprinkling of buffalo blood on rice-fields, houses, tools, etc. to neutralise evil influences and restore fertility — and is set by De Karbouw in comparative relation to cognate practices among the Toradja, the Dayak, the Ngadaneses of Flores, and other Indonesian peoples. The Rabò case is distinguished by the scale of the rite (a seven-day carnival with the buffalo-sacrifice at its climax), the territorial frame (the rice-fields of the VI Moekim’s, collectively traversed by the bleeding buffalo), and the explicitness of the agricultural sanction (a year of misgewas on neglect). The rite also exemplifies the wider Atjehnese pattern, recorded elsewhere in De Karbouw, in which buffalo-sacrifice is integrated with the calendar of rice-cultivation — a pattern visible also in the *poephon blang* field-consecration rite of Groot-Atjeh.
Significance
The Rabò annual seven-day feast is significant for the encyclopedia of Acheh history as the most fully documented Atjeh-specific instance of the bebloeding of rice-fields by means of a stabbed and bleeding buffalo — a rite that integrates carnival, sacrifice, and apotropaic magic in a single seven-day festival performed by the inhabitants of the VI Moekim’s of Groot-Atjeh on the islet of Rabò. The rite is one of the principal Atjeh-specific buffalo-rituals documented in De Karbouw, and is significant both as an instance of the integration of buffalo-sacrifice with the calendar of rice-cultivation and as a documented case of the magical-agricultural function of the buffalo in Atjehnese village life.
Sources
De Atjehers, by C. Snouck Hurgronje, 2 vols. (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1893-94), vol. II, p. 315.
De Karbouw — Zijn betekenis voor de volken van de Indonesische Archipel, by J. Kreemer (‘s-Gravenhage / Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve, 1956), p. 246.