The S.W. Monsoon (the musem barat of the Achehnese) was the southerly monsoon season, commencing around April, during which the voyage from the capital of Acheh to the West Coast became dangerous in Achehnese vessels (prahos and sampans). Like its counterpart the N.E. Monsoon, it was interrupted by a brief interval of calmer weather—usually falling in keunong 11 (about November)—the prediction of which was a prized and somewhat secret science among Achehnese sailors and traders.
The season and its intervals
In the Achehnese calendar, the S.W. Monsoon commenced in keunong 17 (about April). The favourable season for voyages from the capital to the West Coast ran from keunong 5 to keunong 17, after which the S.W. Monsoon made the voyage dangerous; the favourable season for the voyage to the North and East Coasts ran during the rest of the year (from keunong 17 to keunong 5). Both monsoons contained intervals of from five to seven days, during which the otherwise forbidden voyages could be undertaken without risk. Achehnese sailors asserted that there were certain signs by which these intervals could be ascertained each year, but that there were only a few who possessed the requisite knowledge.
The lucrative interval in keunong 11
The interval in keunong 11 was considered as especially advantageous to those who could predict its coming beforehand. In the rantòs—the wild and inhospitable districts on the West Coast which separate the larger settlements from one another and which formed the field of the pepper-planters’ labours—nothing could be obtained during the S.W. Monsoon. 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 corresponding interval in the N.E. Monsoon was of less importance, since there was a better supply of all necessaries on the North and East Coasts.
The kanduri la’ot
The S.W. Monsoon also had its 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. 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 feast was luxurious by Achehnese standards: a buffalo was always slaughtered for it, and the day was fixed by the panglima, who invited all the pawangs and their crews, the uleëbalangs and the gampong authorities (keuchi’s, teungkus and ureueng tuha) of his mukim.
The seven-day pantang
During the seven days following the kanduri la’ot, it was “high festival for the fish” in that lho’: for in this week neither the pawangs belonging to that “bay” nor their colleagues from neighbouring parts might fish in the waters fronting that division. This pantang-prohibition gave the fish a respite at the very moment when their numbers would otherwise have been most severely thinned by the resumed fishing.
Sources
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.
See Also
- N.E. Monsoon
- Musem tiniu (N.E. Monsoon)
- Kanduri la’ot
- Ulee Lheue
- Musem Tiniu
- Keunong
- Kanduri Blang
- S-W Monsoon
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.