The teungianom ordeal (Achehnese teungianom, “burying something”) is one of the ordeals employed by the uleebalangs of Acheh for the discovery of guilt in cases where theft or some similar offence is suspected but unproved. It is administered, like the other ordeals, only by the uleebalang and not by the keuchiʾ, the keuchiʾ being confined to the administration of oaths in affairs of the gampong. The ritual is described by Snouck Hurgronje in connection with the criminal-jurisdictional customs of the country, alongside the peulieu eunteung (boiling-oil ordeal), the peulieh beusoë (licking the hot iron), the peutabaʾ (raw-rice ordeal) and the oath of exculpation administered by the teungku.
The ritual
The uleebalang calls together all the suspected persons into the meunasah, and gives them three days’ time to restore the stolen object secretly to its owner. Should this not be done they must again assemble. Then some person skilled in magic art “enchants” a kundur-fruit (bhah kundu), and this is buried where the main road enters the gampong. The result is that the stomach of the guilty party quickly swells up or bursts. The magical virtue resides in the incantation pronounced over the fruit; the burying of the fruit at the threshold of the village is the symbolic act by which the gampong is placed under the compulsion of the spell until the criminal is revealed or makes confession.
Function in the system of Achehnese criminal justice
The usefulness of ordeals of course lies in the belief which the majority of the people have in them. Where they are made ready with the requisite circumstance and solemnity, the guilty party often confesses at once, before recourse is had to the actual trial, and even if this be not so, the demeanour of the criminal at the commencement of the ordeal generally proclaims his guilt. Knowing this, some uleebalangs have been wont to invite the attendance on such occasions of a teungku from some distant place, distinguished by a great beard or some other such impressive characteristic; this startling apparition has often resulted in confession. In cases of petty theft, similarly, it is not unusual for the thief to be kept imprisoned for some days in or near the residence of the uleebalang; before being released he has to promise under oath never to steal again.
Place among Achehnese ordeals
The teungianom belongs to a family of ordeals which depend for their efficacy on the magical power of incantation. The peutabaʾ (“bolting of raw rice”) has the desired result only when the requisite incantations are uttered over the rice; then it is the guilty one alone that fails to swallow the rice. The peulieu eunteung (“plunging the hands into oil”) requires for its success that he who boils the oil should be able to do so in the proper manner and should know by heart the necessary incantations; then the hand of the guilty person and none other will be scalded. The peulieh beusoë (“licking the hot iron”) is also in use, and is even expressly recognized in the so-called edict of Shamsul-alam. The teungianom, by contrast, is unique in that its physical effect — the swelling or bursting of the guilty party’s stomach — is supposed to operate at a distance, the criminal being exposed to the buried kundur-fruit without necessarily having to undergo any direct contact with it.
The whole system of ordeals, including the teungianom, is significant as an instance of the survival of pre-Islamic magical practices side by side with the formal shariʿa, and of the predominant role of the uleebalang rather than the ulama in criminal jurisdiction. It is to be compared with the peusah panchuri, a more facile method of compurgation in cases of theft, and with the more drastic punishments such as the stoning for zina.
See Also
- Peusah Panchuri
- Peutasa’-ordeal
- Stoning of a couple for illicit intercourse by Habib Abdurrahman
- Edicts of Meukuta Alam
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.