The tutuʾe — also spelled tutue, and described by Snouck Hurgronje as “the bridge” — is a characteristic Achehnese funeral observance, used where the deceased is a member of the family of an uleebalang or of some one whose rank or wealth entitle him to like consideration. On either side of the way to be taken by the funeral cortege, from the steps of the house through the courtyard and gampong to where the road enters the surrounding fields, lengths of white cotton are suspended on poles. At intervals of about four hail (ells) in the length of the stuff a slight tear is made. These two fences of cotton are called tutuʾe or “the bridge”.
Etymology and distribution
The name is a dialectal variation of titi, “a bridge”. In the Malay of the northern part of the Peninsula “bridge” is also titi; in Malacca and Singapore it is jembatan (jambatan). The Achehnese tutuʾe is thus linguistically a “bridge” in the older Malay sense, and the symbolic meaning is clear: it is the bridge by which the spirit of the deceased passes from the house, through the gampong, to the burial-ground and the next world.
The ritual
As soon as the procession is set in motion, the people of the gampong, as they pass, tear the cotton off in pieces of four ells in length, and each takes all he can, the consequence often being a free fight. The tearing-off of the cotton is thus simultaneously an act of piety towards the deceased, a practical scramble for useful cloth, and a dramatisation of the entire community’s participation in the funeral. The “bridge” exists only for the few minutes during which the cortege passes; the material is then dispersed among the villagers, who carry it home as a memorial of the dead.
Place in the Achehnese funeral
The tutuʾe is one of a complex of observances that surround the burial of a person of rank. In Arabic the interment is called janāzah, and this is corrupted by the Achehnese into jeunadah, but has with them taken on an entirely different signification from its Arabic original. If a child dies unmarried, and also sometimes in case of the death of young married people or women in child-birth, the custom is to bear the body to the grave in a sort of ark, the frame of which is made of wood or bamboo, entirely surrounded by a cloth covering, over which are scattered flowers such as betelnut blossom, chempaka, melati etc. This ark is also called jeunadah; after the burial it is laid on the top of the grave. As soon as the funeral procession has left the house, the whole wardrobe of the deceased (peuneulan) is laid on the bedstead and flowers are scattered over it; it remains in this position for forty-four or one hundred days, and on the floor beneath the peuneulan must always be placed a vessel (mudam) full of water to slake the thirst of the spirit (arwah) of the deceased.
The tutuʾe thus belongs to that part of the funeral ceremonial which accompanies the actual transport of the body to the grave, and is significant as the moment at which the entire gampong, by its collective tearing-off of the cotton, takes formal leave of the dead. It is the visual and dramatic counterpart of the recitations and prayers offered for the deceased in the days and weeks that follow.
See Also
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.