Ja Sandang (also To’ Sandang or Chut Ja Sandang) is the legendary ancestor and eponym of one of the three allied Achehnese kawoms (tribes) of the highlands — the Suke’e Ja Sandang — whose descendants supplied the Kali Malikul-adil (the hereditary court-judge of Acheh) and the masters of ceremonies at the installation of the sultans. The prefix Ja or To’ means “forefather”; both names, like the Malay empu, are also applied to revered and personified objects such as sacred trees, wells, rocks and cliffs, “the worship of which clearly dates from heathenish times, but has here survived in spite of Islam.”
The legend of the bamboo of palm-wine
Van Langen notices a tradition according to which the name of this tribe was originally that of an individual from Lampanaih in the XXII Mukims, who used to bring every year to the Sultans of Acheh, in token of fealty, a bamboo filled with palm-wine fastened to a cord passing over his shoulder. Sandang properly means “to carry something under the arm suspended to a rope or strap passing over the shoulder,” and is also used as a male proper name — the cousin and banta of the present Teuku Ne’ being, for instance, called Teuku Sandang.
A second and more generally current legend, which Snouck Hurgronje considers “equally unreliable from a historical point of view,” serves to illustrate an adat which prevailed up to the latest times at the installation of a new Sultan. According to this story, one of the Sultans of Acheh once found himself constrained to go and enforce in person his authority over the district of Pidie. His route thither lay through Lam Panaih in the XXII Mukims. Here he suffered from thirst, but none was found to bring him anything to drink, till at last a man of humble rank brought him milk in a bamboo vessel (pucho’), which he carried in the way expressed by the word sandang. The Sultan was extremely grateful, and invited him to come to him when the war was over and His Majesty had returned to the Dalam, as he wished to give him an earnest of the honour and favour in which he held him. “But how,” objected the old man, “shall an insignificant person like myself be recognized as he who helped to assuage your thirst, and admission to the Dalam be accorded me?” “You must,” replied the Sultan, “twist a white cocoanut spathe round your head by way of sign, and hang your bamboo vessel over your shoulder as it now is.” Ja Sandang did so, and both he and his descendants enjoyed the utmost consideration at the Court.
The Kali Malikon Ade and the installation of sultans
Later on, the ruler of Acheh who reformed or endeavoured to reform the administration of justice chose his court judge from the tribe of Ja Sandang, which had meantime greatly increased in dignity. This official received the title of Kali Malikul-adil (Malikon Ade), and the judicial office, or at least the title appertaining to it, remained hereditary in his family. The later bearers of this title gradually acquired the positions of masters of ceremonies at the Court. Those who have seen them in the exercise of their functions at the installation of a new Sultan can testify that on such occasions the Teuku Kali wore a white cocoanut spathe under his head-cloth, and a blunderbuss attached to a leathern belt passing over his shoulder. The reason given for adhering to this adat is that the titular “judge” appeared also in the character of the representative of his tribe the Ja Sandang. As, however, customs change with lapse of time, the later Sultans permitted the holders of this office to exchange the bamboo vessel for a blunderbuss and to hide the cocoanut spathe to some extent beneath their head-cloth.
Tabus and the popular doggerel
The members of the Ja Sandang tribe are not allowed to eat the flesh of white buffaloes or the salt-water fish alu-alu, both of which are tabooed (pantang) for them. Such pantang-rules, even though strictly observed by Mohammedans, date of course from pre-Mohammedan times, and in so far they “perhaps argue a much greater antiquity for the suke’e of Ja Sandang than the Achehnese themselves are aware of.”
The Suke’e Ja Sandang is one of the three allied tribes satirised in the popular Achehnese doggerel which begins Suke’e Lhee Reutoih ban aneu drang and ends with the triumphant self-assertion of the Imeum Peuet. In the Imeum Peuet’s version, the Ja Sandang are “even as anise and cummin” — a little more valuable than the drang-seeds to which the Lhee Reutoih are compared. In the alternative version current among the three allied tribes themselves, the second verse runs: Suke’e Ja Sandang jeuet keuraja — “the clan of Ja Sandang may become rajas.”
See Also
- Teuku Kali Malikon Ade
- Kali Malikul-adil
- Teuku Sandang
- Installation of a new Sultan
- Imeum Peuet
- Ja Sandang (kawom)
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.
Ja Sandang (also To’ Sandang or Chut Ja Sandang) is the legendary ancestor and eponym of one of the three allied Achehnese kawoms (tribes) of the highlands — the Suke’e Ja Sandang — whose descendants supplied the Kali Malikul-adil (the hereditary court-judge of Acheh) and the masters of ceremonies at the installation of the sultans. The prefix Ja or To’ means “forefather”; both names, like the Malay empu, are also applied to revered and personified objects such as sacred trees, wells, rocks and cliffs, “the worship of which clearly dates from heathenish times, but has here survived in spite of Islam.”
The legend of the bamboo of palm-wine
Van Langen notices a tradition according to which the name of this tribe was originally that of an individual from Lampanaih in the XXII Mukims, who used to bring every year to the Sultans of Acheh, in token of fealty, a bamboo filled with palm-wine fastened to a cord passing over his shoulder. Sandang properly means “to carry something under the arm suspended to a rope or strap passing over the shoulder,” and is also used as a male proper name — the cousin and banta of the present Teuku Ne’ being, for instance, called Teuku Sandang.
A second and more generally current legend, which Snouck Hurgronje considers “equally unreliable from a historical point of view,” serves to illustrate an adat which prevailed up to the latest times at the installation of a new Sultan. According to this story, one of the Sultans of Acheh once found himself constrained to go and enforce in person his authority over the district of Pidie. His route thither lay through Lam Panaih in the XXII Mukims. Here he suffered from thirst, but none was found to bring him anything to drink, till at last a man of humble rank brought him milk in a bamboo vessel (pucho’), which he carried in the way expressed by the word sandang. The Sultan was extremely grateful, and invited him to come to him when the war was over and His Majesty had returned to the Dalam, as he wished to give him an earnest of the honour and favour in which he held him. “But how,” objected the old man, “shall an insignificant person like myself be recognized as he who helped to assuage your thirst, and admission to the Dalam be accorded me?” “You must,” replied the Sultan, “twist a white cocoanut spathe round your head by way of sign, and hang your bamboo vessel over your shoulder as it now is.” Ja Sandang did so, and both he and his descendants enjoyed the utmost consideration at the Court.
The Kali Malikon Ade and the installation of sultans
Later on, the ruler of Acheh who reformed or endeavoured to reform the administration of justice chose his court judge from the tribe of Ja Sandang, which had meantime greatly increased in dignity. This official received the title of Kali Malikul-adil (Malikon Ade), and the judicial office, or at least the title appertaining to it, remained hereditary in his family. The later bearers of this title gradually acquired the positions of masters of ceremonies at the Court. Those who have seen them in the exercise of their functions at the installation of a new Sultan can testify that on such occasions the Teuku Kali wore a white cocoanut spathe under his head-cloth, and a blunderbuss attached to a leathern belt passing over his shoulder. The reason given for adhering to this adat is that the titular “judge” appeared also in the character of the representative of his tribe the Ja Sandang. As, however, customs change with lapse of time, the later Sultans permitted the holders of this office to exchange the bamboo vessel for a blunderbuss and to hide the cocoanut spathe to some extent beneath their head-cloth.
Tabus and the popular doggerel
The members of the Ja Sandang tribe are not allowed to eat the flesh of white buffaloes or the salt-water fish alu-alu, both of which are tabooed (pantang) for them. Such pantang-rules, even though strictly observed by Mohammedans, date of course from pre-Mohammedan times, and in so far they “perhaps argue a much greater antiquity for the suke’e of Ja Sandang than the Achehnese themselves are aware of.”
The Suke’e Ja Sandang is one of the three allied tribes satirised in the popular Achehnese doggerel which begins Suke’e Lhee Reutoih ban aneu drang and ends with the triumphant self-assertion of the Imeum Peuet. In the Imeum Peuet’s version, the Ja Sandang are “even as anise and cummin” — a little more valuable than the drang-seeds to which the Lhee Reutoih are compared. In the alternative version current among the three allied tribes themselves, the second verse runs: Suke’e Ja Sandang jeuet keuraja — “the clan of Ja Sandang may become rajas.”
See Also
- Teuku Kali Malikon Ade
- Kali Malikul-adil
- Teuku Sandang
- Installation of a new Sultan
- Imeum Peuet
- Ja Sandang (kawom)
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.