Teuku Uleë Lhuë (also written Teuku Ulec Lhuic) was the right-hand man of the old Teuku Ne’ of Meura’sa and the grandfather of the present chief of Meura’sa in the closing years of the nineteenth century. He is introduced by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese Vol. I as the type of the atrocious Achehnese tyrant, whose memory was preserved in popular tradition long after his death and whose grave was believed to be the seat of supernatural terrors.
The mention of Teuku Uleë Lhuë occurs in Snouck’s discussion of the Achehnese funeral and of the popular beliefs connected with the inquisition of the tomb. The Achehnese believe that the dead, as soon as they are laid in the grave, are interrogated by the angels Munkar and Nakir as to their faith; those whose answers — which always harmonize with their manner of life on earth — are deemed unsatisfactory, are punished even in the narrow limits of the grave. Those who have sharp ears sometimes hear the tormented wretches shrieking in their graves, so that it is considered undesirable to live in the neighbourhood of the tombs of great evildoers or tyrants.
It is in this connexion that Snouck introduces Teuku Uleë Lhuë. “The grandfather of the present Teuku Ne’ (chief of Meura’sa), who under the title of Teuku Uleë Lhuë was the right hand man of the old Teuku Ne’ (the second predecessor of the present chief), lives in the memory of the people as an atrocious tyrant. When buried he shrieked (geunieuchi’e) so dreadfully in his tomb that the people of the neighbourhood, after being continually robbed of sleep, secretly exhumed his body and cast it into the sea. Such at least is the story.”
The tale of Teuku Uleë Lhuë is one of the most vivid episodes in Snouck’s account of Achehnese eschatology. The technical word geunieuchi’e, applied to the shrieking of the dead, denotes the popular belief that the wicked, even in the grave, betray by their cries the torments they are suffering; the exhumation and casting of the corpse into the sea is the practical measure by which the neighbours sought to free themselves from a nuisance at once physical and supernatural. The body, removed from the consecrated earth of the cemetery and committed to the sea, was supposed to be thereby deprived of the power of troubling the living.
The name of Teuku Uleë Lhuë — Uleë Lhuë being the Achehnese form of the place-name more familiarly known in Dutch as Olehleh — suggests that he was originally attached to the coastal village of Ulee Lheue, on the western side of Banda Acheh, before he entered the service of the chief of Meura’sa. The name of the place has, however, no necessary connexion with the chief of Ulee Lheue, who is a different personage; in this case it serves merely to identify the man by the locality of his origin, after the common Achehnese fashion.
The story of Teuku Uleë Lhuë throws a brief but vivid light on the internal politics of the Meura’sa chiefdom in the early nineteenth century. The “right-hand man” of the chief — himself the grandfather of a future holder of the dignity — was evidently a person of great power in his own right; the tradition which has preserved his name has done so chiefly to record the hatred in which he was held. The transmission of the chiefdom from the old Teuku Ne’ to the descendants of Teuku Uleë Lhuë — a transmission which, by the late nineteenth century, had placed the grandson of the tyrant in the seat of his grandfather’s master — is one of the obscure successions of the Meura’sa house, and is illustrative of the way in which the great Achehnese chiefdoms passed, by marriage and personal ascendency, from one branch of a kindred to another.
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.
Teuku Uleë Lhuë (also written Teuku Ulec Lhuic) was the right-hand man of the old Teuku Ne’ of Meura’sa and the grandfather of the present chief of Meura’sa in the closing years of the nineteenth century. He is introduced by Snouck Hurgronje in The Achehnese Vol. I as the type of the atrocious Achehnese tyrant, whose memory was preserved in popular tradition long after his death and whose grave was believed to be the seat of supernatural terrors.
The mention of Teuku Uleë Lhuë occurs in Snouck’s discussion of the Achehnese funeral and of the popular beliefs connected with the inquisition of the tomb. The Achehnese believe that the dead, as soon as they are laid in the grave, are interrogated by the angels Munkar and Nakir as to their faith; those whose answers — which always harmonize with their manner of life on earth — are deemed unsatisfactory, are punished even in the narrow limits of the grave. Those who have sharp ears sometimes hear the tormented wretches shrieking in their graves, so that it is considered undesirable to live in the neighbourhood of the tombs of great evildoers or tyrants.
It is in this connexion that Snouck introduces Teuku Uleë Lhuë. “The grandfather of the present Teuku Ne’ (chief of Meura’sa), who under the title of Teuku Uleë Lhuë was the right hand man of the old Teuku Ne’ (the second predecessor of the present chief), lives in the memory of the people as an atrocious tyrant. When buried he shrieked (geunieuchi’e) so dreadfully in his tomb that the people of the neighbourhood, after being continually robbed of sleep, secretly exhumed his body and cast it into the sea. Such at least is the story.”
The tale of Teuku Uleë Lhuë is one of the most vivid episodes in Snouck’s account of Achehnese eschatology. The technical word geunieuchi’e, applied to the shrieking of the dead, denotes the popular belief that the wicked, even in the grave, betray by their cries the torments they are suffering; the exhumation and casting of the corpse into the sea is the practical measure by which the neighbours sought to free themselves from a nuisance at once physical and supernatural. The body, removed from the consecrated earth of the cemetery and committed to the sea, was supposed to be thereby deprived of the power of troubling the living.
The name of Teuku Uleë Lhuë — Uleë Lhuë being the Achehnese form of the place-name more familiarly known in Dutch as Olehleh — suggests that he was originally attached to the coastal village of Ulee Lheue, on the western side of Banda Acheh, before he entered the service of the chief of Meura’sa. The name of the place has, however, no necessary connexion with the chief of Ulee Lheue, who is a different personage; in this case it serves merely to identify the man by the locality of his origin, after the common Achehnese fashion.
The story of Teuku Uleë Lhuë throws a brief but vivid light on the internal politics of the Meura’sa chiefdom in the early nineteenth century. The “right-hand man” of the chief — himself the grandfather of a future holder of the dignity — was evidently a person of great power in his own right; the tradition which has preserved his name has done so chiefly to record the hatred in which he was held. The transmission of the chiefdom from the old Teuku Ne’ to the descendants of Teuku Uleë Lhuë — a transmission which, by the late nineteenth century, had placed the grandson of the tyrant in the seat of his grandfather’s master — is one of the obscure successions of the Meura’sa house, and is illustrative of the way in which the great Achehnese chiefdoms passed, by marriage and personal ascendency, from one branch of a kindred to another.
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.