Teungku di Bitay — also called Tuan di Bitay — is the Achehnese name given to a sainted cannon-caster of Achehnese tradition, a foreign (Turkish or Syrian) artisan whose grave at Bitay, a gampong close to the Dalam of the capital in the VI Mukims of the XXV, was, at the time of Snouck Hurgronje’s residence in Acheh, still visible and an object of veneration. He belongs to the legendary cycle that connects the Sultan of Acheh of the sixteenth century with the Sultan of Turkey, from whom, according to the tradition, artisans were sent to instruct the Achehnese in various crafts. Among these artisans Teungku di Bitay is the most celebrated: he is credited with having taught the Achehnese, among other things, the art of casting cannon.
The Legend of the Turkish Artisans
According to Achehnese tradition, preserved in the cycle of legends relating to the embassy of the Sultan of Acheh to the Sultan of Turkey, Teungku di Bitay belonged to the colony of strangers who came from Syria to instruct the Achehnese in arts hitherto unknown to them. The tradition runs that an Achehnese embassy, having obtained admittance to the Sultan of Turkey, was asked to tell him all about affairs in Acheh, the distance of that kingdom from Stambul, the difficulties of the journey, and so forth. The Sultan ordered a great cannon to be given them as a return present — to which was given the name Lada Sichupa’ (“Pepper of a Chupa’”) in memory of the single chupa’ of pepper which was all that remained of the cargo the Achehnese had brought — and, in compliance with their request, he also gave them a number of skilled artisans from his kingdom to instruct their fellow-countrymen in various arts hitherto unknown to them.
It is said that a number of these instructors, who came from Syria, settled in a gampong close to the Dalam, and in remembrance of their native land gave the village the name of Bitay — the Achehnese pronunciation of Baital, an abbreviation of Baital-maqdis (Jerusalem). In Bitay may still be seen the grave of Teungku di Bitay, who according to the tradition belonged to this colony of strangers.
The gampong of Bitay had already been introduced in Snouck Hurgronje’s account of Achehnese history, in connection with “the somewhat legendary story of the relations opened by a Sultan of Acheh in the 16th century with the Sultan of Turkey, and of the artisans lent by the latter to his Achehnese vassal to instruct his people.” The legend reflects the real diplomatic and religious connections between Acheh and the Ottoman Porte in the sixteenth century, when Achehnese sultans sought — and reportedly received — military assistance from the Turks in their struggle against the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean. Whether the cannon-caster Teungku di Bitay ever existed as a historical personage is, in the nature of the case, impossible to determine; what is certain is that the Achehnese of the late nineteenth century revered his tomb as that of the man who had first taught them the art of casting the great guns that defended their coast.
The cult of Teungku di Bitay and its Ottoman connection
The cult of Teungku di Bitay is thus one of the monuments of the legendary connection between Acheh and the Ottoman Empire, a connection which the Achehnese also adduced as the origin of the universal observance of the Mo’lot feast in their country. The cult of Teungku di Bitay is to be distinguished from the more popular cult of Teungku Anjong of Gampong Jawa, whose tomb has now completely outshone the more ancient tomb of Teungku di Kuala. All three saints, however, share in the general Achehnese veneration of the founders of religious and civilised institutions: Teungku Anjong as the great sayyid of Gampong Jawa; Teungku di Kuala as the older and eclipsed saint of the capital; and Teungku di Bitay as the Syrian teacher of arts, whose memory is preserved in the very name of the village he founded.
Bitay as a Place of Sacrifice
The sacred character of the tomb of Teungku di Bitay gave to the gampong of Bitay a special role in the Achehnese ritual calendar. Before the coming of the Dutch to Acheh, great — though in many respects profane — kurubeu’en feasts used to be held there. People assembled in crowds from the 10th to the 13th of the month Haji, and even for a couple of days longer; they came from the capital and the whole of the surrounding district, nay, all the sagis lent their contributions to this noisy gathering. Gambling, cockfighting and sadati-games were the chief pastimes indulged in by the people who crowded thither, and the fights inseparable from such pastimes were not wanting. Thus the word kurubeu’en acquired and still retains in the Achehnese vernacular the meaning of a heathenish tumult. Sacrificial cattle were also slaughtered here in large numbers. The custom in Bitay required that all beasts brought for sacrifice should be slaughtered by a descendant of the local saint, who acted as the keeper of the tomb. At the sacrifice of each animal a number of articles were presented to the slaughterer on a tray (dalong): two raw eggs, husked and unhusked rice mixed together, the various things which are usually employed for the cooling (peusijue) of a newly built house or one in which a wedding has just taken place, a flask of perfumed oil, a little seureuma (the well-known black powder), and other articles. A portion of the things on the tray formed part of the emoluments of the descendant of the sainted founder of cannon.
The Survival of the Cult
It is difficult, Snouck Hurgronje observes, to conjecture why this tomb in particular is esteemed the proper place for offering sacrifices in the month of Haji; all that can be said is that Bitay came to be regarded as the place for these sacrifices, and that the feasts celebrated there assumed an entirely worldly character and became an offence to all devout persons. In Java, almost precisely the same objects as those contained in the tray are added to a sacrifice by those who adhere to old fashions; the teaching of Islam contains nothing of the kind, and there must without doubt be some pre-Mohammedan ideas at the bottom of these curious preparations for a sacrifice. The cult of Teungku di Bitay, in short, is one of the clearest cases in which an older stratum of religious practice — perhaps connected with the veneration of skilled craftsmen as bringers of new technology — survives under a thin Islamic veneer, attached to the name of a sainted cannon-caster whose legendary arrival from Turkey both legitimated and explained it.
See Also
- Acheh
- Banda Acheh
- Bitay
- Dalam
- Kutaraja
- XXV Mukims
- Sultan of Acheh (16th century)
- Sultan of Turkey (16th century)
- Syria
- Stambul
- Teungku Anjong
- Teungku di Kuala Abdora’oh
- Gampong Jawa
- Kurubeu’en
- Lada Sichupa’
- Mo’lot feast
- Sagi
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.
The Achehnese, Vol. II, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.