A gampong where the renowned teacher Abduggamad (a Malay) resided and taught. Teungku di Lam Nyong studied here under this Malay teacher. After the death of Muhamat Amin (Teungku Lam Bhu’) and his successor Abduggamad, a period of inactivity in learning followed until Cheh Marahaban’s appearance. In the weaving descriptions, ‘ija Lam Bhu” is listed as one of the cloth patterns named after the place where the pattern originated or is best designed. Pochut Muhamat, after his victory over Jeumaloy, married a lady of royal lineage at Gampong Lham Bhu’. The widow of the learned Malay teacher was Teungku Lam Bhu’, who composed in prose the treatise Sipheuet dua ploh on the twenty attributes of God, for the benefit of her disciples.
Gampong Lham Bhu’ was until the coming of the Dutch an extensive and flourishing village included in the Banda Acheh. Pochut Muhamat married a lady of royal lineage here after his victory. Also name of the cloth pattern ‘ija Lam Bhu”.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Lam Bhu’
Lam Bhu’ is a locality in Banda Acheh situated close to the Dalam, the residence of the Sultan of Acheh. It is named in The Achehnese both as one of the principal gampongs of the pre-war capital and as the later residence of the chief kali of the XXVI Mukims, Teungku Lam Gut, who moved there after his marriage.
One of the Capital’s Gampongs
In his description of the Dalam as the nucleus of a number of fine and prosperous gampongs, Snouck Hurgronje lists Lam Bhu’ — together with Gampong Jawa, Pande, Peunayong, Lu’eng Bata, Lam Seupeu’eng, Ateung, Batoh and Meura’sa — among the “most important” villages whose inhabitants, with their language and customs, were distinguished by the epithet banda, “town-bred” or “civilised.” The mosque and market of Banda Acheh, the centre from which the tone in matters of custom and dress was given to the whole country, lay at the heart of this cluster of settlements; and Lam Bhu’, lying close to the Sultan’s residence, was thus among the inner ring of the capital’s villages.
Residence of Teungku Lam Gut
In the closing decades of the Sultanate, Lam Bhu’ became the dwelling-place of Teungku Lam Gut, the hereditary kali of the XXVI Mukims. Born in Lam Gut — the gampong from which he took his name — and appointed as the successor of his father, a man of some reputation for learning, he subsequently changed his abode to Lam Bhu’ in consequence of his marriage. There he married his daughter to a scholar of Pidie named Cheh Marahaban, long a resident in Mecca, who acted as ulama and kali to the sovereign of the port during the last years of the Sultanate. Teungku Lam Gut was thus enabled to rely, in his official work, on the superior knowledge of his son-in-law; for he himself, though a man of character, was not especially learned in the law. He was the grandfather, on the mother’s side, of the hatib (preacher) of the principal mosque at Kuta Raja in Snouck Hurgronje’s time.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Lam Bhu
Lam Bhu is a gampong of the lowland cluster around the Sultan’s Dalam, mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I both as one of the principal banda (town-bred) villages of the capital and as the residential centre of the chief kali Teungku Lam Gut, who moved there from his native Lam Gut after his marriage.
One of the Banda Gampongs
Snouck Hurgronje introduces Lam Bhu in his discussion of the highland–lowland distinction in Great Acheh. The Dalam, or residence of the Sultan, “formed before our war with Acheh the nucleus of a number of fine and prosperous gampongs. The centre of these with its mosque and market-place was called Banda Acheh i.e. the capital or trading mart of Acheh, and gave the tone to the whole country in matters of custom, dress etc. The most important of these gampongs were Gampong Jawa, Pande, Peunayong, Lam Bhu, Lu’eng Bata, Lam Seupe’eng, Ateueng, Batoh and Alcura’sa.” The inhabitants of these and the neighbouring villages “together with their language and customs were distinguished by the epithet banda, that is, town-bred or civilized.”
Significance
Lam Bhu’s situation “close to the Dalam” made it a natural residence for the chief kali of the XXVI Mukims in the late sultanate. Its inclusion in the list of banda gampongs marks it as one of the principal settlements of the pre-Dutch capital, and the move thither of Teungku Lam Gut illustrates how an Achehnese religious official could draw on his marriage alliance to compensate for his own want of learning.
See Also
- Abduggamad
- Acheh
- Banda Acheh
- Cheh Marahaban
- Lam Nyong
- Pochut Muhamat
- Teungku Lam Bhu’
- Teungku di Lam Nyong
- Dalam
- XXVI Mukims
- Lu’eng Bata
- Lam Seupeu’eng
- Batoh
- Gampong Jawa
- Lam Gut
- Lueng Bata
- Teungku Lam Gut
Source
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.