A gampong (village) in Acheh. Teungku Tiro came first to Lam Panaih, ‘his following being composed chiefly of men from Pidie.’ This ulama gave a great impetus to the holy war. ‘Arriving at Lam Panaih he went through seven days of seclusion and mortification (tapa).’ He then returned from Lam Panaih to Aneu’ Galong. A little cannon (lilla) with a bell is mentioned in connection with Lampanaih (Lam Panaih) in the sadati kisah: ‘In the mountain range of Lam Weueng is the peak of the Seulawaih, in Lampanaih is a lilla (small cannon) with a bell.‘
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Lam Panaih
Lam Panaih is a place in the XXII Mukims (the highland sagi of Great Acheh, known as the Tunong) which is mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I as the legendary home of Ja Sandang, the humble forefather of the kawom (tribe) from which the hereditary court judges of Acheh were drawn.
The Legend of Ja Sandang
Snouck Hurgronje introduces Lam Panaih in his account of the four great kawoms of Achehnese society, in connection with the tradition explaining the name of the Ja Sandang kawom (the tribe that would later supply the hereditary court judge, or Teuku Kali). Snouck notes that “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.”
The more popular legend, however, places Ja Sandang of Lam Panaih on the Sultan’s route to Pidie. “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 (peuchô’), which he carried in the way expressed by the word sandang.” In gratitude the Sultan invited the man to come to the Dalam after the war, telling him to “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 Teuku Kali at Installations
The legend of Lam Panaih, Snouck adds, “serves to illustrate an adat which prevailed up to the latest times at the installation of a new Sultan.” The hereditary court judge chosen from the Ja Sandang tribe, the Teuku Kali, wore at such installations “a white cocoanut spathe under his head-cloth, and a blunderbuss attached to a leathern belt passing over his shoulder.” The reason given for this adat was that the titular “judge” appeared also “in the character of the representative of his tribe the Ja Sandang,” and the ritual objects recalled the original kindness of the man of Lam Panaih.
Significance
Although Lam Panaih appears in Vol. I only in this legend, the legend is of central importance for the political anthropology of the sultanate. It traces the hereditary office of the Kali Malikon Ade — the chief judicial officer and master of court ceremonies — back to a humble villager of the highland XXII Mukims, and so connects the highland sagi of the Tunong to the very heart of the sultan’s court.
See Also
- Acheh
- Aneu’ Galong
- Idi
- Lam Weueng
- Pidie
- Seulawaih
- Teungku Tiro
- Tiro
- Ja Sandang
- Kali Malikul Adil
- XXII Mukims
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.