In the sadati dialogue: ‘Logic is taught at Lam Paya, dogma at Krueng Kale.‘
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — Lam Paya
Lam Paya is a place in the XXV Mukims of Great Acheh whose name was borne by a learned head kali (religious judge) and his successor son, both mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I in connection with the religious-judicial hierarchy of the sultanate.
The Kali Teungku Lam Paya
Snouck Hurgronje introduces Lam Paya through its most distinguished son: “In the Mukims in like manner there flourished for a short time a tolerably learned head kali, Teungku Lam Paya, who died some years since.” He “enjoyed, at least in the later years of the sultanate, a certain precedence on official occasions, and was sometimes bidden to the Dalam, probably because he lived nearest at hand.” Snouck’s mention comes in his review of the four chief kalis of the three sagis — those of the XXII, XXV and XXVI, together with the Kali Malikon Ade of the court — and is offered as an example of how the office of kali, though in principle hereditary and spiritual, had begun to degenerate in the closing decades of the sultanate. The son who succeeded Teungku Lam Paya “under the same title, is said not to be particularly learned in the law, but very ready of speech.”
Role at the Royal Installation
Lam Paya’s principal appearance in Vol. I is at the installation of a new Sultan, where the office of the head kali of the XXV Mukims recited the form of nomination. Snouck describes the ceremony on the platform (the keuneunong) in the Dalam: the panglima of the XXVI Mukims and “Teuku Ne’” approached first; then “one of the kalis, Teungku Lam Paya of the XXV Mukims, thereupon recited a form of nomination introduced by the following words from the Quran (IV, 62): ‘Obey Allah and his Messenger and those among you who be clad with authority’.” This utterance was repeated in a loud tone by the Teuku Kali so that all the people might hear. The same form was then gone through for the other two sagis.
Significance
The inclusion of Lam Paya among the four kalis whose religious authority underpinned the installation ceremony places this gampong, however modest in itself, among the most ritually significant places of pre-Dutch Acheh. It was by virtue of this office that the kali of Lam Paya sat on ceremonial occasions beside the kalis of the other two sagis and the court judge Malikon Ade.
See Also
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.