Lhee Mukim Kayee Adang (literally “the Three Mukims of Kayee Adang”) is one of the ordinary three-mukim uleebalangships of Acheh. It is named in The Achehnese as an example of the normal type of three-mukim chiefdom — to be contrasted with the unique Mukim Lhee (the III Mukims Keureukon), which alone of the “three-mukim” districts was commonly called simply Mukim Lhee without further qualification.
The Three-Mukim Uleebalangships
Snouck Hurgronje observes that the district of the III Mukims par excellence — generally called Mukim Lhee and now officially known as the III Mukims Keureukon — was unique in its nomenclature. Other uleebalangships composed of three mukims were ordinarily called “the three mukims of so-and-so,” as for example Lhee Mukim Lam Rabo and Lhee Mukim Kayee Adang. In like manner, the IV Mukims of the XXV were always known as Mukim Peuet, and the VII Mukims of Pidie as Mukim Tujoh. The name Lhee Mukim Kayee Adang thus followed the standard pattern: it specified both the number of mukims comprised in the chiefdom and the particular locality or founder from which the union took its designation.
Significance
The naming convention itself is of more than antiquarian interest. It marks the distinction between a chiefdom whose title had become a fixed place-name — Mukim Lhee, the III Mukims Keureukon — and the much more numerous class of three-mukim uleebalangships whose identity remained particular and local. The latter, like Lhee Mukim Kayee Adang and Lhee Mukim Lam Rabo, possessed their own uleebalangs, adat and customary jurisdiction, but did not enjoy the anomalous wakeueh status of the Mukim Lhee. Snouck Hurgronje’s mention of Lhee Mukim Kayee Adang thus serves as a typical instance of the ordinary political geography of pre-war Acheh, in which most territorial units were defined not by abstract numbers alone but by the conjunction of a numeral and a territorial name.
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.