An important historical territory and river system on the East Coast. The Hikayat Malem Diwa locates the hero’s birthplace on the Krueng (river) of Pase. Shamsuddin of Sumatra (= Pase) was an important pantheistic mystic at the Achehnese court. In the Hikayat Pochut Muhamat, ‘We need not here dwell on the prince’s journey to Pase (Pase) and other places along the East Coast. Suffice it to say that it gave him fresh allies and occasion to deliver useful admonitions in regard to rice cultivation, which in this region was carried on in a very slovenly and ill-ordered manner.’ Malem Diwa, after descending from the sky, ‘alights at Pase (vulg. Pase), whence he traverses various places on the East Coast of Acheh.’ Teungku Tapa was killed near Piadah (Pase) in 1900.
Expanded account from The Achehnese, Vol. I — East Coast (of Acheh)
The East Coast of Acheh is one of the two great coast-dependencies of the sultanate, the other being the West Coast. Together with the West Coast and the northern coast, it formed the broad belt of outlying country which surrounded Great Acheh and supplied the sultanate with trade, money and men. The East Coast is repeatedly mentioned in The Achehnese as the destination of the Achehnese pepper-planters, as the scene of the most advanced moral decay of the Achehnese colonies, and as the gateway through which foreign — especially Kling — influence entered the country.
Pepper-planters and colonies
The pepper-planting, which is carried on more in the dependencies than in Acheh proper, was the principal industry of the East Coast. The Achehnese colonists on the East and West Coasts lived there sometimes for years at a time in a society where there were no women, and developed every vice of the nation to its highest pitch. The poorer women and children of Great Acheh, whose husbands and fathers were sojourning on the East or West Coast as pepper-planters, felt the full bitterness of their position on a feast-day; their friends were careful to refrain from asking them the question addressed to other women at such festivals.
The annual kanduri-cycle of the pepper-planters — the kanduri bungong lada, held when the pepper blossoms — was celebrated separately in the house of each pepper-planter on the East and West Coasts, since the plants do not all blossom at the same time; the period of these kanduris lasted as long as three months. The feast consisted of glutinous rice and its accessories.
Foreign admixture and vices
The East Coast was the principal channel through which foreign elements entered Acheh. The multitude of Klings (Kling, ureueng dagang) in Great Acheh and on the East Coast have brought, in Snouck Hurgronje’s account, more half-caste progeny into the world than now commands recognition as such; and the term ureueng dagang — stranger — is employed in Great Acheh, without any further addition, to indicate a Kling. The same colonies, however, developed “every vice of the nation to its highest pitch”; it is among the pepper-planters of the East and West Coasts that the intemperate use of opium, drink and unnatural crime is most strongly marked.
Navigation and the monsoons
The voyage from the capital to the East Coast — like that to the North Coast — was made during the part of the year when the south-west monsoon was not blowing; the interval in keunong 11 was considered especially advantageous to those who could predict its coming beforehand. Achehnese vessels — prahos and sampans — could then make the voyage without danger, although there was a better supply of all necessaries on the North and East Coasts than on the West Coast.
Ladangs and pepper-cultivation
The land system of the East Coast was shaped by the requirements of pepper-planting. Ladangs (hill plantations) were opened in the forests of the highlands and especially of the East and West Coasts, in order to make the ground suitable for pepper-planting by a year’s rice-cultivation. Besides padi and pepper, sugarcane, chillies, onions and so on were planted in these ladangs. The padi-planting on the East Coast, as in parts of the highlands, was done by means of the dibble rather than by the transplanting method customary in the lowlands of Great Acheh.
Dependencies and their chiefs
The political chiefs of the East Coast — like those of the West Coast — were, in the eyes of the uleebalangs of Acheh proper, only keuchis or mantris magnified by chance, royal favour, or their own arrogance into the rank of uleebalang. The sultans were accustomed to deal more highhandedly with these dependencies than with the chiefs of Acheh proper; the ceremony of “cooling” (peusijuk) imposed on offending chiefs, in which they were required to sit at the entrance of the royal dwelling in a heap of ashes with a hen under the arm, was reserved for the less important chiefs of the dependencies. Among the East Coast territories named in The Achehnese are Lho’ Seumawe, Samalanga, Pidie and the ancient kingdom of Pase.
See Also
- Acheh
- Hikayat Pochut Muhamat
- Malem Diwa
- Pase
- Piadah
- Pochut Muhamat
- Sham
- Sumatra
- Teungku Tapa
- West Coast (of Acheh)
- Great Acheh
- Acheh proper
- Pidie
- Samalanga
- Lho’ Seumawe
- Achehnese War
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.