Pulo Batee — Achehnese for “Stone Island” — is a small island lying off the coast of Acheh opposite Ulee Lheue (also called Olehleh), which in former times supplied the porous and easily workable stone from which the chiselled tombstones of the wealthier Achehnese were fashioned. In The Achehnese Vol. I, Snouck Hurgronje cites Pulo Batee in connection with the Achehnese burial customs and the trade in tombstones.
The Trade in Tombstones
The author explains that tombstones are imported in Acheh from neighbouring islands, such as Pulo We, and sold for one or two dollars a set. The stones brought from these islands are oval or globular in shape, and pairs are made of those which match best. “In former times the wealthier folk used to have chiselled tombstones, and employed for this purpose a porous and easily workable kind of stone from Pulo Batee (‘Stone Island’) opposite Ulee Lheue (Olehleh).” The very name of the island thus records its chief export: a stone fit for the cutting and shaping of memorial slabs.
The Batië Meura’sa
The cutting and shaping of the Pulo Batee stone was the speciality of the people of Meura’sa, one of the principal gampongs of the capital. “Till quite recently,” the author continues, “the people of Meura’sa possessed great skill in cutting these stones, so that the batië Meura’sa were in great demand throughout all Acheh.” The Pulo Batee stone and the Meura’sa craftsmen thus formed, between them, an industry of the metropolitan district which supplied the whole country with the material and the workmanship of sepulchral monuments.
Tombstones for Men and Women
The tombstones fashioned from the Pulo Batee stone were given a different shape according as they were intended for men or for women — nisan agam and inong respectively. The shapes varied with the sex of the deceased, and the chiselled ornaments which adorned them were likewise differentiated. The trade in Pulo Batee stone thus enters into the wider subject of Achehnese burial-customs, in which the memorial slabs mark the sex and the rank of the dead, and in which the choice of material — the porous stone of “Stone Island” — was itself a mark of distinction.
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.