Tama’ is a field or locality in Acheh mentioned in The Achehnese Vol. I in a wedding panton (verse) recited by the elders of the bride’s and bridegroom’s gampongs at an Achehnese marriage feast. The field is named in the verse as a place where petroleum is found, in a couplet that complements a reference to Pante Teungoh as a place of perfumed oil.
The Wedding Panton of Tama’
Snouck Hurgronje introduces Tama’ in his chapter on the celebration of marriage, in the course of giving specimens of the pantons — the four-line verse-couplets of which the formal wedding oratory is largely composed. The verses are chanted alternately by the elder of the bride’s gampong (whom Snouck calls A) and the elder of the bridegroom’s gampong (B). The panton in which Tama’ is named runs:
A. In the field of Tama’ is petroleum. In Pante Teungoh (“Middle Bank”) is perfumed oil. Stand no longer on the ground, Teuku, Ascend into the house and sit upon the sitting mat.
As in the Malay panton generally, the first two lines have no direct connection in sense with the second pair: they serve chiefly to supply rhyming words and an evocative image. The real purport of the stanza is the courteous invitation to the visiting Teuku to come up from the ground and take his place on the sitting-mat. The petroleum of Tama’ and the perfumed oil of Pante Teungoh merely supply the conventional image.
The Form of the Achehnese Panton
Snouck uses this verse as an illustration of the Achehnese panton form. “The verses of the Achehnese pantons are also generally in sanja, that is to say, each consists of four parts of which the two middle ones rhyme with each other, while the last word of each verse rhymes with the last word of the next.” The repetition of the first strophe at once suggests to a knowledgeable Achehnese hearer the meaning of what succeeds it.
Petroleum in Achehnese Local Knowledge
The mention of petroleum at Tama’ is one of the rare geological observations embedded in Achehnese oral poetry. Surface petroleum seepages were known in various parts of Acheh long before the systematic exploitation of oil in the archipelago, and the wedding panton’s reference to them shows that such seepages had entered the common stock of Achehnese local imagery. Pante Teungoh, the locality paired with Tama’ in the verse, is described by Snouck in a footnote as “close to the Meuseugit Kaya,” suggesting that the verse draws on a relatively well-known cluster of localities.
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.