The Tunong (literally “above, upland”) is the highland region of Great Acheh, the country of the ureueng tunong or “upland people.” In its narrower and most characteristic sense, the Tunong is the country of the Sagi of the XXII Mukims: Snouck Hurgronje observes that by “highlanders” (ureueng tunong) must be especially understood the people of that sagi, while the lowlanders (ureueng baroh) inhabit the greater part of the two remaining sagis, including the capital. In a wider sense, however, the term is used in contrast to Baroh to denote all the upper country of Great Acheh.
The highlanders and their distinctness
The highlanders esteem themselves, and the lowlanders do not deny it, the braver men; a hero in common speech as well as in literature is often spoken of as anak tunongklueng, “son of the upper reaches of the river.” The contrast is repeatedly drawn in The Achehnese between the dress, speech, dwellings and morals of the two regions. In the Tunong, women wear the sleeves of the baju narrower, the chignon differently arranged, and the ija pinggang longer, with a flap in the centre; men make comparatively little use of the baju, wearing in its place a kerchief thrown over the shoulder. The Tunong house is built of more abundant upland timber; houses are transported in large numbers from the highlands to the lowlands, but seldom in the opposite direction, since the Tunong possesses a greater abundance of building materials. Even the rateb litanies, the opium habit and the prevalence of pederasty are differently distributed between the two regions.
The dialect of the Tunong is treated by Snouck as the representative highland speech; the word waki (for the father of the community, the keuchi’), and the word peuchrueng — used in the Tunong for the system of irrigation by overflowing — are among the words which belong peculiarly to the highlands. In some parts of the Tunong the secondary method of padi-planting is also adopted, with a nursery bed prepared for seedlings.
Land and the padang
Where, as in the Tunong, the land has not been taken entirely into cultivation, there is annexed to each gampong, in addition to the blang or area composed of umongs (padi-fields), another area called the padang, on which there is no cultivation. All the inhabitants of a mukim have a right to open umongs on an unoccupied padang situated within that mukim, which umongs thenceforward become their property; this privilege, however, is seldom availed of. It is more usual to open gardens on the padang, but this gives a right to what is planted only, and not to the ground itself. Such padangs are rarely to be met with in the lowlands, where the whole country has long been reclaimed by man; the only padang in the neighbourhood of the capital was a small tract near Pante Pira’.
Real primary jungle (rimba) suitable for clearing is scarcely to be met with anywhere in the lowlands, though there is plenty of it in the highlands. Here jungle produce of every kind — timber, damar, getah, rattan, wild fruits, honey — may be collected by all alike free and without any supervision; nor is the right limited to the inhabitants of the highlands. Where a strip of virgin forest more closely adjoins a definite tract of inhabited country, the highland chiefs take toll of the jungle products gathered in their territory, the tax being levied previous to sale. The price of land, too, is different: in the lowlands the lowest price of an ordinary yō (requiring one naleh of seed padi) was, under native rule, 100 dollars; in the highlands treble the area might be bought for the same price. Letting of rice-fields used to be rare in the lowlands, but very common in the highlands.
Political temper
The Tunong is repeatedly contrasted with the lowlands in respect of political development. The political life of the highlands is described as more “backward”; the kawom or clan system has there maintained greater force, and it is in the Tunong (the XXII Mukims), in Pidie and in the VII Mukims Bueng — the part of the XXVI Mukims that has most in common with the highlands — that the institutions of the Achehnese have remained most archaic. In the lowlands, on the other hand, the kawom system had largely faded, and families of standing in the Tunong conformed as far as possible to the manners of the capital.
The highlanders are reputed — though not more virtuous, for with them theft and robbery are said to be the order of the day — to be less weak and effeminate than the lowlanders. Among them opium, drink and unnatural crime exercise less influence than in the coast provinces. Unreasoning fanaticism, contempt for all strangers, and self-conceit are all more strongly marked in the upper country than in the lowland districts, which have grown somewhat “civilized” through contact with foreigners.
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.