The VII Mukims Bueng (Achehnese Mukim Tujoh Bu’ëng, “Seven Mukims of the Swamp”) is a subdivision of the Sagi of the XXVI Mukims of Great Acheh. Its inhabitants are called the ureuëng Bu’ëng (“people of the swamp”), and the district is distinguished by a peculiar dialect and by customs which, although belonging politically to a lowland sagi, have far more in common with those of the highlanders than with the rest of the XXVI Mukims.
The swamp and its dialect
The word bu’ëng itself belongs to the peculiar dialect of the VII Mukims Bueng; it means “swamp,” a sense rendered in other parts of Acheh by paya. So characteristic is this usage that sawahs (irrigated rice-fields) situated in swampy land are called in the VII Mukims Bueng simply buëng — “the swamp.” The same word also means the terracing of sawahs made on the slopes of hills. The dialect of the VII Mukims Bueng, together with that of the highlands more generally, is described by Snouck Hurgronje as having so much in common with the Tunong (the highlanders) that the father of the community is called waki (rather than keuchi’, as in the rest of the lowlands).
Language and customs of the highlands
The VII Mukims Bueng is the part of the XXVI Mukims that has most in common with the highlands in language and manners. The ureuëng Bu’ëng are described as having almost the same language and customs as the ureuëng tunong; their dialect and customs stand in the same relation to the Tunong as do those of the highland districts proper.
This highland affinity is reflected in their political temper. It is in the Tunong (the XXII Mukims), in Pidie, and in the VII Mukims Bueng that the kawom — the clan system, the most archaic of Achehnese political institutions — has maintained the greatest force. The political development of the VII Mukims Bueng is thus “most backward,” in the same sense as that of the highlands.
Marriage customs
In The Achehnese Vol. I, the VII Mukims Bueng are cited as an example of regional variation in marriage custom. In addition to the bridal couch and the dowry, the attendants of the bridegroom bring with them two sets of “standing sirih” (ranub dông) of the customary kind. “In some districts (as for instance the Mukims Bu’ëng) this is replaced by a sweetmeat in the form of network, called halua puloët.” Both of these are intended for distribution among the onlookers. The custom illustrates the way in which the swamp-dwellers of the XXVI Mukims preserved local peculiarities in matters where the rest of Acheh had adopted a different usage.
Agriculture and material culture
The VII Mukims Bueng is repeatedly mentioned in The Achehnese in connection with the agriculture of the swampy lands. The second method of padi-planting — by means of a nursery bed (planteuëng), in which the seed is strewn to obtain seedlings — was adopted in a portion of the highlands, occasionally in the lowlands, in the IV Mukims, and with certain modifications in the swampy districts of the VII Mukims Bueng. The cane of the VII Mukims Bueng is, like that of the XXII Mukims and the IV Mukims, of inferior quality; in all these places, accordingly, molasses is chiefly manufactured in the very primitive Achehnese sugar-mills.
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.