Kluet or Kluwat people dwell in a number of districts in

South Aceh Regency South Aceh Regency ( id, Kabupaten Aceh Selatan) is a regency in the Aceh special region of Indonesia. It is located on the west coast of the island of Sumatra. The regency covers an area of 4,173.82 square kilometres and had a population of 202,25 ...

Aceh Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capital and largest city. Granted a s ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

namely North Kluet, South Kluet, Central Kluet and East Kluet. The Kluet people are regarded as part of the

Batak people Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian peoples, Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo people ( ...

sub-ethnicity. The Kluet regions are separated by Lawé Kluet River, where it disgorges from the

Mount Leuser The Leuser Range or Leuser Massif, known as Mount Leuser is a group of three peaks, is the highest mountain in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The range lies to the south and west of the Alas River that flows east from the highlands of centra ...

and disembogues into the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

. Residential region of the Kluet people is 30 km from

Tapaktuan Tapaktuan is a town in the southwest of Aceh province. The town is the capital (seat of the government) of South Aceh Regency. According to the 2013 census, it has a population of 23,100. Climate Tapaktuan has a tropical rainforest climate A t ...

city or 500 km from

Banda Aceh Banda Aceh ( Acehnese: ''Banda Acèh'', Jawoë: كوتا بند اچيه) is the capital and largest city in the province of Aceh, Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra and has an elevation of . The city covers an area of and had ...

. Majority of the population and as well as the Kluet people practices

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. The language spoken by the Kluet people is Alas-Kluet language, which is categorized as part of the

Batak languages __FORCETOC__ The Batak languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken by the Batak people in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra and surrounding areas. Internal classification The Batak languages can be divided into two ma ...

. The Kluet language itself is divided into three dialects, which are the Paya Dapur, Manggamat and Lawe Sawah dialect. During the colonial period, the

Acehnese people The Acehnese (also written as Atjehnese and Achinese) are an ethnic group from Aceh, Indonesia on the northernmost tip of the island of Sumatra. The area has a history of political struggle against the Dutch. The vast majority of the Acehnese p ...

are known to have had political influence on the coastal area that became known as Kluet kingdom. Therefore, the

also had cultural influence in the culture of the Kluet people to a certain degree, where the ''adat'' (customary) authority structure of the Kluet people are historically similar. Farming is the main source of income for the Kluet people. Just like any other

, the Kluet people have marga (surnames or family names) of their own that are still being used today namely Pelis, Selian, Bencawan, Pinem, and Caniago. These margas are also found among other

such as

Alas people The Alas people is an indigenous ethnic group from Kutacane, Southeast Aceh district, Sumatra, Indonesia. The Alas are found in the Gunung Leuser, Ketambe, and Alas River areas. Van Daalen's Alas, Batak and Gayo campaign　 At the final stage ...

, Karo people and

Pakpak people Pakpak or Pakpak Dairi people are one of the ethnic group found mainly in North Sumatra, Indonesia. They are scattered in a few regencies and cities in North Sumatra and Aceh, such as Dairi Regency, Pakpak Bharat Regency, Humbang Hasundutan Regen ...

; except for Caniago which are believed to be the descendants of

Minangkabau people Minangkabau people ( min, Urang Minang; Indonesian or Malay: ''Orang Minangkabau'' or ''Minangkabo''; Jawi: منڠكبو), also known as Minang, are an Austronesian ethnic group native to the Minangkabau Highlands of West Sumatra, Indonesi ...

that have assimilated with the Kluet people centuries ago.

References

Ethnic groups in Indonesia Ethnic groups in Sumatra Ethnic groups in Aceh Muslim communities of Indonesia History of Sumatra Ethnography {{Indonesia-stub