Aceh ( ), officially the Aceh Province ( ace, Nanggroë Acèh; id, Provinsi Aceh) is the westernmost
province
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...
of
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 ...
. It is located on the northernmost of
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
island, with
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 ...
being its capital and largest city. Granted a special
autonomous
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ow ...
status, Aceh is a religiously
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
territory and the only Indonesian province practicing the
Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
law officially. There are ten indigenous ethnic groups in this region, the largest being 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 ...
, accounting for approximately 80% to 90% of the region's population.
Aceh is where the
spread of Islam in Indonesia
The history of the arrival of Islam in Indonesia is somewhat unclear. One theory states that Islam arrived directly from Arabia as early as the 9th century, during the time of the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates. Another theory credits Sufi trav ...
began, and was a key factor of the
spread of Islam in Southeast Asia
Islam is the most widely practised religion in Southeast Asia, numbering approximately 240 million adherents which translate to about 42% of the entire population, with majorities in Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia as well parts of Southern Thail ...
. Islam reached Aceh (Kingdoms of
Fansur and
Lamuri
Lamuri or Lambri was a kingdom in northern Sumatra, Indonesia from the Srivijaya period until the early 16th century. The area was inhabited by Hindu population around the seventh century. There is also evidence of Buddhism. The region is also ...
) around 1250 AD. In the early 17th century the
Sultanate of Aceh
The Sultanate of Aceh, officially the Kingdom of Aceh Darussalam ( ace, Keurajeuën Acèh Darussalam; Jawoë: كاورجاون اچيه دارالسلام), was a sultanate centered in the modern-day Indonesian province of Aceh. It was a major ...
was the most wealthy, powerful and cultivated state in the
Malacca Straits
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
region. Aceh has a history of political independence and resistance to control by outsiders, including the former
Dutch colonists and later the Indonesian government.
Aceh has substantial
natural resource
Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...
s of
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
and
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
. Aceh was the closest point of land to the
epicenter
The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates.
Surface damage
Before the instrumental pe ...
of the
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...
, which devastated much of the western coast of the province. Approximately 170,000 Indonesians were killed or went missing in the disaster. The disaster helped precipitate the peace agreement between the government of Indonesia and the
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
-
separatist
Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...
group of
Free Aceh Movement
The Free Aceh Movement ( id, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM; ace, Geurakan Acèh Meurdèka / Gěrakan Aceh Měrdeka) was a separatist group seeking independence for the Aceh region of Sumatra, Indonesia. GAM fought against Indonesian government f ...
.
Etymology
Aceh was first known as Aceh Darussalam (1511–1945). Upon its formation in 1956 it bore the name Aceh before being renamed to the Daerah Istimewa Aceh (Aceh Special Region; 1959–2001), Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam (2001–2009), and back to Aceh (2009–present). In the past it was also spelled as ''Acheh'', ''Atjeh'', and ''Achin''.
History
Prehistory
![Bukit Kerang in Aceh Tamiang, Aceh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/Bukit_Kerang_in_Aceh_Tamiang%2C_Aceh.jpg)
According to several archaeological findings, the first evidence of human habitation in Aceh is from a site near the
where
shell middens
A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofac ...
are present.
Stone tool
A stone tool is, in the most general sense, any tool made either partially or entirely out of stone. Although stone tool-dependent societies and cultures still exist today, most stone tools are associated with prehistoric (particularly Stone Ag ...
s and
faunal remains were also found on the site. Archeologists believe the site was first occupied around 10,000 BCE.
Pre-Islamic Aceh
![Avalokiteshvara head Aceh Srivijaya 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Avalokiteshvara_head_Aceh_Srivijaya_1.JPG)
The history of Aceh stretches back to the
Lambri
Lamuri or Lambri was a kingdom in northern Sumatra, Indonesia from the Srivijaya period until the early 16th century. The area was inhabited by Hindu population around the seventh century. There is also evidence of Buddhism. The region is also th ...
Kingdom. Several documented references indicate that Hindu-Buddhist culture existed in the area before its
Islamization
Islamization, Islamicization, or Islamification ( ar, أسلمة, translit=aslamāh), refers to the process through which a society shifts towards the religion of Islam and becomes largely Muslim. Societal Islamization has historically occur ...
. The Hindu-Buddhist culture in Aceh was not as evident or well established as in other parts of Indonesia.
The people of
Lambri
Lamuri or Lambri was a kingdom in northern Sumatra, Indonesia from the Srivijaya period until the early 16th century. The area was inhabited by Hindu population around the seventh century. There is also evidence of Buddhism. The region is also th ...
were described by
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
as "idolaters", who had a
Maharaja
Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king".
A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, an ...
as their ruler, a king in the Hindu political structure, likely meaning they were
Hindus
Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
,
Buddhists
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, or a combination thereof.
The inscription at
Tanjore
Thanjavur (), also Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is the 11th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of South Indian religion, art, and architecture. Most of the Gr ...
of
Rajendra Chola I
Rajendra Chola I (; Middle Tamil: Rājēntira Cōḻaṉ; Classical Sanskrit: Rājēndradēva Cōla; Old Malay: ''Raja Suran''; c. 971 CE – 1044 CE), often referred to as Rajendra the Great, and also known as Gangaikonda Chola (Middle Tami ...
documents the conquest of a land called "llämuridesam", located at the northern tip of Sumatra. The Nagarakritagama documents the possessions of the Imperial
Majapahit
Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese people, Javanese Hinduism, Hindu-Buddhism, Buddhist thalassocracy, thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was ba ...
, and states that they control Barat, identified as the western coast of Aceh.
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
records indicate that Aceh was under the control of the
Sriwijaya
Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...
.
Though many temples were left abandoned or converted into mosques, such as the
Indrapuri Old Mosque, some evidence remains, such as the head of a stone sculpture of
Avalokiteshvara Boddhisattva
In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards Enlightenment in Buddhism, bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood.
In ...
was discovered in Aceh. Images of
Amitabha Buddhas adorn his crown in front and on each side.
Srivijaya
Srivijaya ( id, Sriwijaya) was a Buddhist thalassocratic empire based on the island of Sumatra (in modern-day Indonesia), which influenced much of Southeast Asia. Srivijaya was an important centre for the expansion of Buddhism from the 7th t ...
n art estimated 9th-century CE collection of
National Museum of Indonesia
) is an archeological, historical, ethnological, and geographical museum located in Jalan Medan Merdeka Barat, Central Jakarta, right on the west side of Merdeka Square. Popularly known as the Elephant Museum ( id, Museum Gajah) after the elepha ...
, Jakarta. One of the few structural remains is the Indra Patra fort, which has several Hindu shrines. Historic names such as Indrapurba, Indrapurwa, Indrapatra, and Indrapuri, which refer to the God
Indra
Indra (; Sanskrit: इन्द्र) is the king of the devas (god-like deities) and Svarga (heaven) in Hindu mythology. He is associated with the sky, lightning, weather, thunder, storms, rains, river flows, and war. volumes/ref> I ...
, also indicate that Hinduism had a lasting and significant presence in this land.
Beginnings of Islam in Southeast Asia
![Pasai](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/Pasai.jpg)
Evidence concerning the initial coming and subsequent establishment of Islam in
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
is thin and inconclusive. The historian
Anthony Reid has argued that the region of the
Cham people
The Cham (Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people (Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territo ...
on the south-central coast of Vietnam was one of the earliest Islamic centers in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, as the Cham people fled the Vietnamese, one of the earliest locations that they established a relationship was with Aceh. Furthermore, it is thought that one of the earliest centers of
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 ...
was in the Aceh region. When
Venetian traveller
Marco Polo
Marco Polo (, , ; 8 January 1324) was a Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known as ''Book of the Marv ...
passed by Sumatra on his way home from China in 1292 he found that
Peureulak
Peureulak Sultanate or Perlak Sultanate is the earliest sultanate in Southeast Asia, believed to have converted to Islam as early as the 9th century. The location of Peureulak is in what is now the East Aceh Regency, Indonesia.
Perlak or Peureul ...
was a Muslim town while nearby 'Basma(n)' and 'Samara' were not. 'Basma(n)' and 'Samara' are often said to be
Pasai
The Samudera Pasai Sultanate (), also known as Samudera or Pasai or Samudera Darussalam or Pacem, was a Muslim harbour kingdom on the north coast of Sumatra from the 13th to the 16th centuries CE. The kingdom was believed to have been founded ...
and Samudra but evidence is inconclusive. The gravestone of Sultan Malik as-Salih, the first Muslim ruler of Samudra, has been found and is dated
AH 696 (AD 1297). This is the earliest clear evidence of a Muslim dynasty in the Indonesia-Malay area and more gravestones from the 13th century show that this region continued under Muslim rule.
Ibn Batutah, a
Moroccan traveller, passing through on his way to China in 1345 and 1346, found that the ruler of Samudra was a follower of the
Shafi'i
The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...
school of Islam.
After the initial appearance of Islam in Aceh, it further spread into the coastal regions by the 15th century.
Aceh soon became a cultural and scholastic Islamic center throughout Southeast Asia. It also became wealthy because it was a center of extensive trade.
The Portuguese apothecary
Tome Pires
A tome or codex is a large book, especially one volume of a multi-volume scholarly work.
Tome may also refer to:
Places
* Tome, Miyagi, city in Japan (formerly Tome District)
*Tome, New Mexico, an unincorporated community and census-designated ...
reported in his early 16th-century book ''Suma Oriental'' that most of the kings of Sumatra from Aceh through
Palembang
Palembang () is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers on both banks of the Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It had a population of 1,668,848 at the 2020 Census. Palembang ...
were Muslim. At Pasai, in what is now the
North Aceh Regency
North Aceh Regency ( id, Kabupaten Aceh Utara) is a List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, regency in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (Aceh Special District), in Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra. The regency covers an area of 3,236.86 ...
, there was a thriving international port. Pires attributed the establishment of Islam in Pasai to the 'cunning' of the Muslim merchants. The ruler of Pasai, however, had not been able to convert the people of the interior.
Sultanate of Aceh
The Sultanate of Aceh was established by Sultan
Ali Mughayat Syah
Ali Mughayat Syah (died 7 August 1530) was the first sultan of Aceh in northern Sumatra, reigning from about 1514 until his death. Although he was not the first ruler of the Aceh heartland, he is considered the founder of the Aceh Sultanate. His ...
in 1511.
In 1584–88 the Bishop of
Malacca
Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...
, D. João Ribeiro Gaio, based on information provided by a former captive called Diogo Gil, wrote the "Roteiro das Cousas do Achem" (Lisboa 1997) – a description of the sultanate.
Later, during its
golden era
''The Golden Era'' was a 19th-century San Francisco newspaper. The publication featured the writing of f.e.g. Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Charles Warren Stoddard (writing at first as "Pip Pepperpod"), Fitz Hugh Ludlow, Adah Isaacs Menken, Ada Clare, ...
, in the 17th century, its
territory
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
and political influence expanded as far as
Satun
Satun (, , ms, Setul) is a town (''thesaban mueang'') in southern Thailand, capital of the Satun Province. It covers the whole ''tambon'' Phiman of Mueang Satun. Satun lies 985 km south of Bangkok. As of 2005 it has a population of 21,498 ...
in southern
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
,
Johor
Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...
in
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...
, and Siak in what is today the province of
Riau
Riau is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south. Accord ...
. As was the case with most non-Javan pre-colonial states,
Acehnese power expanded outward by sea rather than inland. As it expanded down the Sumatran coast, its main competitors were
Johor
Johor (; ), also spelled as Johore, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. Johor has land borders with the Malaysian states of Pahang to the north and Malacca and Negeri Sembilan ...
and
Portuguese Malacca
Portuguese control of Malacca, a city on the Malay Peninsula, refers to the 130 year period (1511–1641) when it was a possession of the Portuguese East Indies. It was conquered from the Malacca Sultanate as part of Portuguese attempts to ...
on the other side of the
Straits of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
. It was this seaborne trade focus that saw Aceh rely on rice imports from north
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...
rather than develop
self sufficiency
Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person or organization needs little or no help from, or interaction with, others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a self-s ...
in rice production.
![Sultanate of Aceh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Sultanate_of_Aceh.png)
After the Portuguese occupation of
Malacca
Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...
in 1511, many Islamic traders passing the
Malacca Straits
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
shifted their trade to
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 ...
and increased the
Acehnese rulers' wealth. During the reign of
Sultan Iskandar Muda in the 17th century, Aceh's influence extended to most of
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
and the
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...
. Aceh allied itself with the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
and the
Dutch East India Company
The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...
in their struggle against the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
and the
Johor Sultanate
The Johor Sultanate ( ms, Kesultanan Johor or ; also called the Sultanate of Johor, Johor-Pahang, or the Johor Empire) was founded by Malaccan Sultan Mahmud Shah's son, Sultan Alauddin Riayat Shah II in 1528. Johor was part of the Malaccan ...
. Acehnese military power waned gradually thereafter, and Aceh ceded its territory of
Pariaman
Pariaman ( Jawi: ), is a coastal city in West Sumatra, Indonesia. Pariaman covers an area of , with a coastline. It had a population of 79,043 at the 2010 Census and 94,224 at the 2020 census. "Pariaman" means "safe area".
History
According to th ...
in
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
to the
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
in the 18th century.
![Aceh Sultanate en](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Aceh_Sultanate_en.svg)
By the early 19th century, however, Aceh had become an increasingly influential power due to its strategic location for controlling regional trade. In the 1820s it was the producer of over half the world's supply of black pepper. The pepper trade produced new wealth for the sultanate and for the rulers of many smaller nearby ports that had been under Aceh's control, but were now able to assert more independence. These changes initially threatened Aceh's integrity, but a new Sultan
Tuanku Ibrahim, who controlled the kingdom from 1838 to 1870, reasserted power over nearby ports.
[Ricklefs, M.C. (2001) ''A History of Modern Indonesia Since c. 1200''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. p 185–188.]
Under the
Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824
The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, also known as the Treaty of London, was a treaty signed between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands in London on 17 March 1824. The treaty was to resolve disputes arising from the execution of the Anglo-D ...
the
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
ceded their colonial possessions on Sumatra to the Dutch. In the treaty, the British described Aceh as one of their possessions, although they had no actual control over the sultanate. Initially, under the agreement the Dutch agreed to respect Aceh's independence. In 1871, however, the British dropped previous opposition to a Dutch invasion of Aceh, possibly to prevent
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
or the United States from gaining a foothold in the region. Although neither the Dutch nor the British knew the specifics, there had been rumors since the 1850s that Aceh had been in communication with the rulers of France and of the Ottoman Empire.
Aceh War
![Generaal Kohler sneuvelt in de Mesigit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Generaal_Kohler_sneuvelt_in_de_Mesigit.jpg)
Pirates operating from Aceh threatened commerce in the
Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
; the sultan was unable to control them. Britain was a protector of Aceh and gave the Netherlands permission to eradicate the pirates. The campaign quickly drove out the sultan but the local leaders mobilized and fought the Dutch in four decades of guerrilla war, with high levels of atrocities. The Dutch colonial government declared war on Aceh on 26 March 1873. Aceh sought American help but Washington rejected the request.
The Dutch tried one strategy after another over the course of four decades. An expedition under Major General
Johan Harmen Rudolf Köhler Johan
* Johan (given name)
* ''Johan'' (film), a 1921 Swedish film directed by Mauritz Stiller
* Johan (band), a Dutch pop-group
** ''Johan'' (album), a 1996 album by the group
* Johan Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada
* Jo-Han, a manu ...
in 1873 occupied most of the coastal areas. Köhler's strategy was to attack and take the sultan's palace. It failed. The Dutch then tried a naval blockade, reconciliation, concentration within a line of forts, and lastly passive containment. They had scant success. Reaching 15 to 20 million guilders a year, the heavy spending for failed strategies nearly bankrupted the colonial government. During the course of the war, the Dutch set up the
Gouvernment of Atjeh and Dependencies under a governor, although it did not establish wider control of its territory until after 1908.
The Aceh army was rapidly modernized, and Aceh soldiers butchered Köhler (a monument to this atrocity has been built inside Grand Mosque of Banda Aceh). Köhler made some grave tactical errors and the reputation of the Dutch was severely harmed. In recent years, in line with expanding international attention to human rights issues and atrocities in war zones, there has been increasing discussion about some of the recorded acts of cruelty and slaughter committed by Dutch troops during the period of warfare in Aceh.
Hasan Mustafa (1852–1930) was a chief ''penghulu'', or judge, for the colonial government and was stationed in Aceh. He had to balance traditional Muslim justice with Dutch law. To stop the Aceh rebellion, Hasan Mustafa issued a fatwa, telling the Muslims there in 1894, "It is Incumbent upon the Indonesian Muslims to be loyal to the Dutch East Indies Government".
Japanese occupation
During World War II, Japanese troops occupied Aceh. The Acehnese ''
ulama
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
'' (Islamic clerics) fought against both the Dutch and the Japanese, revolting against the Dutch in February 1942 and against Japan in November 1942. The revolt was led by the All-Aceh Religious Scholars' Association (PUSA). The Japanese suffered 18 dead in the uprising while they slaughtered up to 100 or over 120 Acehnese. The revolt happened in Bayu and was centered around Tjot Plieng village's religious school. During the revolt, the Japanese troops armed with mortars and machine guns were charged by sword wielding Acehnese under Teungku Abduldjalil (Tengku Abdul Djalil) in Buloh Gampong Teungah and Tjot Plieng on 10 and 13 November. In May 1945 the Acehnese rebelled again. The religious ulama party gained ascendancy to replace district warlords (
Ulèëbalang) party that formerly collaborated with the Dutch. Concrete bunkers still line the northernmost beaches.
Indonesian independence
![Teuku Daud Beureueh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Teuku_Daud_Beureueh.jpg)
After World War II, civil war erupted in 1945 between the district warlords party, that supported the return of a Dutch government, and the
religious ulama party that supported the newly proclaimed state of Indonesia. The ulama won, and the area remained free during the
Indonesian War of Independence
The Indonesian National Revolution, or the Indonesian War of Independence, was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between the Republic of Indonesia and the Dutch Empire and an internal social revolution during postwar and postcoloni ...
. The Dutch military itself never attempted to invade Aceh. The civil war raised the religious ''ulama'' party leader,
Daud Bereueh
Teungku Mohammad Daud Beureueh (17 September 1899 – 10 June 1987) was the military Governor of Aceh (1945–1953) and leader of the Darul Islam rebellion in the province (1953–1963).
Born in the Keumangan chiefdom of Pidie regency, he bega ...
, to the position of military governor of Aceh.
[*M Nur El-Ibrahimy, ''Peranan Teungku M. Daud Bereueh dalam Pergolakan di Aceh'', 2001.][*A.H. Nasution, ''Seputar Perang Kemerdekaan Indonesia, Jilid II'', 1977]
Acehnese rebellion
The Acehnese revolted soon after its inclusion into an independent Indonesia, a situation created by a complex mix of what the Acehnese regarded as transgressions against and betrayals of their rights.
Sukarno
Sukarno). (; born Koesno Sosrodihardjo, ; 6 June 1901 – 21 June 1970) was an Indonesian statesman, orator, revolutionary, and nationalist who was the first president of Indonesia, serving from 1945 to 1967.
Sukarno was the leader of ...
, the first president of Indonesia, had reneged on his promise made on 16 June 1948 that Aceh would be allowed to rule itself in accordance with
Islamic Law
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
. Aceh was politically dismantled and incorporated into the province of
North Sumatra
North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...
in 1950. This resulted in the Acehnese Rebellion of 1953–59 which was led by
Daud Beureu'eh
Teungku Mohammad Daud Beureueh (17 September 1899 – 10 June 1987) was the military Governor of Aceh (1945–1953) and leader of the Darul Islam (Indonesia), Darul Islam rebellion in the province (1953–1963).
Born in the Keumangan chiefdom o ...
who on 20 September 1953 declared a free independent Aceh under the leadership of
Sekarmadji Maridjan Kartosoewirjo
Soekarmadji Maridjan Kartosuwiryo (7 January 1905 – 5 September 1962) was an Indonesian Islamic mystic who led the Darul Islam rebellion against the Indonesian government from 1949 to 1962, with the objective of overthrowing the secular ...
. In 1959, the Indonesian government attempted to placate the Acehnese by offering wide-ranging freedom in matters relating to religion, education and culture.
Free Aceh Movement
![Free Aceh Movement women soldiers](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Free_Aceh_Movement_women_soldiers.jpg)
During the 1970s, under an agreement with the Indonesian central government, American oil and gas companies began exploitation of Aceh natural resources. Alleged unequal distribution of profits between central government and the native people of Aceh induced Dr.
Hasan Muhammad di Tiro, former ambassador of Darul Islam,
to call for an independent Aceh. He proclaimed independence in 1976.
The movement had a small number of followers initially, and di Tiro himself had to live in exile in Sweden. Meanwhile, the province followed
Suharto
Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...
's policy of economic development and industrialization. During the late 1980s several security incidents prompted the Indonesian central government to take repressive measures and to send troops to Aceh. Human rights abuse was rampant for the next decade, resulting in many grievances on the part of the Acehnese toward the Indonesian central government. In 1990, the Indonesian government initiated
military operations against GAM by deploying more than 12,000 Indonesian troops in the region.
During the late 1990s, chaos in Java and an ineffective central government gave an advantage to the Free Aceh Movement and resulted in the second phase of the rebellion, this time with large support from the Acehnese people. This support was demonstrated during the 1999 plebiscite in Banda Aceh which was attended by nearly half a million people (of four million population of the province). The Indonesian central government responded in 2001 by broadening Aceh's autonomy, giving its government the right to apply Sharia law more broadly and the right to receive direct foreign investment. This was again accompanied by repressive measures, however, and in 2003
an offensive began and a
state of emergency
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
was proclaimed in the province. The war was still ongoing when the tsunami disaster of 2004 struck the province.
In 2001, villagers from the
North Aceh Regency
North Aceh Regency ( id, Kabupaten Aceh Utara) is a List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, regency in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (Aceh Special District), in Indonesia. It is located on the island of Sumatra. The regency covers an area of 3,236.86 ...
sued Exxon Mobil for human rights abuses at the hands of Indonesian military units hired by the company for security for its natural gas operations.
Exxon Mobil
ExxonMobil Corporation (commonly shortened to Exxon) is an American multinational oil and gas corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. It is the largest direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil, and was formed on November 30, ...
denies fault for the allegations. After a series of attacks against its operations, the company shut down its Arun natural gas operations in the province.
Tsunami disaster
![US Navy 050102-N-9593M-040 A village near the coast of Sumatra lays in ruin after the Tsunami that struck South East Asia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/US_Navy_050102-N-9593M-040_A_village_near_the_coast_of_Sumatra_lays_in_ruin_after_the_Tsunami_that_struck_South_East_Asia.jpg)
The western coastal areas of Aceh, including the cities of
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 ...
,
Calang
Calang ( Jawoë: چالڠ), the capital of the Aceh Jaya Regency of the special territory (''daerah istimewa'') of Aceh was on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. It had a population of about 12,000 though it was reported to have ''"vanished comp ...
, and
Meulaboh
Meulaboh (Jawi alphabet, Jawoë: ملابوه; or ''Moulabouh'') is the capital of West Aceh Regency, Indonesia.
Geography
Meulaboh is about 245 km southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province. Meulaboh is located in the western ...
, were among the areas hardest-hit by the
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explo ...
resulting from the magnitude 9.2
Indian Ocean earthquake
An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sum ...
on 26 December 2004. While estimates vary, over 170,000 people were killed by tsunami in Aceh and about 500,000 were left homeless. The tragedy of the tsunami was further compounded several months later, when the
2005 M8.6 Nias–Simeulue earthquake struck the sea bed between the islands of
Simeulue Island
Simeulue is an island of Indonesia, off the west coast of Sumatra. It covers an area of 1754 square kilometres (677 square miles), including minor offshore islands. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 census and 92,865 at the 2020 census ...
in Aceh and
Nias
Nias ( id, Pulau Nias, Nias language: ''Tanö Niha'') (sometimes called Little Sumatra in English) is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago () of which the island is the centre, ...
in North Sumatra. This second quake killed a further 1346 people on Nias and Simeulue, displaced tens of thousands more, and caused the tsunami response to be expanded to include Nias. The
World Health Organisation
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
estimates a 100% increase in prevalence of mild and moderate
mental disorder
A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...
s in Aceh's general population after the tsunami.
The population of Aceh before the December 2004 tsunami was 4,271,000 (2004). The population as of 15 September 2005 was 4,031,589, and in January 2014 was 4,731,705.
The 2020 census produced a total population of 5,274,871, comprising 2,647,563 males and 2,627,308 females.
[Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021.]
As of February 2006, more than a year after the tsunami, a large number of people were still living in barrack-style temporary living centers (TLC) or
tent
A tent () is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using gu ...
s. Reconstruction was visible everywhere, but due to the sheer scale of the disaster, and logistic difficulties, progress was slow. A study in 2007 estimates 83.6% of the population has psychiatric illness, while 69.8% suffers from severe emotional distress.
The ramifications of the tsunami went beyond the immediate impact to the lives and infrastructure of the Acehnese living on the coast. Since the disaster, the Acehnese rebel movement GAM, which had been fighting for independence against the Indonesian authorities for 29 years, has signed a peace deal (15 August 2005). The perception that the tsunami was punishment for insufficient piety in this proudly Muslim province is partly behind the increased emphasis on the importance of religion post-tsunami. This has been most obvious in the increased implementation of
Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
law, including the introduction of the controversial
Wilayatul Hisbah
Wilayatul Hisbah is the Islamic religious police force responsible for the enforcement of sharia law in the autonomous region of Aceh, Indonesia. The origins of this force can be traced to 2001 when a special autonomy law was promulgated to allow ...
or Syariah police. As homes are being built and people's basic needs are met, the people are also looking to improve the quality of
education
Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...
, increase tourism, and develop responsible, sustainable industry. Well-qualified educators are in high demand in Aceh.
While parts of the capital
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 ...
were unscathed, the areas closest to the water, especially the areas of Kampung Jawa and Meuraxa, were completely destroyed. Most of the rest of the western coast of Aceh was severely damaged. Many towns completely disappeared. Other towns on Aceh's west coast hit by the disaster included
Lhoknga
Lhoknga (pronunciation hoʔ-ŋa alternative names Lho'nga, Lho-nga, Lhok Nga), is a town within the district of the same name, in Aceh Besar Regency, Aceh Special Region, Indonesia, located on the western side of the island of Sumatra, 13&nbs ...
,
Leupung, Lamno,
Patek
Patek may refer to:
* Patek (surname)
* Pátek, a village and municipality in the Czech Republic
* Patek, Iran, a village in Iran
See also
*
* Patek Philippe
Patek Philippe SA is a Swiss luxury watch and clock manufacturer, located in th ...
,
Calang
Calang ( Jawoë: چالڠ), the capital of the Aceh Jaya Regency of the special territory (''daerah istimewa'') of Aceh was on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. It had a population of about 12,000 though it was reported to have ''"vanished comp ...
,
Teunom Teunom, a town in the Aceh Jaya Regency of Aceh province on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia, with a population of about 12,000, was reported to have ''"vanished completely leaving only scattered shards of concrete"'' as a result of the tsunami pr ...
, and the island of
Simeulue
Simeulue is an island of Indonesia, off the west coast of Sumatra. It covers an area of 1754 square kilometres (677 square miles), including minor offshore islands. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 census and 92,865 at the 2020 census ...
. Affected or destroyed towns on the region's north and east coasts were
Pidie Regency
Pidie Regency (also known as: Pidie, Pědir; "king of"; id, Kabupaten Pidie) is a regency of Aceh Special region, in Indonesia. It is located in the north of the island of Sumatra, in Western Indonesia, bordered by the Malacca Strait and Pidie Jay ...
,
Samalanga, and
Lhokseumawe
Lhokseumawe ( id, Kota Lhokseumawe; ace, Lhôk Seumaw‘è, Jawi: ), is the second largest city in Aceh province, Indonesia. The city covers an area of 181.06 square kilometres, and had a population of 171,163 at the 2010 censusBiro Pusat Stati ...
.
The area was slowly rebuilt after the disaster. The government initially proposed the creation of a two-kilometer
buffer zone
A buffer zone is a neutral zonal area that lies between two or more bodies of land, usually pertaining to countries. Depending on the type of buffer zone, it may serve to separate regions or conjoin them.
Common types of buffer zones are demil ...
along low-lying coastal areas within which permanent construction was not permitted. This proposal was unpopular among some local inhabitants and proved impractical in most situations, especially
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
families that are dependent on living near to the sea.
The Indonesian government set up a special agency for Aceh reconstruction, the
Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi
Badan Rehabilitasi dan Rekonstruksi (BRR) NAD-Nias, or Agency for the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of Aceh and Nias, was an Indonesian government agency which coordinated and jointly implemented the recovery programme following the December 2 ...
(BRR) headed by
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto was Director-General (1993–97) and Minister (1998–99) in the Indonesian Department of Mines, before being appointed to head the Aceh-Nias Body for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction (BRR) following the devastating 2004 In ...
, a former Indonesian government minister. This agency had ministry level of authority and incorporated officials, professionals and community leaders from all backgrounds. Most of the reconstruction work was performed by local people using a mix of traditional methods and partial prefabricated structures, with funding coming from many international organizations and individuals, governments, and the people themselves.
The
Government of Indonesia
The term Government of Indonesia ( id, Pemerintah Indonesia) can have a number of different meanings. At its widest, it can refer collectively to the three traditional branches of government – the executive branch, legislative branch and ju ...
estimated in their Preliminary Damage and Losses Assessment that damages amounted to US$4.5 billion (before inflation, and US$6.2 billion including inflation). Three years after the tsunami, reconstruction was still ongoing. The
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
monitored funding for reconstruction in Aceh and reported that US$7.7 billion had been earmarked for the reconstruction whilst at June 2007 US$5.8 billion had been allocated to specific reconstruction projects, of which US$3.4 billion had actually been spent (58%).
In 2009, the government opened a US$5.6 million
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
to commemorate the tsunami with photographs, stories, and a simulation of the earthquake that triggered the tsunami.
Peace agreement and contemporary history
![Martti Ahtisaari](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Martti_Ahtisaari.jpg)
The 2004 tsunami helped trigger a peace agreement between the
GAM and the Indonesian government. The mood in post-
Suharto
Suharto (; ; 8 June 1921 – 27 January 2008) was an Indonesian army officer and politician, who served as the second and the longest serving president of Indonesia. Widely regarded as a military dictator by international observers, Suharto ...
Indonesia in the liberal-democratic reform period, as well as changes in the Indonesian military, helped create an environment more favorable to peace talks. The roles of newly elected president
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born 9 September 1949), commonly referred to by his initials SBY, is an Indonesian politician and retired army general who served as the sixth president of Indonesia from 2004 to 2014. A member of the Democratic Party ...
and vice president
Jusuf Kalla
Muhammad Jusuf Kalla (; born 15 May 1942) is an Indonesian politician and businessman who served as the 10th and 12th vice president of Indonesia, the only vice president in Indonesian history to serve two non-consecutive terms in office (2004 ...
were highly significant. At the same time, the GAM leadership was undergoing changes, and the
Indonesian military
, founded = as the ('People's Security Forces')
, current_form =
, disbanded =
, branches =
, headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta
, website =
, commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo
...
had inflicted so much damage on the rebel movement that it had little choice but to negotiate with the central government. The peace talks were first initiated by
Juha Christensen, a Finnish peace activist, and then formally facilitated by a
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
-based NGO, the
Crisis Management Initiative
CMI – Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation is an independent Finnish non-governmental organisation that works to prevent and resolve conflict through informal dialogue and mediation. Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former President of Finland Martti ...
led by former Finnish president
Martti Ahtisaari
Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (; born 23 June 1937) is a Finnish politician, the tenth president of Finland (1994–2000), a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and a United Nations diplomat and mediator noted for his international peace work.
Ahtisa ...
. The resulting peace agreement, generally known as th
Helsinki MOU was signed on 15 August 2005. Under the agreement Aceh would receive special autonomy and government troops would be withdrawn from the province in exchange for GAM's disarmament. As part of the agreement, the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
dispatched 300
monitors
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...
. Their mission expired on 15 December 2006, following local elections.
Aceh has been granted broader autonomy through Aceh government legislation covering special rights agreed upon in 2002 as well as the right of the Acehnese to establish local political parties to represent their interests. Human rights advocates protested that previous human rights violations in the province needed to be addressed, however.
Ecology and biodiversity
Aceh has the largest range of biodiversity in the Asian Pacific region.
Among the rarer large mammals are the
Sumatran rhinoceros
The Sumatran rhinoceros (''Dicerorhinus sumatrensis''), also known as the Sumatran rhino, hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant species of rhinoceros. It is the o ...
,
Sumatran tiger
The Sumatran tiger is a population of ''Panthera tigris sondaica'' on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is the only surviving tiger population in the Sunda Islands, where the Bali and Javan tigers are extinct.
Sequences from complete mitochon ...
,
Orangutan
Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...
and
Sumatran elephant
The Sumatran elephant (''Elephas maximus sumatranus'') is one of four recognized subspecies of the Asian elephant, and native to the Indonesian island of Sumatra. In 2011, IUCN upgraded the conservation status of the Sumatran elephant from endang ...
.
In 2014, there were 460 Sumatran elephants in Aceh including at least eight baby elephants. The area has been suffering from
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. The most concentrated d ...
since the 1970s. The first
wood pulp
Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...
mill in Aceh was built in 1982.
The government of Aceh intends a law by which 1.2 million hectares would be opened for commercial use.
This proposal has caused many protests.
Government
Within the country, Aceh is governed not as a province but as a special territory (''daerah istimewa''), an administrative designation intended to give the area increased
autonomy
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy, from , ''autonomos'', from αὐτο- ''auto-'' "self" and νόμος ''nomos'', "law", hence when combined understood to mean "one who gives oneself one's ...
from the central government in
Jakarta
Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
. This has resulted in public caning for crimes deemed to have violated sharia law such as
gambling, drinking, skipping Friday prayers, women wearing clothes deemed too tight, and most notably homosexuality.
Regional elections have been held in Aceh in recent years for senior positions at the provincial, regency (''kabupaten'') and district (''kecamatan'') levels. In the
2006 elections,
Irwandi Yusuf
Irwandi Yusuf (ايرواندي يوسف; born 2 August 1960) is an Indonesian politician who was the Governor of Aceh. He was re-elected Governor in early 2017 after serving an earlier term between 2006 and 2012.
Irwandi first won a term as g ...
was elected as the provincial governor for 2007–2012 and in
elections in April 2012,
Zaini Abdullah
Zaini Abdullah (born 24 April 1940) is an Indonesian politician and former separatist activist of the Free Aceh Movement (or GAM, ''Gerakan Aceh Merdeka'') in Indonesia who was elected as the governor of the province of Aceh in the 2012 electi ...
was elected as governor for 2012–2017.
Law
![Use of sharia in Southeast Asia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Use_of_sharia_in_Southeast_Asia.png)
Beginning with the promulgation of Law 44/1999, Aceh's governor began to issue limited
Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
-based regulations, for example requiring female government employees to wear Islamic dress. These regulations were not enforced by the provincial government, but as early as April 1999, reports emerged that groups of men in Aceh were engaging in
vigilante
Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority.
A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...
violence in an effort to impose Sharia, for example, by conducting "
jilbab raids," subjecting women who were not wearing Islamic headscarves to verbal abuse, cutting their hair or clothes, and committing other acts of violence against them.
The frequency of these and other attacks on individuals considered to be violating Sharia principles appeared to increase following the enactment of Law 44/1999 and the governor's Sharia regulations.
In 2014, a group of scholars who call themselves
Tadzkiiratul Ummah, started to paint the
pants
Trousers (British English), slacks, or pants are an item of clothing worn from the waist to anywhere between the knees and the ankles, covering both legs separately (rather than with cloth extending across both legs as in robes, skirts, and dr ...
of men and women as a call for heavier Islamic law enforcement in the area.
Upon the enactment of the Special Autonomy Law in 2001, Aceh's provincial legislature enacted a series of ''
qanuns'' (local laws) governing the implementation of Sharia. Five qanuns enacted between 2002 and 2004 contained criminal penalties for violations of Sharia: Qanun 11/2002 on "belief, ritual, and promoting Islam," which contains the Islamic attire requirement; Qanun 12/2003 prohibiting the consumption and sale of alcohol; Qanun 13/2003 prohibiting gambling; Qanun 14/2003 prohibiting "seclusion"; and Qanun 7/2004 on the payment of Islamic alms. With the exception of gambling, none of the offenses are prohibited outside of Aceh.
Responsibility for enforcement of the qanuns rests both with the National Police and with a special Sharia police force unique to Aceh, known as the
Wilayatul Hisbah
Wilayatul Hisbah is the Islamic religious police force responsible for the enforcement of sharia law in the autonomous region of Aceh, Indonesia. The origins of this force can be traced to 2001 when a special autonomy law was promulgated to allow ...
(Sharia Authority). All of the qanuns provide for penalties including fines, imprisonment, and
caning
Caning is a form of corporal punishment consisting of a number of hits (known as "strokes" or "cuts") with a single Stick-fighting, cane usually made of rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks (see spanking) or ha ...
, the latter a punishment unknown in most parts of Indonesia. Between mid-2005 and early 2007, at least 135 people were caned in Aceh for transgressing the qanuns.
In April 2016, a 60-year-old non-Muslim woman was sentenced to 30 lashes for selling alcohol drinks. The controversy is that qanun is not allowed for non-Muslim person, and national law should be used instead as in other parts of Indonesia.
In April 2009,
Partai Aceh won control of the local parliament in Aceh's first post-war legislative elections. In September 2009, one month before the new legislators were to take office, the outgoing parliament unanimously endorsed two new qanuns to expand the existing criminal Sharia framework in Aceh.
*One bill, the ''Qanun on Criminal Procedure'' (Qanun Hukum Jinayat), to create an entirely new procedural code for the enforcement of Sharia by police, prosecutors, and courts in Aceh.
*The other bill, the ''Qanun on Criminal Law'' (Qanun Jinayat), reiterated the existing criminal Sharia prohibitions, at times enhancing their penalties, and a host of new criminal offenses, including
ikhtilat (intimacy or mixing),
zina
''Zināʾ'' () or ''zinā'' ( or ) is an Islamic legal term referring to unlawful sexual intercourse. According to traditional jurisprudence, ''zina'' can include adultery, fornication, prostitution, rape, sodomy, incest, and bestiality. ...
(adultery, defined as willing intercourse by unmarried people), sexual harassment, rape, and homosexual conduct. The law authorized punishments including up to 60 lashes for "intimacy," up to 100 lashes for engaging in homosexual conduct, up to 100 lashes for adultery by unmarried persons, and death by
stoning
Stoning, or lapidation, is a method of capital punishment where a group throws stones at a person until the subject dies from blunt trauma. It has been attested as a form of punishment for grave misdeeds since ancient times.
The Torah and Ta ...
for adultery by a married person.
Caning
In practice since the introduction of the new laws, there has been a considerable increase in the use of the penalties provided set out in the laws. As an example, in August 2015 six men in Bireun regency were arrested and caned for betting on the names of passing buses. And it was reported that on just one day, 18 September 2015, a total of 34 people were caned in Banda Aceh and in the nearby regency of Aceh Besar.
Two gay men are to be publicly lashed 85 times each under sharia law after being filmed by vigilantes in Indonesia. An Islamic court in the province of Aceh passed down its first sentence for homosexuality on the
International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia
International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Lesbophobia and Transphobia is observed on May 17 and aims to coordinate international events that raise awareness of LGBT rights violations and stimulate interest in LGBT rights work worldwide. By ...
, 17 May 2017 in spite of international appeals to spare the couple.
Public whipping is the common
hudud
''Hudud'' (Arabic: ''Ḥudūd'', also transliterated ''hadud'', ''hudood''; plural of ''hadd'', ) is an Arabic word meaning "borders, boundaries, limits". In the religion of Islam it refers to punishments that under Islamic law ( sharīʿah) ar ...
punishment for
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
,
adultery
Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal ...
,
drinking alcohol
Alcohol, sometimes referred to by the chemical name ''ethanol'', is a depressant drug that is the active ingredient in drinks such as beer, wine, and distilled spirits (hard liquor). It is one of the oldest and most commonly consumed recreat ...
, and having gay or pre-marital sex. Typically the whipping has been done by men. In 2020, with increased enforcement and more crimes being conducted by women, Aceh authorities say they are trying to follow
Islamic law
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the ...
, which calls for women to whip female perpetrators.
Administrative divisions
![Aceh Regencies](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Aceh_Regencies.png)
Administratively, the province now is subdivided into eighteen
regencies (''kabupaten'') and five autonomous cities (''kota''). The capital and the largest city is
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 ...
, located on the coast near the northern tip of Sumatra. When originally devised, the province comprised the city of Banda Aceh and seven regencies – Aceh Besar, Pidie, North Aceh, East Aceh, Central Aceh, West Aceh and South Aceh; Sabang City was separated from Aceh Besar in 1967 and Southeast Aceh Regency from part of Central Aceh in 1974; three additional regencies were formed in 1999 – Aceh Singkil from part of South Aceh Regency on 20 April, and Bireuen (from part of North Aceh Regency) and Simeulue (from part of West Aceh Regency) on 4 October; the cities of Lhokseumawe and Langsa were given separate status (from parts of North Aceh Regency and of East Aceh Regency respectively) on 21 June 2001, and five additional regencies were created on 10 April 2002 – Aceh Jaya, Aceh Tamiang, Gayo Kues, Nagan Raya and Southwest Aceh. Bener Meriah Regency was created on 19 December 2003, and Pidie Jaya Regency and Subulussalam City on 2 January 2007. Some local areas are pushing to create new autonomous areas, usually with the stated goal of enhancing local control over politics and development.
The cities and regencies (subdivided into the 289
districts
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...
or ''kecamatan'' of Aceh), are listed below with their populations at the 2010 census and the 2020 census,
together with the officially estimated population as at mid 2021.
![Danau Laut Tawar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Danau_Laut_Tawar.jpg)
Note: UU is an abbreviation from Undang-Undang (
the Indonesia statute of law).
Economy
In 2006, the economy of Aceh grew by 7.7% after having minimal growth since the devastating tsunami. This growth was primarily driven by the reconstruction effort with massive growth in the building/construction sector.
The ending of the conflict, and the reconstruction program resulted in the structure of the economy changing significantly since 2003. Service sectors played a more dominant role whilst the share of the oil and gas sectors continued to decline.
Note: ... = less than 0.5%
After peaking at around 40% in December 2005, largely as a result of the
Dutch disease
In economics, the Dutch disease is the apparent causal relationship between the increase in the economic development of a specific sector (for example natural resources) and a decline in other sectors (like the manufacturing sector or agricultur ...
impact of sudden aid flows into the province,
inflation
In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...
declined steadily and was 8.5% in June 2007, close to the national level in
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 ...
of 5.7%. Persistent inflation means that Aceh's
consumer price index
A consumer price index (CPI) is a price index, the price of a weighted average market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Changes in measured CPI track changes in prices over time.
Overview
A CPI is a statistica ...
(CPI) remains the highest in Indonesia. As a result, Aceh's cost competitiveness has declined as reflected in both inflation and wage data. Although inflation has slowed down, CPI has registered steady increases since the tsunami. Using 2002 as a base, Aceh's CPI increased to 185.6 (June 2007) while the national
CPI increased to 148.2. There have been relatively large nominal wage increases in particular sectors, such as construction where, on average, workers' nominal wages have risen to almost Rp.60,000 per day, from Rp.29,000 pre-tsunami. This is also reflected in Aceh's minimum regional wage (UMR, or Upah Minimum Regional), which increased by 55% from Rp.550,000 pre-tsunami to Rp.850,000 in 2007, compared with an increase of 42% in neighboring
North Sumatra
North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...
, from Rp.537,000 to Rp.761,000.
Poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...
levels increased slightly in Aceh in 2005 after the tsunami, but by less than expected. The poverty level then fell in 2006 to below the pre-tsunami level, suggesting that the rise in tsunami-related poverty was short lived and reconstruction activities and the end of the conflict most probably facilitated this decline. However, poverty in Aceh remains significantly higher than in the rest of Indonesia. A large number of the Acehnese remain vulnerable to poverty, reinforcing the need for further sustained efforts at development in the post-tsunami construction period.
Demographics
The population of Aceh was not adequately documented during the
Indonesia 2000 census The Indonesia 2000 census or Indonesia Census 2000 was carried out with the fix-date 2000-06-30 and counted 203 million people, a revised figure of 206,264,595 people with estimates was deemed official. In some provinces, notably then secessionist ...
because the insurgency complicated the process of collecting accurate information. An estimated 170,000 people died in Aceh in the 2004 tsunami which further complicates the task of careful demographic analysis. According to the most recent censuses, the total population of Aceh in 2010 was 4,486,570, in 2015 was 4,993,385, and in 2020 was 5,274,871. The official estimate for mid 2021 is 5,333,733.
Ethnic and cultural groups
Aceh is a diverse region occupied by several ethnic and language groups. The major ethnic groups are the
Acehnese (who are distributed throughout Aceh),
Gayo (in central and eastern part),
Alas (in
Southeast Aceh Regency),
Tamiang-Malays (in
Aceh Tamiang Regency
Aceh Tamiang Regency ( id, Kabupaten Aceh Tamiang) is a regency in the east of Aceh province of Indonesia, bordering on North Sumatra Province to the east. It is located on the island of Sumatra. The regency covers an area of 1,957.02 square ...
),
Aneuk Jamee
The Aneuk Jamee or Ughang Jamu people are a group of people spread along the west and south coast of Aceh, starting from Singkil, South Aceh Regency, Southwest Aceh Regency and Simeulue Regency. The Aneuk Jamee people are originally Minangkabau pe ...
(descendant from
Minangkabau Minangkabau may refer to:
* Minangkabau culture, culture of the Minangkabau people
* Minangkabau Culture Documentation and Information Center
* Minangkabau Express, an airport rail link service serving Minangkabau International Airport (''see belo ...
, concentrated in southern and southwestern),
Kluet (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 ...
),
Singkil
Singkíl (or Sayaw sa Kasingkil) is a folk dance of the Maranao people of Lake Lanao depicting one of the episodes in the epic poem ''Darangen'', which was popularised by the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company.
Description
''S ...
(in
Singkil
Singkíl (or Sayaw sa Kasingkil) is a folk dance of the Maranao people of Lake Lanao depicting one of the episodes in the epic poem ''Darangen'', which was popularised by the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company.
Description
''S ...
and
Subulussalam
Subulussalam ( Jawoë: سبل السلام) is a city in the south of Aceh province of Indonesia. It is located inland on the island of Sumatra. On 2 January 2007, the provincial government of Aceh declared Subulussalam to be an independent ''city ...
),
Simeulue
Simeulue is an island of Indonesia, off the west coast of Sumatra. It covers an area of 1754 square kilometres (677 square miles), including minor offshore islands. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 census and 92,865 at the 2020 census ...
and
Sigulai (on
Simeulue
Simeulue is an island of Indonesia, off the west coast of Sumatra. It covers an area of 1754 square kilometres (677 square miles), including minor offshore islands. It had a population of 80,674 at the 2010 census and 92,865 at the 2020 census ...
Island). There is also a significant population of
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...
, Among the present day Acehnese can be found some individuals of
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
,
Turkish, and
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n descent.
The
Acehnese language
Acehnese or Achinese (Jawi alphabet, Jawi: بهسا اچيه) is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language natively spoken by the Acehnese people in Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. This language is also spoken by Acehnese descendants in some p ...
is widely spoken within the Acehnese population. This is a member of the
Aceh-Chamic group of languages, whose other representatives are mostly found in Vietnam and Cambodia, and is also closely related to the
Malay
Malay may refer to:
Languages
* Malay language or Bahasa Melayu, a major Austronesian language spoken in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore
** History of the Malay language, the Malay language from the 4th to the 14th century
** Indonesi ...
group of languages. Acehnese also has many words borrowed from Malay and
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
and traditionally was written using
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
. Acehnese is also used as local language in Langkat and Asahan (
North Sumatra
North Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Utara) is a province of Indonesia located on the northern part of the island of Sumatra. Its capital and largest city is Medan. North Sumatra is Indonesia's fourth most populous province after West Java, East Java and ...
), and Kedah (Malaysia), and once dominated Penang. Alas and Kluet are closely related languages within the
Batak
Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, ...
group. The Jamee language originated from
Minangkabau language
Minangkabau (Minangkabau: , Pegon script: ; id, Bahasa Minangkabau; ms, Bahasa Minangkabau or , Jawi: ) is an Austronesian language spoken by the Minangkabau of West Sumatra, the western part of Riau, South Aceh Regency, the northern part of ...
in
West Sumatra
West Sumatra ( id, Sumatra Barat) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. The province has an area of , with a population of 5, ...
, with just a few variations and differences.
Religion
![Meuseujid Raya Baiturrahman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Meuseujid_Raya_Baiturrahman_.jpg)
According to 2010 census of the Central Statistics Agency, Muslims dominate Aceh with more than 98% or 4,413,200 followers and only 50,300 Protestants and 3,310 Catholics.
Religious issues are often sensitive in Aceh. There is very strong support for Islam across the province, and sometimes other religious groups – such as Christians or Buddhists – feel that they are subject to social or community pressure to limit their activities. The official explanation for this action, supported by both the governor of Aceh
Zaini Abdullah
Zaini Abdullah (born 24 April 1940) is an Indonesian politician and former separatist activist of the Free Aceh Movement (or GAM, ''Gerakan Aceh Merdeka'') in Indonesia who was elected as the governor of the province of Aceh in the 2012 electi ...
and the Indonesian home affairs minister
Gamawan Fauzi
Gamawan Fauzi (born 9 November 1957) is an Indonesian politician. He served as Minister of Home Affairs between 2009 and 2014, and as Governor of West Sumatra between 2005 and 2009.
Career
Fauzi was the Minister of Home Affairs in the Second Uni ...
from Jakarta, was that the churches did not have the appropriate permits. Earlier in April 2012, a number of churches in the
Singkil regency in southern Aceh had also been ordered to close. In response, some Christians voiced concern about these actions. In 2015 a church was burned down and another attacked in which a Muslim rioter was shot, causing President
Joko Widodo
Joko Widodo (; born 21 June 1961), popularly known as Jokowi, is an Indonesian politician and businessman who is the 7th and current president of Indonesia. Elected in July 2014, he was the first Indonesian president not to come from an elite ...
to call for calm.
Human rights
Caning has increasingly been used as a form of judicial punishment in Aceh. This is backed by the governor of Aceh. At least 72 people were caned for various offences, including drinking alcohol, being alone with someone of the opposite sex who was not a marriage partner or relative (khalwat), gambling and for being caught having gay sex. The Acehnese authorities passed a series of by-laws governing the implementation of
Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
after the enactment of the province's Special Autonomy Law in 2001. In 2016 alone, 339 public caning cases were documented by human rights organizations.
In January 2018, the Aceh police, with support from the Aceh autonomous government, raided hair salons known to have LGBT clients and staff as part of an ''operasi penyakit masyarakat'' ("community sickness operation"). The police abused all LGBT citizens within the premises of the parlors and arrested twelve transgender women. The arrested trans women were stripped topless, had their heads shaved, and were forced to chant insults at themselves as part of a
process "until they really become men". The intent of the incident was to reverse what officials deemed a "social disease" and that parents were coming to them upset at the increasing number of LGBT individuals in Aceh. The event was decried by human rights organizations local and worldwide, such as
Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and sup ...
. Usman Hamid stated for the Indonesia branch of the organization that "cutting the hair of those arrested to 'make them masculine' and forcing them to dress like men are forms of
public shaming
Public humiliation or public shaming is a form of punishment whose main feature is dishonoring or disgracing a person, usually an offender or a prisoner, especially in a public place. It was regularly used as a form of judicially sanctioned puni ...
and amount to cruel,
inhuman and degrading treatment
Cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment (CIDT) is treatment of persons which is contrary to human rights or dignity, but is not classified as torture. It is forbidden by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 of the European Convention ...
, in contravention of Indonesia's international obligations".
Traditional culture
Aceh has a variety of distinctive arts and culture.
Traditional weapon
*
Rencong
The rencong ( Acehnese: ''reuncong'', Dutch spelling: ''rentjong'', British spelling: ''renchong'') is a type of knife originating in Aceh, Indonesia. Originally a fighting weapon, it is most often seen today in the martial art of pencak silat ...
is a type of dagger, a traditional weapon of the Acehnese people. The shape resembles the letter L, and when viewed more closely the form is bismillah calligraphy.
In addition to rencong, the Acehnese people also possessed several other special weapons, such as sikin panyang, peurise awe, peurise teumaga, siwah, geuliwang and peudeueng.
Traditional house
![Rumoh Acèh di Piyeung Datu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Rumoh_Ac%C3%A8h_di_Piyeung_Datu.jpg)
Aceh's traditional house is called ''
Rumoh Aceh''. This house is a type of house on stilts with three main parts and one additional section. The three main parts of the Aceh house are the ''seuramoë keuë'' (front porch), ''seuramoë teungoh'' (middle porch) and ''seuramoë likôt'' (back porch). Another additional part is the ''rumoh dapu'' (kitchen house).
Dance
![Ratoh Jaroe Dance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Ratoh_Jaroe_Dance.jpg)
Traditional Acehnese dances illustrate traditional heritage, religion, and local folklore. Acehnese dances are generally performed in groups, in which a group of dancers are of the same sex, and there are standing or sitting positions. When viewed from the accompanying music, the dances can be grouped into two types; namely accompanied by the vocal and percussion of the dancer's own body, and accompanied by an ensemble of musical instruments. Some dances that are famous at the national and even world level are dances originating from Aceh, such as the Rateb Meuseukat Dance and the
Saman dance
Saman (or the dance of a thousand hands) is one of the most popular dances in Indonesia. Its origin is from the Gayo ethnic group from Gayo Lues, Aceh province, Indonesia, and is normally performed to celebrate important occasions. The dance is ...
.
Food
![Mie Aceh with beef](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Mie_Aceh_with_beef.jpg)
Acehnese cuisine uses combinations of spices found in Indian and Arabic cuisine, include ginger, pepper, coriander, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, and fennel. A variety of Acehnese foods are cooked with curry or curry spices and coconut milk, which are generally combined with meat, such as buffalo meat, beef, lamb, fish and chicken. Certain recipes have traditionally used cannabis as a seasoning; which is also found in some other Southeast Asian dishes such as in Laos, but now the material is no longer used. Dishes native to Aceh include
nasi gurih,
mie aceh,
mi caluk and
timphan
Timphan or timpan is a steamed banana dumpling, a traditional ''kue'' specialty of Aceh, Indonesia. Ingredients to make timphan consists of glutinous rice flour, ground banana and coconut milk. All of this materials are then mixed and stirre ...
.
Literature
The oldest Acehnese manuscripts that can be found are from 1069 H (1658/1659 AD), namely Hikayat Seuma'un.
Before Dutch colonialism (1873–1942), almost all Acehnese literature was in the form of poetry known as Hikayat. Very little is in the form of prose and one of them is the Book of Bakeu Meunan which is a translation of the book Qawaa'id al-Islaam.
It was only after the arrival of the Dutch that Acehnese writings appeared in the form of prose, in the 1930s, such as Lhee Saboh Nang written by Aboe Bakar and De Vries. It was only afterward that various forms of prose appeared, but still remained dominated by the form of Hikayat.
See also
*
List of people from Aceh
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
Further reading
*Bowen, J. R. (1991). Sumatran politics and poetics : Gayo history, 1900–1989. New Haven, Yale University Press.
*Bowen, J. R. (2003). Islam, Law, and Equality in Indonesia Cambridge University Press
*Iwabuchi, A. (1994). The people of the Alas Valley : a study of an ethnic group of Northern Sumatra. Oxford, England; New York, Clarendon Press.
*McCarthy, J. F. (2006). The Fourth Circle. A Political Ecology of Sumatra's Rainforest Frontier, Stanford University Press.
*Miller, Michelle Ann. (2009)
''Rebellion and Reform in Indonesia. Jakarta's Security and Autonomy Policies in Aceh'' London and New York: Routledge.
*Miller, Michelle Ann, ed. (2012). ''Autonomy and Armed Separatism in South and Southeast Asia'' (Singapore: ISEAS).
*Siegel, James T. 2000. ''The rope of God''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. ; A classic
ethnographic
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
and historical study of Aceh, and Islam in the region. Originally published in 1969
External links
*
Local App Portal
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