RINCONG ( RENCONG )

Rincong ( Rincong ) is a kind of weapon. It’s a native weapon from Aceh. Formerly, This weapon was used in aceh’s war against Netherland. Aceh’s Warrior darely armed and penetrated it to the enemy. Nowadays, it’s used as symbol by men in every ceremonial event in Aceh. For traveler who comes to Aceh, it can be a souvenir.

Rincong is a hand making. It’s made by  an hammersmith who has skill to design an interesting rincong. A rincong has two parts, Blade and handle. A Blade of rincong is can be made of silver, brass, metal, and gold. In addition, a handle of rincong can also be made of wood, gold, rootan, silver, metal, bone, and even tusk or horn. The size of rincong is various. It’s depend on who orders to make a rincong, or user. The average size of rincong is about 12 cms to 40 cms. The form of rincong is like an alphabet “f”.

However, according to writer,  the form or structure of rincong has a philosophy meaning. Because of the population of Aceh are moslem, the structure of rincong is like an Arabic words “bismi”, the handle of rincong seems as “ba”  (ب ) and the blade of rincong is like  Arabic alphabets  “ siin” (س ) and  “mim” ( م  ).  Those alphabets  form a word “ bismi” ( ﺒﺴﻡ ), it means “ in the name of “ or “ in the name of God ( Allah)”. Next, we know that in the war situation,  those warriors of Aceh, with their weapons, hoped  that they fought their enemies, using rincong, getting bless by their God.

Nowadays, most of people of Aceh use rincong not for fighting again, they use it only in every native ceremonies, like wedding parties, opening ceremonies, etc. for travelers, they can collect rincong as souvenir. We can find Rincong in every  Aceh souvenir shops or Aceh galleries.