RAPA-IE ( rapa-ii)

Rapa-ie is one of Aceh’s music  elements. It can be a part of traditional music.It can be a percussion. Rapa-ie is used by beaten, one hand arms the rapa-ie, and onother hand beats it following a traditional song and dancer. Nowadays, Rapa-ie is used in modern music. It becomes a part of modern musical instrument.

Rapa-ie is made by one who has a special skill  in making it.  He must be able to choose special wood and leather, than he must be able to process that wood and leather to be a good rapa-ie. Even one who able to make rapa ie also must be able to test that rapa-ie whether this rapa-ie has good sound or not.  Rapa-ie is made of a special wood.  In my village, It is usually made of jackfruit trunk. According to the specialist,  the jackfruit trunk is light, and it can make rapa-ie strong and long lasting. The most important thing that it can make the sound of rapa-ie nice to listen.

In addition, Rapa-ie is familiarly used at traditional dance like rapa-ie  saman dance. Rapa-ie saman dance is a dance that inclose rapa-ie as main instrument. This dance is played by 12 dancers. They have their own role.  Two dancer take a role as singers, and the others as dancers. The dancers each other arm rapa-ies. They beat and play rapa-ie as beautiful as they are possible. They dance following singing which is sung by two singers sitting behind them. The singers sing traditional song. Traditionally , the song is about praise to God ( Allah SWT) and apostle ( Muhammad SAW).

In this time, rapa-ie can be found in  dance studioes, schools, villages in Aceh. By the reason that those places have a resposibility to keep rapa-ie and rapa-ie dance existing in modern life.

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.

ACEH PROVINCE

Aceh is a provincy in Indonesia, located at the top of Sumatera island, nearby North Sumatera. It’s a friendly location, if you pay attention your eyes on google map, you just type aceh, I’m sure, no more than three seconds, it’s found.

People of Aceh are Friendly. They are also religious, but not fanatics. If you step on Aceh, They will serve you well and with full of smile. According to Statistics of Aceh Province, the amount of All population in 2017 is about 5.189.466 people.  Governor of Aceh now Drh. Irwandi Yusuf.

The capital city of Aceh is Banda Aceh. Aceh has 23 districs. They are:

No	Kabupaten/Kota	Ibu Kota Kabupaten
1	Kabupaten Aceh Selatan	Tapak Tuan
2	Kabupaten Aceh Tenggara	Kutacane
3	Kabupaten Aceh Timur	Idi Rayeuk
4	Kabupaten Aceh Tengah	Takengon
5	Kabupaten Aceh Barat	Meulaboh
6	Kabupaten Aceh Besar	Kota Jantho
7	Kabupaten Pidie	Sigli
8	Kabupaten Aceh Utara	Lhoksukon
9	Kabupaten Simeulue	Sinabang
10	Kabupaten Aceh Singkil	Singkil
11	Kabupaten Bireuen	Bireuen
12	Kabupaten Aceh Barat Daya	Blangpidie
13	Kabupaten Gayo Lues	Blang Kejeren
14	Kabupaten Aceh Jaya	Calang
15	Kabupaten Nagan Raya	Suka Makmue
16	Kabupaten Aceh Tamiang	Karang Baru
17	Kabupaten Bener Meriah	Simpang Tiga Redelong
18	Kabupaten Pidie Jaya	Meureudu
19	Kota Banda Aceh	Banda Aceh
20	Kota Sabang	Sabang
21	Kota Lhokseumawe	Lhok Seumawe
22	Kota Langsa	Langsa
23	Kota Subulussalam	Subussalam

The people of Aceh generally use Acehness as their mother language. But Actually, Aceh has many native languages. It’s according to districs and tribes.  They are Aceh, Gayo, Anuek Jamee, Kluet, Alas, Haloban, Devayan, Semeulue, and Tamiang.