Graves of Aceh Warriors

teukumukhlis (70)in #blog • 7 years ago

I found a collection of old photos on my external hard disk. The collection of photos I took with the camera phone Nokia 5320 Now, the mobile phone has been damaged and no longer work. I was lucky to still keep some of the photo collection. However, the photos with Nokia 5320 are of poor quality. Nevertheless, I still enjoy the photos.

Okay, I'll share some of my old photos here. What you see now are pictures of a tomb. This tomb looks different from the other tombs. This is the tomb of two Acehnese fighters who have fought against colonialism.

Who were they?

They were Teuku Cut Muhammad aka Teuku Chik Ditunong and Teuku Mohammad Daud aka Teuku Dibuah. In the body of the tombstone it reads the phrase: "Teuku Chik Ditunong was the husband of Cut Meutia (female fighter from Aceh, she was also one of Indonesia national heroes). Teuku Chik Ditunong also fought and organized the battle against the Dutch. He also ambushed the marsose troops in Meurandeh Paya. Teuku Chik Tailed with Teuku Dibuah was arrested on March 5, 1905. On March 25, 1905, they were punished with dead shots on the beach of Lhokseumawe ".

These two tombs are now in Mon Geudong, Lhokseumawe. I often visit this cemetery, because my late father was also buried here. But you will not see a picture of my father's grave, because his grave is about 30 meters from this grave.

The Aceh government has protected this grave by providing a special place. I do not know when this grave renovation was done. But the government has planned this grave as one of the tourist spots in Lhokseumawe. I appreciate this program. We must respect the heroes who have fought for independence.

This tomb looks beautiful. Both tombstones are made with traditional patterns. I am not an expert on this, so I am unable to explain to you about these patterns. But the carvings of these patterns are found in Aceh, for example in the mosques and traditional houses of Aceh. I think that these patterns are the original pattern of art of carving in Aceh.

I think, these two Acehnese heroes were buried simultaneously. My assumption is that they are put to death at the same place and time.

Let's look at the next section. It is not unusual here, the graves sprinkled with gravel. Perhaps the reason is not to overgrown with weeds. The soil in Aceh is too fertile. So you do not be surprised when you see the weeds that grow haphazardly here.

At both ends, graves in Aceh are marked by laying a large rock. The stone for the head is larger in size than the stone placed on the legs. Graves in rural areas of Aceh usually still use this stone as a marker. In the rural areas is not uncommon to use tombstone as a grave marker. In this photo, you can see two pieces of stone on the head, and two stones in the legs.

At the head of the tombstone, there are carvings of tauhid sentences:

I bear witness that (there is) no God except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

Both of these Aceh heroes deserve to be remembered. History is an integral part of human life. For me, appreciating history is an important lesson to appreciate life.

I hope you enjoy this post. All these photos I took with Nokia 5320.

#photography #life