The Origin of Aceh Traditional House

Rumah Aceh or Rumoh Aceh in Acehnese language is a traditional house of Aceh in the form of a stage house with a rectangular house plan and positioned from east to west so as not difficult to determine the direction of Qiblah while the front facing north-south. One characteristic of this rumoh Aceh is the pillars of a very high support house, which is about 2.5-3 meters. Building area was at least 200 m2 with floor height up to the roof up to 8 m. Although it has a large size one of the greatness rumoh aceh this is the construction that only use the ropes of fibers, pegs and wedge with the main material wood, planks and leaves for the roof roof. But to this day this aceh house still stands erect after built more than 200 years. The following is a replica of aceh house in TMII.

The use of materials derived from nature is a manifestation of respect and utilization of aceh citizens to the abundant natural resources around and the form of gratitude to Allah SWT. Because for the people of Aceh about building a house is not simple because its construction is like building a life so it needs a custom ceremony that must be met before starting the development process.

The ceremony is through three stages. The first stage is the traditional ceremony held at the time of the building materials from the forest. The second stage is the traditional ceremony when will begin the development process, where the date taken is decided by Teungku (local ulama). While the last stage of the ceremony is done after the house has been completed or at the time the house will be inhabited. The process of development was through the process of musyawarah with the family, input from Teungku and its development done by mutual cooperation. This is what causes the creation of harmony in a social environment that goes straight with customs. The rules of placement space in aceh house acts as a symbol of obedience to the rules.

Front-facing house facing north-south was applied in addition to avoiding the direction of the wind that potentially demolish the building as well to facilitate sunlight penetrating the rooms. While the position of the building facing to the west-east depicts one of the application of religious aspects of society to his residence. Other applications include the division of odd rooms and stairs and the supply of water tents to rinse the feet before entering the house.

The division of the room in aceh's house consists of three main parts: Front or front porch (seuramoe keue) or (seuramoe reunyeun), living room (trough) and backroom (seramoe likoet). Each section has its own function and even has a division of areas for those who want to enter it, which is the area that can be entered by men and women and women's special areas only. This is done as a form of modesty to women.