Traditional roof

The time has long passed since modern roofs were introduced and used in the Indian archipelago (now, Southeast Asia) but here in Aceh, many people have not left the traditional roof as a culture they inherited from a long time ago, and the origin roofing in the region.

This traditional roof is made from the leaves of one species of palm plant found abundantly in the region, mamely sago palm (Metroxylon sagu). We call it as Bak Meria, in other places known as Rumbia.

Now, the question is: of the many palm trees that grow in the tropics, and that's so many kinds, why people here since ancient times chose these leaves to make roofs?

In my search for answers, I found a few things:

• Apparently, the roof is made from sago palm leaves more can provide coolness because it does not store heat.

• Roofs made from these leaves, if they are arranged tightly and thickly, they will last longer than 10 years rather than using other palm leaves.

The question arises again, how did people from the past know this fact?

I conclude, of course, they have extensive knowledge of nature, and have applied that knowledge in their lives. So, how much knowledge has been discovered by scientists in the past that even we do not know their names! We see the results of their work in the application form, and did not know anything about them.

That's true as an Arabic proverb says, which I translated like this:

Disappearing the wise, stay his wisdom

Disappearing an intellectual, stay traces of him

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