KEUNEUBAH NANGGROE : Maintaining Rapai Existence in The Modern Era

Rapai is a traditional Acehnese musical instrument that is played by being beaten by the hand.

The production of Rapai Keuneubah Nanggroe is located in Blang Weu Panjoe Village, Blang Mangat Sub-district, Lhokseumawe City, Aeh Province. This location is 8.5 kilometers (KM) from downtown Lhokseumawe which is the second largest city in Aceh province, Indonesia. The city lies between Banda Aceh (The capital of Aceh province) and Medan (The capital of North Sumatra province), so Lhokseumawe becomes a very important distribution and trade channel for Aceh's economic and social development.

The supply of electricity and water networks is also quite stable as a reference to support business activities. Geographical conditions and good infrastructure support as mentioned above also become a distinct advantage for this business, both in terms of procurement of resources (raw materials, labor, and energy) and marketing of production.

Establishment of Rapai production business was done in the year 2000. Initially Hasballah who is the owner of production Rapai Keuneubah Nanggroe began to interested in this business because of the opportunity to see the high demand Rapai. Hasballah is a Rapai player who is already known for his work in the wider community, then decided to pursue the business of production and sales of Rapai because he felt old and tired of being a drunkard Rapai.

When just starting to operate, to produce Rapai Hasballah still using the tools supporting the production of makeshift. As business trips show positive developments, owners are updating production tools that support the ease of production processes in an effort to produce more and more high-quality Rapai to meet market needs.

Initially production of Rapai Keuneubah Nanggroe only have a worker that Hasballah own, but now his business has grown and has 3 workers. According Hasballah business with the order system and production routine done so far does not require much capital and faster turnover of capital. The resulting product is Rapai variety of types and sizes, in accordance with consumer demand, as well as in the spare time also produces ashtrays, sandalwood, cobek and puan.

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