Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam

Lampuuk Aceh Indonesia

Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam 

Aceh (pronounced AH-chay) is one of the provinces of Indonesia and designated as a Special Territory of Indonesia, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra. Its full name is Nanggröe Aceh Darussalam. Past spellings include Acheh, Atjeh and Achin.

Aceh is known for its political independence and fierce resistance to control by outsiders. There is a sociocultural divide as well; the Acehnese practice Islam, while the rest of the archipelago tends to blend Islam with animism. 

Since 1976, Aceh has been torn by a separatist conflict waged by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) against the Jakarta government over control of resources, and over cultural and religious issues. Aceh has substantial natural resources, including petroleum and LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas).

Aceh was the point of land closest to the epicenter of the massive December 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, which triggered a tsunami that devastated much of Aceh's western coast, including part of the capital city of Banda Aceh. The government of Indonesia's positive response to this disaster contributed to a peace agreement with GAM, signed on August 15, 2005.

Aceh's climate is almost entirely tropical, with the coastal plains averaging 82 °F (28 °C), the inland and mountain areas averaging 79 °F (26 °C), and the higher mountain regions, 73 °F (23°C). 

The area's relative humidity ranges between 70 and 90 percent. There is a dry season (June to September), influenced by Australian continental air masses, and a rainy season (December to March) resulting from mainland Asia and Pacific Ocean air masses. Western Sumatra has rainfall measuring more than 78 inches (2,000 millimeters) per year.

Banda Aceh, the capital, lies at the mouth of the Krong Aceh and Krong Daroy rivers where they enter the Indian Ocean, and is the administrative and trading center of this mountainous region. The main local agricultural product is rice. Petroleum and natural gas, of which Sumatra has extensive reserves, is exported through Banda Aceh.

The Great Sumatran Fault, a transform fault, runs the entire length of Sumatra. The pressure on this fault increased dramatically after the December 2004 earthquake. The fault ends directly below the devastated city of Banda Aceh.

In addition to the threat of tsunamis and earthquakes, natural hazards include periodic floods, severe droughts, volcanoes, and forest fires.

An ancient name for Sumatra was Swarna Dwipa, (Sanskrit for Isle of Gold), apparently because mines in the Sumatran highlands were producing gold from fairly early times.

The province is located along the India-China sea trade route. By the seventh century, several trading towns on Aceh were flourishing—especially on the eastern coast—and were influenced by Indian religions. The most notable of these influences were the Srivijaya and the Sumudra. 

Srivijaya was a Buddhist monarchy centered in what is now Palembang. Dominating the region through trade and conquest from the seventh to the ninth century, the kingdom helped spread the Malay culture throughout Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and western Borneo. The empire was thalassocratic, a maritime power that extended its influence from island to island.

Srivijaya influence waned in the eleventh century. The island was then subject to conquests from Javanese kingdoms, first Singhasari, and subsequently Majapahit. At the same time, Islam made its way to Sumatra, spreading through contacts with Arabs and Indian traders. By the late thireenth century, the monarch of Samudra kingdom (now in Aceh) had converted to Islam. 

Ibn Battuta, who visited the kingdom during his journey, pronounced the kingdom "Sumatra," hence the name of the island. Samudra was succeeded by the powerful Aceh Sultanate, which survived to the twentieth century.

From the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Sultanate of Aceh was involved in an almost continuous power struggle first with Portugal, and then, from the eighteenth century, with British and Dutch colonial interests. At the end of the eighteenth century, Aceh lost control of Kedah and Pinang on the Malay Peninsula to the British.

By the early nineteenth century, Aceh had become an increasingly influential power due to its strategic location. In the 1820s, it produced over half of the world's supply of black pepper, bringing new wealth for the sultanate. 

In 1819 the British government had acquired exclusive trading privileges with the sultanate, but a subsequent Anglo-Dutch agreement (1824) made the sultanate virtually a protectorate of the Netherlands. 

Local resistance to Dutch control culminated in a long and bitter conflict (1873-1908). Estimated total casualties on the Aceh side range from 50,000 to 100,000 dead, and over a million wounded, with the Dutch retaining some power.

Colonial influence in the remote highland areas was never substantial, however, and limited guerrilla resistance remained. Led mostly by the religious ulema, or mullahs, intermittent fighting continued until about 1910, and parts of the province were still not pacified when the Dutch Indies became independent Indonesia following the end of the Japanese occupation.

  

During the Indonesian National Revolution after World War II, when the Dutch military attempted to regain control of its former colony, Dutch forces did not attempt to invade Aceh. 

Upon independence, Indonesian troops were dispatched to annex the region, causing resentment over what some Acehnese viewed as foreign occupation. From then, there were periodic armed conflicts between the Indonesian military and local forces fighting for greater independence.

In 1959 the Indonesian government gave Aceh a "special territory" (daerah istimewa) status, giving it a greater degree of independence from the central government in Jakarta than most other regions. 

For example, the Aceh government is empowered to construct a legal system independent of the national government. In 2003, a form of sharia, or Islamic law, was formally introduced.

A 50-foot high (15 meters) tsunami following a 9.0-magnitude Indian Ocean earthquake on 26 December 2004, devastated the western coast and islands of Sumatra, particularly Aceh province. 

While estimates vary, approximately 230,000 people were killed in Aceh, and about 400,000 were left homeless. While parts of Banda Aceh were unscathed, the areas closest to the water, especially in Kampung Jawa, were destroyed. In 2005 there was an 8.7 magnitude aftershock. 

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