The cultures in Aceh are strongly influenced by Islam, but there are still traces of Hinduism, which was former religion in Aceh. The Hindu flavor is mainly noticed in traditional ceremonies. There are three mayor ethnic groups in Aceh; Acehnese, Gayo and Alas. The Acehnese inhabit mainly the coastal areas of the province. However, in west and south Aceh, they intermingled with Minangkabaus, which reflected in language, design and customs. The Gayo and Alas groups are numerically smaller and inhabit the highland of Aceh. The Gato to the north and the Alas to the south. Their languages are distinctive and related to the Batak languages in Sumatera Utara (North Sumatera Province). In Aceh there are 50 types of dance, 20 kinds of music, 10 form of literature and 9 tradition arts
Music and Instrument
Acehnese music performed on tradition string, wind and percussion instruments. Most of them seem to have Chinese origin, but at least the “arbab” is indigenous. The “arbab” is a three string zither made of wood from the jack fruit tree. The strings are made of very strong bambo, rattan, or from horse tail horse. One example of wind instrument is the “seurunee kalee “, which is a single reed wood-wind with one hole in the back and seven in the front. Other include various kinds of bamboo fluetes, such as “buloh peurindu”, “bansi” and “suling”. Gong are made of brass or dried goat skin and are sounded with padded wooden hammers. They come in three sizes and called “gong” , “canang”, and “mong-mong”. The “Rapaii Pasai” is tambourine made of goat skin. The “Rapai Pasai”, for example, was introduced by the Sanudra Pasai Kingdom as an instrument to call citizen to gather. The “Tak Tok” is made of bamboo and is very simmilar to Javanese “angklung”. The players of traditional instruments are usually men, while women sing and play tambourines. A traditional band consists of leader, four or five players and one or two boy sopranos.
