Cultural Tourism: Seeing the Making of Traditional Aceh Weapons |

Usually, we go to tarvelling to mountains, seas, or man-made tours. This time, I want to invite Hivers to enjoy cultural tours of making traditional Acehnese weapons (Indonesia) in Blang Village, Tanah Pasir District, Aceh Utara Regency, Indonesia.

Students participating in the Merdeka Student Exchange Program, I invite to tour to see firsthand how rencong is made manually. For a long time, there has been no modern equipment used to produce a rencong.

Everything is traditional and that is what attracts tourists, including students from various cities and provinces in Indonesia. They have never witnessed firsthand how rencong is made from white iron.

Not only watching, students can also make several stages to make rencong directly.

We met Tgk Ishak Abdullah, a master of making rencong manually. It starts with burning the white iron with a burning fire. Then, the iron that is already red hot is hit with an iron hammer until it is formed. The work can take up to five hours, depending on the shape of the iron.

Once formed, he files the blade of the rencong with a file. In the past, Ishak Abdullah never used a grinding machine to tidy up the blade of the rencong. However, as he got older, he had to make peace with modern tools to be more effective and efficient.

"But usually, there are tourists who want me to use traditional tools. They want to see how rencong is made naturally," said Tgk Ishak Abdullah.

Usually, Tgk Ishak Abdullah keeps several rencong blades that have been formed and buffalo horns as handles for the rencong. So, when tourists come, they can also enjoy the manufacturing process directly, at least tidying up the rencong with traditional tools.

Tgk Ishak Abdullah has been doing this job for decades. He is the only rencong maker who still uses traditional tools. Many rencong are sold as souvenirs typical of Aceh, made with a molten iron pouring system that can be mass-produced.

The work of making rencong takes place in a simple place which in Acehnese is called teumpeun (read: workshop) which is very simple. From that place, Tgk Ishak Abdullah preserves the tradition of making rencong.

"I consider it an art," he said proudly. From visitors, Tgk Ishak Abdullah never sets a certain fee. He accepts whatever tourists give, unless they want to buy rencong which is usually sold for Rp250 thousand to Rp1.5 million, depending on the material and size of the iron used. []

Desa Blang Kecamatan Tanah Pasir, Kabupaten Aceh Utara, Aceh, Indonesia.