Acehnese people

For a time, the Acehnese were partially Hinduised, as evident from their traditions and the many Sanskrit words in their language. Trade with the Islamic world resulted in the Islamization of the population and gradually displaced older religions practiced by the Acehnese. As a result, the Acehnese have been Muslims for many centuries. The estimated number of Acehnese ranges between 3,526,000 people to 4.2 million people.

Traditionally, Acehnese are agriculturists, metal-workers and weavers. Traditionally matrilocal, their social organisation is communal. They live in gampôngs, which combine to form districts known as mukims. The golden era of Acehnese culture began in the 16th century, along with the rise of the Islamic Aceh Sultanate and later reaching its peak in the 17th century. Generally, the Acehnese people are regarded as conservative adherents to the Islamic faith and also as militant fighters against the colonial conquest of the Portuguese Empire and the Dutch Empire.

Aceh came to international attention as being the hardest-hit region of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake with 120,000 people dead.

Origins

Archaeological evidence show that the earliest inhabitants of Aceh were from the Pleistocene age, where they lived in the west coast of Aceh (Langsa and Aceh Tamiang Regency region) and exhibited Australomelanesoid characteristics. They mainly relied on a diet of seafood, including various types of shellfish, as well as land animals. The inhabitants are known to have used fire and practiced rituals of burial.

The migration of the modern-day indigenous tribes, such as the Mante people and the Lhan people (Proto-Malay), as well as the Chams, Malays and Minangkabau people (Deutero-Malay) who arrived later, formed the pribumi dwellers of Aceh. Foreign ethnic groups, especially Indians, as well as a small amount of Arabs, Persians, Turks, and Portuguese also compromise the ancestry of the Acehnese people. The strategic position of Aceh in the northern tip of the Sumatra island for thousands of years has allowed the region to become a haven for trade and inter-marriage of various people groups, namely those involved in the sea trade route from the Middle East to China.

Native Southeast Asian peoples

Linguist Paul Sidwell wrote that "Sometime during this early phase of language shift, perhaps before the beginning of Common Era, the Chamic speakers who were to become the Acehnese left the mainland on a journey that would ultimately end in northern Sumatra." Using Graham Thurgood's thesis, Sidwell argues that the Acehnese likely had been separated from Chamic-speaking peoples around the first to second century BCE. The geographic gap between other Chamic languages and Acehnese may have led to influence on Indochinese speakers of Chamic languages from Malay, Khmer, Thai, and Vietnamese over the following two thousand years.

Chinese and Indian sources from 500 CE and onward mention that there was a settlement in northernmost Sumatra (Aceh) which was called P'o-lu. Many scholars believe that P'o-lu was close to the what is now Banda Aceh. These sources also state that the average person wore cotton clothing while the ruling elite wore silk. The Chinese annals also claim that the local people were Buddhist.

Acehnese folklore states that the earliest people of Aceh came from indigenous tribes such as the Mante people and the Lhan people. The Mante people were a local native group believed to be related to the Batak, Gayonese and Alas people, while the Lhan people are allegedly still related to the Semang people group who had migrated from the Malay Peninsula or Indochina (specifically Champa and Burma). Initially, the Mante people settled in Aceh Besar Regency and later began to spread to other regions.

Around the ninth and tenth century there was an influx of Arabian and Persian merchants to the Aceh region. When Marco Polo visited the area in 1292, he mentions that some of the port cities and towns had already converted to Islam. It is commonly thought that when the Samudera Pasai Sultanate was founded, Islam was fully established in the region. Nonetheless, it is clear that Islam was a major religion in and around Aceh by the thirteenth century.

During the decline of the Srivijaya kingdom, it is estimated that a number of Malay people began to migrate to Aceh. They then settled down in the valleys of Tamiang River and later became known as the Tamiang people. After they were conquered by the Samudera Pasai Sultanate kingdom (1330), only then did they begin to integrate into Acehnese society; although in terms of cultural and linguistic, there are still similarities with the Malay culture. By the sixteenth century, Aceh was an important cultural and scholastic Islamic center influential throughout much of Southeast Asia.

Most of the Minangkabau people who migrated to Aceh settled around Meulaboh and Krueng Seunagan valley. Generally in these fertile areas they manage wet paddy fields and pepper farming, as well as some trading. The mixed population of Acehnese-Minangkabau people is also found in the southern region, namely in the areas around Susoh, Tapaktuan and Labuhan Haji. There are many who converse daily in both Acehnese language and their own native dialect, the Aneuk Jamee language.

As a result of the political expansion and diplomatic relations of the Aceh Sultanate with their surrounding region, the Acehnese people were also mixed with the Alas people, Gayonese, Karo people, Nias people and Kluet people. The unification of the Acehnese culture that stemmed from various ancestry are primarily in the Acehnese language, religion of Islam and the local customs, as how it was formulated by Sultan Iskandar Muda in the Adat Makuta Alamlaws, which is well known as "Kanun Mahkota Alam".

India

There are many of those who are of Indian descent in Aceh, which are closely linked to trading and the spreading of Hinduism-Buddhism and Islam in Aceh. Those who are of Indian descent are mainly Tamils and Gujarati people which are found spread throughout the entire Aceh. Among some of the Indian people's influence on the Acehnese people includes the cultural aspects and physical attributes of part of the Acehnese people, as well as the variety in Acehnese cuisine that frequently utilizes curry. Numerous place names of Sanskrit origin (for example, Indrapuri, Aceh Besar) reflects the cultural heritage of Hinduism in the past.

Arab, Persia and Turkey

"The tribe of the Three Hundred is (insignificant) as the seeds of the drang (a bush which grows like a weed along fences);
The people of the clan Ja Sandang are even as anise and cummin (thus a little more valuable).
Those of the Ja Batèe (count) for something;
The Imeum Peuet it is which makes the world to tremble."

— Oral poem (hadih maja) from
Snouck Hurgronje's De Atjeher''.

Most of the Arabs that migrated to Aceh came from Hadhramaut, Yemen. Among the immigrants are those of the Ba Alawi including al-Aydrus (Aidrus, Aydarus), al-Attas, al-Kathiri, Badjubier, Sungkar, Bawazier & al-Habsyi and other clans; all of which are Arabic clans that originated from Yemen. They came as ulamas to spread Islam and as traders. Seunagan district for an instance, is well known to this today for numerous of ulamas of the Sayyid descent, of which the local community would address them with the title Teungku Jet or Habib as a form of respect. Similarly, some of the Sultan of Aceh are also descendants of Sayyid. Many of their descendants today have intermarried with the natives Acehnese people and do no longer bear their clan names.

There are also those of Persian descent that generally came to spread religion and to trade, while those of Turkish descent generally were invited as ulamas, weapon merchants, military trainers and soldiers of war for the Aceh Sultanate. At present, people of Persian and Turkish descent in Indonesia are mostly scattered in Aceh Besar Regency. Names of Persian and Turkish heritage are still being used by Acehnese people to name their children. In fact, the word Banda in the name of Banda Aceh city is also a word of Persian language in origin (Banda means "port").

Portugal

People of Portuguese descent are found mainly in the Aceh Jaya Regency (northwest section of Aceh). Portuguese sailors under the lieutenant leadership of Captain Pinto, were sailing towards Malacca, stopped by and traded there; where some of them remained and settled there. History records that this event occurred between 1492 and 1511; of which at that time the area was under the rule of a small kingdom called Lamno, with King Meureuhom Daya as their ruler. Until this day, some of their descendants can still be seen with European features.