TULAK BALA IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF LOCAL WISDOM AND SCIENCE IN ACEH: A LITERATURE REVIEW
Keywords:
Tulak Bala, Rabu Abeh, local wisdom, ethnoscience, disaster mitigationAbstract
Aceh is among the most disaster-prone regions in the world, exposed to subduction-zone earthquakes, tsunamis, active faults, and increasingly severe floods and landslides. Alongside scientific mitigation, Acehnese communities inherit Tulak Bala, a set of prayers, communal meals, and village rituals, including Rabu Abeh in the month of Safar, intended to ward off misfortune. This article aims to examine Tulak Bala from the perspectives of local wisdom and science and to propose how the two can be combined for disaster mitigation. Using a narrative literature review, the study analyzed 22 sources, mostly peer-reviewed articles published between 2005 and 2026, selected through screening of titles, abstracts, and full texts and synthesized thematically. The review shows that Tulak Bala works mainly as spiritual coping, social capital, and a recurring communal gathering, while it offers no physical protection against hazards, and communities interpret it in varied ways. Smong, the oral warning tradition of Simeulue, shows that local knowledge saves lives when it encodes accurate, memorable instructions for action. The article proposes an ethnoscience and co-creation approach in which ritual gatherings become venues for risk communication, evacuation rehearsal, and the co-design of cultural media, without reducing their spiritual meaning. Field testing of this proposal is recommended.
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