The rumah gadang
A building with buffalo-horn roofs.
Rhmtdns — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Ikhvan — CC BY 2.0 · Puterits — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rahmat Irfan Denas — CC BY-SA 3.0
The official museum of West Sumatra, in central Padang, named after Adityawarman, a king who ruled the region in the fourteenth century. Its greatest charm is the building: a huge house in the style of the Minangkabau rumah gadang, its roof swept up at the ends like buffalo horns, with two small rice barns in the same style in front. The museum presents the culture of the Minangkabau, the Muslim people of the highlands, among whose most unusual customs is that lineage and inheritance pass through the mother, together with the culture of the Mentawai islanders off the coast. Its halls hold gold-embroidered wedding costumes, textiles, weapons and tools, and models of houses and villages. Entry is a token fee of about five thousand rupiah per adult, and it opens every day except Monday from nine to four. It is a useful introduction before heading up to the Bukittinggi highlands and Pagaruyung Palace, where you will see this architecture in life. An hour is enough, and the museum is close to Padang beach.
A building with buffalo-horn roofs.
A Muslim people with maternal lineage.
Embroidered with gold thread.
Jalan Diponegoro, central Padang near the beach
Padang Beach (Taplau)Padang's seafront on the Indian Ocean, which locals call Taplau, short for the e12 minutes walk4.3
Siti Nurbaya Bridge and Padang Old TownA modern bridge over the Arau River in south Padang, opened at the start of the 14 minutes walk4.7
Ganting Grand MosquePadang's oldest mosque and one of the oldest in Indonesia, begun in 1805 and fin19 minutes walk4.5It is one of the world's largest matrilineal societies: house and land pass down through the mother, alongside a strong attachment to Islam, summed up in their saying that custom rests on Islamic law and the law on the Book of God.