A Minangkabau roof
Four tiers and buffalo horns.
Rahmat Irfan Denas — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rahmat Irfan Denas — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rahmat Irfan Denas — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rahmat Irfan Denas — CC BY-SA 4.0
A beautiful historic mosque in the village of Rao Rao in Tanah Datar, the heartland of the Minangkabau, built in the early twentieth century and among West Sumatra's finest blends of local and Middle Eastern architecture, now protected heritage. The mosque is crowned by a four-tiered Minangkabau roof topped with a finial inspired by buffalo horns, while beside it stands a minaret in Persian or Moorish style, and its walls are decorated with arched windows and colourful ornament, a scene uniting custom and faith, as the famous Minangkabau saying has it. The mosque serves daily prayers; entry is free, and visitors are welcome outside prayer times in modest dress. Around it lie green rice fields with mountains on the horizon. It lies on the road between Bukittinggi and Batusangkar, near Pagaruyung Palace and the Batu Batikam site, so combine them in a day in the land of the old kings.
Four tiers and buffalo horns.
Beside the local roof.
All around the mosque.
Rao Rao, Tanah Datar regency, near Batusangkar
They say custom rests on the sharia, and the sharia rests on the Book of God, meaning their traditions must accord with Islam; this mosque's architecture embodies that harmony.