MINANGKABA U

PREPARED BY QUAH QIU YU ALFA2013-0065

INTRODUCTION
The name Minangkabau is thought to be a conjunction of two words, minang ("victorious") and kabau ("buffalo"). During the fifteenth century, the Minangkabau tribes from Sumatra established themselves in the state of Negeri Sembilan. The Minangkabau, or Minang, comprise a majority of the state of Negeri Sembilan in Peninsular Malaysia. The Minang speak the national language of Malaysia, but they have their own dialect that reflects lingual roots in the language of their Indonesian heritage. Within Malaysia, the Minang refer to themselves as Orang Negeri.

WHAT ARE THEIR LIVES LIKE? The Minang are most noted for their adherence to adat pepatih
(matrilineal inheritance). Certain areas of Negeri Sembilan have moved away from this tradition due to the complexities of the matrimonial ceremonies and the blending of communities with peoples from different Malay groups who use traditional male inheritance.

The Minang place great emphasis on their women. In order to protect the rights of the female, the name and property are passed down through the line of the mother. Daughters are strongly encouraged to marry within the same people group or else they are not allowed to live on family land.
The roof of a traditional home is peeked at both ends to represent the horns of a water buffalo. These roofs along with spicy food are two trademarks of the Minangkabau.

WHAT ARE THEIR BELIEFS? The Minang are devout Muslims in spite of their matrilineal
heritage.
The Minang practice the five pillars of Islam and wear Muslim clothing that is consistent with other Malay groups throughout Malaysia. A large majority of Minang women wear a head covering and the percentage that do not are of the younger generation. Marriage ceremonies and funerals are in keeping with Islamic tradition.

CULTURE: Matrilineal /Adat Pepatih

Mother's run the show. All inherited items and property is on the basis of the mother's lineage. Children grow up in clans that put women in front of men. The fathers and sons do not attempt to challenge this way of life, as it has been that way for very long period of time. Communities seem to run smoothly in this style, and trying to break cultural norms would be seen as disobedient and disrespectful. Because the women own all the rights to property and children, men act as "guards" rather than fathers. They are there to continue the lineage and protect the women and their possessions. At a young age, boys learn to live separate from their family. The matriarchal ideas come partly from the Islamic traditions. That being said, males are expected to seek education and experience away from home. Boys learn this cultural norm at a young age, as they leave the house to sleep at local mosques with other boys in the community. The sisters and mothers remain in their households, maintaining control of the property and sharing each other's company.

Men are only to return to these homes when they are ready to contribute financially. It is their responsibility to come up with money for resources and food. They spend most of their time outside the house, working or going to school. Other reasons to return to the house is to comfort their wives and ensure that they have everything necessary to live at the given time. Adult sons and grandsons who are not yet married sleep daily in local prayer houses or the homes of their wives sister. Husbands sleep with their wives in their bedrooms but are seen and recognized as guests by the rest of the family. The wives and daughters have complete control in the household, and this a very unique and unusual way of living. Men look for spouses who have large houses, a lot of property, and a good amount of resources.

CUISINE
The staple ingredients of the Minangkabau diet are rice, fish, coconut, green leafy vegetables and chili. Meat is mainly limited to special occasions, and beef and chicken are most commonly used. Traditional Negeri Sembilan food is hot and spicy, as one of the ingredients used is the chili padi, the hottest of chillies. Popular dishes include rendang. One should experience the unique Minangkabau style of cooking, which sees generous portions of 'chili padi' (small & extremely hot chilies) being used. Another NS specialty is "Lemang", glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk in a bamboo stem over an open fire. This is normally served with Rendang, a deliciously thick, dry meat curry.

HOUSES

Traditional house, RUMAH GADANG

(big house)

Modern house, RUMAH GEDUNG

(brick house)

RUMAH GADANG
Rumah gadang (big house) or rumah bagonjong (spired roof house) are the traditional homes of the Minangkabau. A rumah gadang serves as a residence, a hall for family meetings, and for ceremonial activities. The rumah gadang is owned by the women of the family who live there ownership is passed from mother to daughter. The rumah gadang appears horizontally long. The roof has two pointy ends on the left and right, resembling the horns of a buffalo. These houses are made of special types of wood that are more flexible, but very strong. Sometimes with a verandah running along the front face of the house which is used as a reception and dining area, and as a sleeping place for guests. Cooking and storage areas are often in separate buildings.

RICE STORE Minangkabau architecture, Pagaruyung

VERENDAH

Traditionally, large communal rumah gadang be surrounded by smaller homes built for married sisters and daughters of the parent family. It is the responsibility of the women's maternal uncle to ensure that each marriageable woman in the family has a room of her own. To this end he will build either a new house or, more commonly, annexes to the original one. It is said that the number of married daughters in a home can be told by the counting its horn-like extensions; as they are not always added symmetrically, rumah gadang can sometimes look unbalanced.

The rumah gadang has three main areas: Immediately after the entrance comes a middle ares (rumah tongah), where there is normally a central post; Adjoining this the anjuang, and the bedrooms (biliak). Opposite the anjuang is the kitchen and in front of that a large space (pangkalan), where visitors are received.

While the long house is a meeting place for all, the rumah gadang is essentially a women's area; none of the men spends much time in the house with his mother or his wife, and the biliak (bedrooms) are seen as room of the house reflects a woman's life cycle, and forms a journey from the central post to theanjuang, then the biliak, and lastly to the kitchen.

At the right rear end of the house is the kitchen (dapur), which is lower than the floor level of the hall. In some houses, the kitchen is built on ground level and a flight of steps leads down to the kitchen from inside the house. At the right end, in the front of the house, a flight of steps of uneven numbers (usually three, five or seven) leads up to the main door of the house which opens into the pangkalan (from pangkal: base, foundation, beginning, origin). This space is usually on a lower level than the hall. The windows are on the front of the house and face the courtyard (halaman). Under the house (rumah dalam, inside house), chicken coops, firewood and coconuts are kept in the rear of the rumah dalam below the kitchen area. If there is more than one household living in the traditional house, another hearth may be built directly below the pangkalan or the kitchen.

In everyday life, the house is very much the domain of women and houses are said to be built for them. No self-respecting man would spend too much time during the day either in his wifes or his mothers house. In the daytime, men work in their offices, shops, the market, the fields and wetrice lands or spend their time in the coffee house (warung), a place where men congregate to exchange gossip and news. They return to their wives houses only after sundown for their evening meal and to sleep. Women, in contrast, spend much of their time in or around the house, weaving in the rumah dalam, drying yarn, padi or rice cakes in the courtyard, pounding rice in the mortar in the courtyard, drawing water, preparing food in the kitchen and spinning or sewing in the pangkalan, visible to all the passers-by. One is a socially acceptable being only if ones actions are open to public witness. Windows and doors are thrown open in the early morning and are only shut when there is no one in the house and at night. Visitors announce their presence by shouting out from the courtyard and often women in the house can be seen standing by their windows, having conversations with passers-by in the courtyard.

Sleeping order in the traditional house Guests sit on the ruang topi by the windows while the household members sit facing the guests on the ruang tongah. Most ritual activities are held in the hall and in the courtyard. In a few houses there may be chairs in the hall, but usually there is no furniture, except for a cupboard placed in the ruang tongah next to the annex. The valuables of the household, ceremonial cloths, heirloom bowls and jars, are kept locked in this cupboard and the eldest woman of the house holds the key. Daily meals are also eaten on the ruang tongah in privacy. At night, the windows and doors are shut and the house becomes a private space. Generally villagers do not visit each other after nightfall, except on invitation or when there is a ceremony held in the house. This is especially so when there is a recently married couple sleeping in the house. Sleeping arrangements in the traditional house follow a specific order. The most recently married girl and her husband sleep in the anjuang (annex). On the marriage of a younger girl (either sister or mothers sisters daughter) in the house, she vacates the annex and moves to the bedroom adjacent to the annex. The occupants of the biliak move one room down towards the kitchen. Since marriage follows birth order, ideally and generally in practice, the oldest woman sleeps in the biliak next to the kitchen. However, if there were insufficient biliak, she would sleep in the pangkalan. When there is a spare biliak, the one adjacent to the annex is kept vacant to ensure the newly married couple has more privacy. Unmarried girls share the biliak of their mother if her husband no longer visits her. Alternatively, the unmarried girls sleep on the ruang ateh or the ruang tongah near the central post (tonggak tuo) of the house.

Public and private space Beds are the main furniture in the biliak and the annex. A sofa and a dressing table are also standard furniture in the annex. The annex and the biliak are private spaces and personal possessions. Except on ceremonial occasions and on the invitation of the occupant, female guests do not enter the annex or the biliak. The only men who may enter these rooms are the husbands and the unmarried sons of the occupants. The kitchen is also a private space. Unless one is a close matrilineal relative or a friend, to enter the kitchen during non-ceremonial occasions, or without invitation, is considered as prying since what one consumes as part of daily fare is simple and as a subject of discussion is considered embarrassing (malu). In front of the kitchen is the pangkalan. This is a public space which everyone entering the house must necessarily pass through. Guests may sometimes sit in the pangkalan instead of the hall. Here, too, older women at the end of their reproductive cycle sleep. In the traditional house, there are levels of connected meanings. First, there is a division of space where procreativity takes place, and the space for social interactions. The spaces where procreativity (the annex and the biliak) takes place are private, while the space where social discourse and interactions are conducted (the ruang) is public. There is a gradation of public to private space in the ruang itself; the ruang topi is a semi-public space where the guests sit, and more public than the ruang tongah on which the household members sit facing and entertaining their guests. As we proceed to the rear of the house, open space becomes enclosed as thebiliak, and these rooms are private.

Underlying meanings in the use of space Implicit in the use of space is the dimension of time; that is, the life cycle of the woman. When unmarried, a woman sleeps near the central post. She proceeds to the annex as she enters her reproductive phase and then moves down the biliak towards the kitchen. At the end of her period of procreativity, she moves into the pangkalan. The young girls sleeping near the central post can be interpreted as symbolic of the fact that they are the progeny through whom the lineage will continue. The sexual symbolism is blatant enough, but another meaning is that the young girls form the continuity of the lineage. Further evidence that the central post of the house is closely associated with the continuity of the lineage is the practice of burying the placenta and the umbilical cord of a newborn member of the lineage at the foot of the post.

Architectural Elements
Each element of a rumah gadang has its own symbolic meaning, which is referred to in adat speech and aphorisms. The elements of a rumah gadang includes: gonjong, hornlike roof structure singkok, triangular wall under the ends of gonjong pereng, shelf under the singkok anjuang, raised floor at the end of one style of rumah gadang dindiang ari, the walls on the side elevations dindiang tapi, the walls on the front and back elevations papan banyak, front facade papan sakapiang, a shelf or middle band on the periphery of the house salangko, wall enclosing space under a house that has been built on stilts