| Rumah Gadang is one of Minangkabau's symbol, | | | | which is a plain lattice woven in a chequered |
| the most common housing forms have | | | | pattern from split bamboo. The roof is of a truss |
| traditionally been wooden and raised on piles, built | | | | and cross-beam construction, and is typically |
| of locally gathered materials, with steeply pitched, | | | | covered with thatch from the fibre of the sugar |
| roofs. Their culture is matrilineal, with property and | | | | palm (ijuk), the toughest thatch material available |
| land being passed down from mother to daughter, | | | | and said to last a hundred years.The thatch is laid |
| while religious and political affairs are the province | | | | in bundles which can be easily fitted to the |
| of men. The Minangkabau are strongly Islamic, but | | | | curved, multi-gabled roof. Contemporary homes, |
| also follow their own ethnic traditions, or adat. | | | | however, are more frequently using corrugated |
| Minangkabau adat was derived from animistic and | | | | iron in place of thatch. Roof finials are formed |
| Hindu beliefs before the arrival of Islam, and | | | | from thatch bound by decorative metal bindings |
| remnants of animistic beliefs still exist even | | | | and drawn into points said to resemble buffalo |
| among some practicing Muslims. As such, women | | | | horns - an illusion to a legend concerning a bullfight |
| are customarily the property owners; husbands | | | | from which the 'Minangkabau' name is thought to |
| are only tolerated in the house at certain times | | | | have been derived. The roof peaks themselves |
| and under special conditions, and must return to | | | | are built up out of many small battens and |
| their sisters' house to sleep. | | | | rafters. |
| The external walls of a rumah gadang are | | | | The women who share the house have sleeping |
| covered with various motifs, each having a | | | | quarters set into alcoves - traditionally odd in |
| symbolic meaning. A communal rumah gadang is a | | | | number - that are set in a row against the rear |
| long house, rectangular in plan, with multiple gables | | | | wall, and curtained off by the vast interior space |
| and upsweeping ridges, forming buffalo horn-like | | | | of the main living area. Traditionally, large |
| ends. They normally have three-tiered projections, | | | | communal rumah gadang will be surrounded by |
| each with varying floor levels. They are broad and | | | | smaller homes built for married sisters and |
| set on wooden piles that can reach as high as 3 | | | | daughters of the parent family. It is the |
| meters (10 feet) off the ground; sometimes with | | | | responsibility of the women's maternal uncle to |
| a verandah running along the front face of the | | | | ensure that each marriageable woman in the |
| house which is used as a reception and dining | | | | family has a room of her own and to this end will |
| area, and as a sleeping place for guests. Unlike the | | | | build either a new house or more commonly |
| Toba Batak homes, where the roof essentially | | | | additionally annexes to the original one. It is said |
| creates the living space, the Minangkabau roof | | | | that the number of married daughters in a home |
| rests on conventional walls. Cooking and storage | | | | can be told by the counting its horn-like |
| areas are often in separate buildings. | | | | extensions; as they are not always added |
| The house is largely constructed of wood; an | | | | symmetrically, rumah gadang can sometimes look |
| exception being the being the rear longitudinal wall | | | | unbalanced. |