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