Minangkabau

The Minangkabau tribe is indigenous to the highlands of West Sumatra, in Indonesia. Their culture is matrilineal, with property and land passing down from mother to daughter, while business, religious, and political affairs are the province of men (although some women also play important roles in these areas).

The Minangkabau are strongly Islamic and also follow their tribal traditions, or adat. Their tribal lands were the location of the Padri War[?] from 1821 to 1837.

The name Minangkabau has various interpretations. One is that the name comes from the phrase "winning water buffalo" ("menang kerbau" in Bahasa Indonesia). The story is that in ancient times, there was a war between the people of West Sumatra and a Javanese kingdom. To resolve the conflict, the West Sumatrans proposed a contest: each side would provide a water buffalo, the two water buffalo would fight to the death, and whichever side's water buffalo won the fight would be considered the winner of the war.

The Javanese accepted the proposal and on the appointed day, they produced the largest, meanest, most aggressive water buffalo anyone had ever seen. The West Sumatran champion was a hungry baby buffalo with sharp knives attached to the nubs of his horns that were just starting to grow. Seeing the adult buffalo across the field, the baby ran forward, hoping for a meal. The big Javanese buffalo saw no threat in the little baby buffalo and paid no attention to it, looking around for a worthy opponent. But when the baby thrust his head under the big bull's belly, looking for an udder, of course, the knives stabbed the bull and killed him, and the West Sumatrans won the contest and the war.

The roofline of traditional houses in West Sumatra curve upward from the middle and end in points, in imitation of the water buffalo's upward-curving horns.