MINANGKABAU / RUMAH GADANG

 

Rumah Gadang isthe traditional house of Minangkabau

Background and Characteristics

~ All of the construction, architecture, internal and external decoration and the function of the house is reflected with the cultures and values of the Minangkabau

~This house is serve as a residence and as a hall for family meeting and activities of ceremonial.

~The arrangement of the rooms inside the house is seen as a reflection of a woman's life pattern.

~ Long house with a rectangular plan. 

~ Have tiered projections each of it varying floor levels.

~Largely constructed by wood

Elements of Rumah Gadang ;

~ 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 middle band on the periphery of the house

~ Salangko - wall enclosing space under a house that has been built on stilts

ROOF STRUCTURE

~it havea curved roof structure with a multi-tiered and upswept gables.

~the upward-curved finials which is known as gonjong on the peaks of teh roof, said to represent buffalo horns, represented reaching to heaven.

~covered with thatch from the fiber of the sugar palm (ijuk) which is known as the toughest thatch material available and is said to last a hundred years

~Buffalo horns ( from an illusions to a legend concerning a battle between two water buffaloes from which the 'Minangkabau' name is thought to have been derived)

~Many small battens and rafters is built uo for the roof peaks