Minangkabau Batik Costume

Minangkabau People

Minang people are frequently referred to as Padang. Padang City is the name of the capital city of West Sumatra province, where many Minang live. Minang usually call themselves "urang."  They are famous for being a matrilineal society with strong family relationships.

Minang is a Malay clan that grew in numbers over time as a result of the monarchical system and who adhere to a customary system characterized by the transmission of family lineage through women or matrilineal pathways, despite the fact that the culture is heavily influenced by Islamic teachings. 

The British explorer Thomas Stamford Raffles claimed that Minangkabau was the source of strength and origin of the Malay nation following an expedition to the interior of the country, where the Pagaruyung Kingdom was located. Minangkabau was the source of strength and the birthplace of the Malay nation, whose people would later spread throughout the Eastern Islands.

The Minang community has survived as the world's biggest matrilineal devoted group, with over a million members. As a result of the presence of customary density, this ethnic group has been implementing a proto-democratic system since before the advent of Hinduism, allowing them to settle crucial concerns and legal questions. According to Minangkabau traditions, the following phrase is true: Adat basandi syarak, syarak basandi Kitabullah (adat based on law, law based on the Koran), which literally translates as "custom based on Islamic teachings" (adat based on law, law based on the Koran).

Minangkabau people are well-known in the fields of trade, as professionals and thinkers, as well as in other fields. They are the successors of the historic traditions of the Malay and Srivijaya Kingdoms, and they are lively traders who like doing business with others. More than half of the total number of members of this community are located outside of the country. 

Jakarta, Bandung, Pekanbaru, Medan, Batam, Palembang, Bandar Lampung, and Surabaya are among the major places where the Minang diaspora may be found. Outside of Indonesia, the Minang ethnic community is concentrated in cities such as Kuala Lumpur, Seremban, Singapore, Jeddah, Sydney, and Melbourne, among other locations. It is the Minang people who have a unique food that is generally known as Padang cuisine, which is quite famous throughout Indonesia and even internationally.

Minangkabau Batik

The origin of this batik Minangkabau was considered to be China, which purportedly invaded Minangkabau during the Minangkabau Kingdom, which was based in Pagaruyung, Batusangkar, in the 16th century. This ancient style of batik was virtually forgotten during the Japanese occupation, but owing to the efforts of Wirda Hanim, this batik technique was reintroduced into the world in 1994. Wirda Hanim first saw this batik design being employed by multiple people of the Sumanik Nagari, X Koto District, Singkarak, Solok Regency, West Sumatra, and decided to investigate more. He is especially interested in rare batik and hopes to revive the traditional clay batik art, which is on the verge of extinction in its current form.

In the past, seahorses and hong birds have been used as clay batik Minangkabau motifs. Recently, designs from the Minangkabau culture, like siriah in carano, kaluak paku, batang kayu, and fans, have also been used.

New motifs were also introduced during this period, with inspiration derived from the richness of Minangkabau natural culture, such as the tabuik motif (ark), Jam Gadang, and Rumah Gadang, all of which were inspired by Minangkabau natural culture. In the Province of West Sumatra, there are now three locations for the production of clay batik, located in the cities of Padang, the South Coastal District, and the District of Dharmasraya, respectively. Each of these institutions has a unique style that is dependent on the region in which it is located; even in Dharmasraya, new themes such as the flower palm are being developed.

This Tanah Liek Batik Minangkabau is distinctive in that the coloring materials used are derived from natural sources such as clay, jengkol skin (Pithecellobium NETA), mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana), sap gambir (Uncaria gambir), rice straw (Oryza sativa), and Mahogany skin (Sweeta sweeta) and other natural pigments.

Minangkabau Religion 

While some believe Islam entered through the west coast, particularly in the Pariaman area, others believe it entered through the east coast. The Arcat (Aru and Rokan) and Indragiri areas on the east coast have also developed into Minangkabau port areas, and the Kampar and Batang Kuantan rivers have their origins in the Minangkabau interior. 

In society, there is a saying that says Adat manurun, Syarak mandaki (Adat passed down from interior to coast, while religion (Islam) passed from coast to interior), which is also associated with the mention of Siak people, which refers to people who are experts and diligent in Islam and is still used in the Minangkabau highlands to describe people who are experts and diligent in Islam.

Some archaeological evidence indicates that this society had adopted Buddhism prior to the widespread acceptance of Islam, particularly under the Srivijaya dynasty, Dharmasraya, and up to the reign of Adityawarman and his son Ananggawarman. Afterwards, with the rise of the Pagaruyung Kingdom, which had adopted Islam as the basis of its government system, the kingdom's structure was altered, although until the 16th century, Suma Oriental maintained that only one of the three Minangkabau kings had embraced Islam, a claim that has since been disproved. 

From approximately 1803, the arrival of the Minangkabau clerics Haji Poor, Haji Sumanik, and Haji Piobang from Mecca played a major role in the implementation of Islamic law in the Minangkabau interior. Though challenges came from local people still accustomed to traditional ways of life, the Padri War served as a climax to this conflict before there was widespread recognition that adat is based on the Qur'an. Despite this, the Qur'an has been a source of inspiration for Muslims for thousands of years.

Minangkabau Customs and Culture

According to Tambo, the Minangkabau traditional system was initially coined by two brothers, Datuk Ketumanggungan dan Datuk Perpatih Nan Sebatang, who were both born in the same year as the Minangkabau traditional system. Datta Ketumanggungan received the aristocratic Koto Piliang traditional system, whereas Datuk Perpatih inherited the egalitarian Bodi Caniago traditional system, which was passed down through the generations. Through this process, these two customary systems, known as harmony, have come to work well together and have become part of the system of the Minangkabau people, who live in the area.

Minangkabau society is built on three pillars, each of which contributes to and protects the integrity of the people's culture and customs. They are religious academics as well as smart and ninik mamak, and they are referred to as Tungku Tigo Sajarangan. The three of them are complementary to one another and are standing shoulder to shoulder at the same height. This means that a democratic and equitable Minangkabau society is one where the three pillars of the community work together to solve all of their problems together.

Minangkabau Language

The Minangkabau language is one of the sub-branches of the Austronesian language family, which includes the languages of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Some believe that the Minangkabau language is a dialect of Malay because of the many parallels in vocabulary and speech styles between it and Malay, while others believe that it is its own language distinct from Malay. Some believe that the Minangkabau language is a Proto-Malay language, but others disagree. There are already a lot of different dialects of the Minang language spoken by people in different parts of the world.

Aside from Sanskrit and Arabic, the Minang language also gained linguistic influences from Tamil and Persian, as well as Sanskrit and Arabic. Later, the Sanskrit and Tamil vocabularies discovered in multiple inscriptions in Minangkabau were transcribed using a variety of characters, including Dewanagari, Pallawa, and Kawi, to represent the words they contained. People are thought to have written in the Jawi script before switching to the Latin alphabet because Islam has become more popular.

Despite the fact that they speak their own language, the Minang people also communicate extensively in Malay and later Indonesian. The Tambo Minangkabau, which is the traditional historiography of the Minang people, is written in the Malay language and is considered to be part of old Malay literature, or Indonesian literature. It is written in the Malay language and is considered to be part of old Malay literature or Indonesian literature. 

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Riau Malay language variation was taught by the Dutch East Indies in the Minangkabau region, and it is now regarded as the mainstream language in the region, which is also spoken in the Johor region of Malaysia. In reality, the language taught in these Dutch schools is a dialect that has been impacted by the Minangkabau language dialects.

Traditional Minangkabau Culture

Minangkabau society has undergone significant transformations from the late nineteenth century. As old customs and societal patterns have changed, Islam has progressively assumed a more prominent position.

After the first Europeans arrived in the interior of the country in the 17th century, they discovered a collection of independent regions known as the nagari. However, although the royal family was still in power, their influence had already begun to wane.

Nagari was widely referred to as a 'village republic' by the original Dutch researchers. As it turns out, it's a type of small state, complete with its own political and legal authority. Minang adat (customary rules) are incredibly diverse, owing mostly to the initial division of governmental power in the country.

Minangkabau Clans

According to legend, each Minangkabau belonged to a lineage that descended from a female ancestor. This lineage (suku) can be thought of as a kind of clan. The boy was required to marry outside of his own clan. After that, they were expected to leave their home and move in with their husband.

Despite this, they weren't thought of as full members of their wife's family, and they did most of their work for their own tribe.The daughters were the successors of the clan.

Under the suku, there existed a complicated structure of successive sublevels that were referred to by hundreds of different names depending on where you lived in the world. The family, who owns (at least the ladies) and lives in a house, is always at the bottom of the social ladder, though.

Rumah Gadang : the Minangkabau House

A woman's home is her own property, which she shares with her children. Homes were divided into several rooms in ancient times, with each mother having her own room with a fireplace in which to dwell with her children and raise them. When a woman of the house got married, it was common for the family to build an addition on the side of the home to accommodate her.

It is estimated that a single house could accommodate 70 to 80 individuals who were all descended from the same ancestral mother at the time of her death. A long house of this type may still be seen in the village of Sulit Air, which is a good example of this type of architecture.

Even in the past, not all houses possessed the distinctive saddle-shaped roof that distinguishes them. Rumah gadang construction was really considered a luxury, and Adat forbade some segments of the people from constructing one.

Traditional Economy of the Minangkabau

In ancient times, the Minang people were the first farmers, subsisting solely on the production of rice in irrigated rice fields (sawah). As a result, the ownership of fields was a significant factor in determining a family's fortune.

Rice Fields were not owned by individuals, but rather by entire clans, which were governed in these affairs by senior female members of the clan. Ricefields and ancestral homes were regarded as harto pusako, or permanent holdings of the clan that could not be sold and could only be inherited by female members of the clan.

Traditionally, rice cultivation was an extremely labor-intensive task that began with the rainy season in November and December and continued for 6 or 7 months.

Beginning in the nineteenth century, the introduction of lucrative cash crops such as peppers and, more specifically, coffee has already begun to alter the predominance of women in the ownership of the most important economic assets, as such plantations were often considered harto pencarian, or individual properties that could be inherited more freely than other types of property.

Nonetheless, careful management of rice fields (via sharecropping or pawning) was critical to the preservation of the clan's status. For ambitious people, maneuvering to gain control of new fields (by leveraging the debts of other families or capturing the holdings of persons who had no descendants) was also extremely essential.