Rumah Gadang: Beautifully Built Big House

Rumah Gadang at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah

Home is where the heart is, some might say. Well, these big houses don't serve merely as a residence for a large number of family, but also a hall for family meetings and various ceremonial activities. And Rumah Gadang literally means big house in Minangkabau, West Sumatra Province. Not only for its physical size, the grandeur also refers for its functionality.

Rumah Gadang is a traditional house that reflects the whole aspects of Minangkabau philosophy.The construction of a house is subject to specific regulations, laid down by the ancestors and formalized in adat. The construction and maintenance of a rumah gadang is the responsibility of ninik mamak, the elder male blood-relatives of the matrilineal descent group that owns and builds it. With their matrilineal culture, Rumah Gadang in passed down from mother to daughter.

Not every inch of land in West Sumatra is eligible as a building site of Rumah Gadang. The traditional house is considered sacred, and can only be build in several districts which have earned high status called nagari. Initially, Rumah Gadang could not also be build outside Minangkabau, despite the custom of rantau of which the men have to travel far to earn their living. Hence, people of Minangkabau living outside West Sumatra have to periodically return to their homeland, with the money they have earned remitted for the sake of their Rumah Gadang.

The biggest Rumah Gadang is Istana Basa Pagaruyuang. Istana basa itself means big castle, and Pagaruyuang or Pagaruyung refers to an old kingdom in West Sumatera.

Istana Basa Pagaruyuang at night 

The first thing that may catch our attention is the dramatic curved roof structure with multi-tiered, upswept gables of Rumah Gadang. Its roof finials are formed from thatch bound by decorative metal bindings and drawn into points said to resemble buffalo horns, as buffalo is the symbolic animal of Minangkabau. Hence, the Rumah Gadang in local terms are also called as rumah bagonjong,which means horn-spired roof house.

Rumah gadang is a long house, rectangular in plan. The house floor is set on wooden piles that can reach as high as 3 meters off the ground. It is largely constructed of wood, with an exception being the rear longitudinal wall which is a plain lattice bamboo woven. The roof is of a truss and cross-beam construction and is traditionally covered with thatch from the fiber of the sugar palm (ijuk).

Wooden walls, pillars, and ceilings of Rumah Gadang are embellished with colorful bas-relief carved wooden motifs that reflects their philosophy of alam takambang jadi guru (nature is our teacher).
There are 94 different motifs identified, of which 37 refer to flora, 28  refer to fauna, and 29 refer to humans and their activities or behavior.

Rumah Tenun Pusako Pandai Sikek

The elements of a Rumah Gadang includes:

• 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 or middle band on the periphery of the house
• salangko, wall enclosing space under a house that has been built on stilts

The pillars of the ideal Rumah Gadang are arranged in five rows which run the length of the house. These rows divide the interior into four long spaces called lanjar. The lanjar at the rear of the house is divided into bedrooms. Rumah Gadang must have odd numbers of room, with 5 as minimum number and 9 as the the ideal number. The other lanjar are used as a common area, called the labuah gajah (elephant road).

While each married woman gets to stay with her husband in a designated room, old women and children sleep in a big room near the kitchen. Young maidens sleep in a room on the other end of the house. Adolescent boys traditionally live in the surau, a small mosque built near Rumah Gadang. 

Cooking and storage areas are often in separate buildings. A couple of rangkiang (rice barns) also placed in front of the house.

Rumah Gadang Sungai Baringin Payakumbuah

While most Rumah Gadang actually functions as residential, some are open for public. There is even one available in the capital city of Jakarta. You can visit one (or all) of the following:


Rumah Gadang at West Sumatra Pavillion - Taman Mini Indonesia Indah
Jl. Raya Taman Mini, Jakarta Timur, Jakarta Province (Phone: +62 21 87792078)

-6.3027755, 106.8946458

Istano Basa Pagaruyuang
Batusangkar, Tanah Datar Regency, West Sumatra Province 

-0.4711641, 100.6222638

Rumah Tenun Pusako Pandai Sikek 

Sepuluh Kota, Tanah Datar Regency, West Sumatra Province (Phone: +62 752 498193)
-0.40389, 100.39494


Rumah Pusako Sungai Baringin
Sungai Baringin, Payakumbuh, West Sumatra Province

Where it comes from...

Map of Indonesia, that's West Sumatra Province highlighted in red