Achehnese, Sumatra:

Batak, Sumatra:

Minangkabau, Sumatra:

Riau Malay,Sumatra:

do you have pics of houses of the toraja people in sulawesi? those look awesome...

the ones in minangkabau and batak look the coolest

yeah talk about the troajan homes

nice pics!

Torajan, South Sulawesi:

Gorontalo, North Sulawesi:


I think the best house is belong to Minangkabau of Sumatra

yes minangkabau are among my favorite of the whole malay race! i love matrilineal societys

Minangkabau is my favorite too!! very uniqe and beutiful architectural

um interesting.
Why does it have such long legs?

iono, but i read the minang homes made to resemble the horns of the carabao and the toraja roof made to resemble the hull of a boat!

is this true?

what about that legend of the hungry carabao race, can someone tell the minang story?

well i heard it rains alot and there is alot of Flood in Indonesian . I suppose that once reason.

in cordillera province, the ifugao tribe built their homes on poles to protect from the wild animals!

how to make a traditional ifugao home:

http://www.ifugaos.org/interactive/images/...IfugaoHouse.jpg

http://interactive.ifugaos.org/

hee.. u know about that story? nice to know there are filipinos who knew indonesian legends
btw, is carabao filipino for buffalo? in indo, we have similar expression for buffalo, we called it kerbau.

i think the minang carabao story runs like this:
back in 1300s, javanese army from majapahit empire invaded west sumatra. during a lull in fighting, the local ppl gave the majapahit army a challange: both sides will engage in a bullfight. if the javanese won, the west sumatrans will surrender peacefully. if the west sumatrans won, the javanese have to withdraw. confidently, the javanese agreed.

for this fight, javanese furnished a huge strong female buffalo. however, the west sumatrans furnished only a calf (child-bull). but, the calf had not been fed for days, and the west sumatrans attached blades on its snout. so, when the fight started, the hungry calf headed to the belly of the javanese buffalo, and disembowelled her. as result, the javanese withdrew.

that's why the minangs are very fond of bullhorn-shape since it was the savior of minang ppl. according to legend, the name "minangkabau" itself came from the words "minang" = victory, and "kabau" = buffalo.



i note that ifugao house is called "bale". that's similar to indonesian word "balai" which refers to a gathering-house. so many similarities between philippines and indonesia

http://www.imagesphilippines.com/images/010803_165419.jpg
Bahay kubo
http://www.summsoft.com/people/jim/Manila/web/Squatters.jpg
Squatters

I vaguely remember when I was small and visiting Torajaland, the local told me that their boat-shaped house (called Tongkonan) is to remind them that they came with a boat from a far far away place somewhere out/up there in the Pleiades..

Sumatra has a lot of wild animal: snake, leech(blood sucker), tiger and even elephant. So that's why traditional culturally they tend to create big house so accomodate a lot big family and relative. I think that's one of the reason beside we have a never ending rain on wet season (october-april) long leg have a lot to avoid flooding.

Home sweet home:


Sweet village house:


Welcome home:

Ordinary people still live in those houses? OR maybe they are used only as local government office or for tourism?

wow.
I'm guessing you must be pretty damn rich to live ihouse like that.

i used to be very interested in minangs! hehe so i used to read about them!

and carabao is what they call the buffalo in the philippines!

that is so cool to hear of similarities between even the anmist igorot tribes of the philippines and indonesian ppl! u know um Igorots are an unconquerable tribel ppl who live in the central mountains of Luzon island. it is very far away and they have been secluded for a long time & yet u were still able to discover some similarities?! i think that is amazing.

well in mindanao, there are also some unconquerable tribes, but these are muslim practioners known collectively as "moros" and one tribe of the moros called Maranao make their houses like this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/buw...aranao_home.jpg

the decoration is called "Okir" and refers to the Maranao design in their carving, weaving and metal works. It comes from the word "okkil," which means "to carve." It can be seen in the colorful malong woven by the Maranao and in the old houses or torogans of datus and sultans of Lanao, Mindanao.

any similarities still?

^ geez, dalawapo, u now a lot bout indonesia don't u. In indonesian language, to carve is called ukir, almost the same with maranao okkir. i think moro language is very similar to malay

Yes, some ordinary people stil live in house like that in west sumatra, look at this house is in village and occupied by people, this is normal size house in Riau and West Sumatra only things in West Sumatra they better architecture on their roof. They just pay for the house since the land is belong to family from generation to generation.

Also in outside West Sumatra, Minangkabau when they build their business property they will create the building just like this type of the house whther it is restaurant, or shop house.

Remember Riau and West Sumatra each of this province only has 4 million habitant in which each of this province about the size of java island in which 120 million people live there.

^ i remember land in sumatra was ( and is) very cheap! my house when i lived in palembang was like a palace! but when i moved to jakarta, the money we got by selling that house was only enough to by a modest house much smaller than the one in palembang..

Shouldn't sell your house in Palembang then.. so once in a while, you can be a young prince in your palace...

The price of big house like that in Sumatra perhaps equal to the price pf 2 bed room house in good location in Jakarta such as Kemang, Pondok Indah etc

isnt palembang the seat of sri-vijaya empire? is it not considered an important area anymore if land is cheap?

that's right, dalawapo. my house was just 15 minutes drive from Bukit Siguntang, the assumed "capital" of the Srivijaya Empire. But, that kingdom had disappeared 1000 years ago!
Palembang is important for South Sumatra province, but land there is way cheap compared to Java, bcoz there are few ppl there (2 million) while in Jakarta, which is about the same size as palembang, there are 12 million ppl, so demand for land in Jakarta is high, and therefore price is higher :genius:

how come u say "assumed capital"? was sri-vijaya real? i read it is either way... like no definitive proof or whatever?

^ no, srivijaya is real as there's humongous historical evidence to support its existance (even found in india, cambodia, malaysia, thailand, china, java, etc)

what's not sure is where this empire had its capital. some said its in Jambi, 200 km north of Palembang. But, most historians agree that the capital is most likely located just 15 minuts drive from my old house, in Bukit Siguntang, bcoz that's where they found the most historical specimens (coins, pottery, building foundations, food remnants, precious metal, jewellery, etc). So, that's why palembang is "assumed" as Srivijaya capital, although no direct written evidence had been found to support it.

LOL if u only read this part, it seems so funny!

anyways, in philippines our central islands are called "Visayas" and some ppl say that those islanders are descendant of fleeing citizens of the sri-vijaya empire when it was dying. but iono about it. the reason some speculate is because V is not native letter in the philippine languages, so we also call the Visayas region, the "Bisayas" and the word does not have a clear origin or meaning. but anyway we also have another legend of the origins, it is about 10 datus who were escaping some head datu of borneo island and they eventually settle much of the philippines... but this is in the 1000s time; the anthroplogist trace the earliest austronesian settling the philippines from the north. so we have origin traces from both North and South. the former is the earliest and latter is latest.

A Shinto shrine in Japan:

Besides a general resemblance to Chinese architecture, the extreme arched roofs of Indonesian houses are very similar to the way houses are built in Fujian, China.
I wonder if there is a common prehistorical source for these similarities.

The secondary capital of Srivijaya was Kedah in the Malay peninsula.

a style of Shinto shrine in Japan kind a similar with Riau Malay house below:


and also Gorontalo house of North Sulawesi.

If i am not mistaken traditional house of Thai resemble similarity also with Riau Malay Sumatra house.

Traditional house from Papua province, different because it formed like a circle and has conical roof, unlike traditional houses which is built like a square and has atap roof

What a beautiful traditional house.

The roofs on Asian architecture is very similar...I think there is a common prehistoric source for this

yeah that is fascinating me, my history book at school said indonesian initially coming from place called yunan near border China and Vietnam right now who emigrate to south around 500 - 1000 BC.

thanks for pointing out our squatters...

but i consider that one of the greatest feats in architecture... on the highways you can see them... the three storey shanty-house... it's amazing they don't topple over... not one, not two, but tthree storeys! most shanties aren't even two storeys...

man the papuans got some nice traditional architecture!

The one in Riau Malay and Minangkabau is nicer

how often do tornadoes/hurricanes/typoon/earth quakes & other natural disasters etc hit indonesian islands?

^ very rare bcoz most populated areas in Indonesia is located in inland seas protected from tornados that often formed in Pacific or Indian Oceans.. I hear Philippines is a different case, often hit by big tornados, like I think it is NOW being hit by a tornado..

the matrilineal adat actually is not only practiced by minangkabau but also negeri sembilan state in malaysia peninsula still practiced this culture, even the traditional house of negeri sembilan much resemble like in minangkabau of west sumatra, people from this area can trace back their root from minangkabau

house of negeri sembilan folks

^^ Yupo, the roof is just like my grandma's house in the kampung in Negeri Sembilan, though its nowhere near as fancy of course.

Wooohh, the curved roof 'Kerbau-style'. Remind of my uncle ancestral home in Kuala Pilah, Negri Sembilan.

actually negeri sembilan is not only home of minangkabau folk but also home of the staunchy patrilineal folk of mandailing/mandheling. it was the story if during padri war whrere the troop of under tuanku lelo the defected officer of tuanku rao troop (pre-padri?) maraude area between kampar river, padang lawas until toba lake. what made the mandheling folk emigrate acrossing the melacca strait and settle to place now be called negeri sembilan.

Well, Mandailings had long being assimilated into local N9 (short for Negeri Sembilan) Minang culture. As Bugisnese, Mandailings,Javanese & Boyans perfectly melded & fully assimilised by local Malay culture, while Minangs in N9 effectively survived with their culture intact. This is even evident in today's Malaysia Minangs.

that's true, actually mandailing, javanese, bugis and boyan (people from bawean island) are already meld and assimilated with malay culture in malaysia. currently they already speak using malay dialect and adopt malay culture.

but what case for malaysia is not happenng into indonesia, since indonesia not using majority javanese as country culture and official language, eventhough most the goverment mostly being controlled by javanese yet bcoz the language being spoken used are bahasa indonesia so the culture adoption for each ethnicity still being intake. that's what we called bhinneka tunggal ika meaning one in the diversity.

whether this is good or not it depend on the person how he view himself in the relation of nationhood, and honestly i don't know just time will telling us. in some small case there is awareness of ethnicity and religion division among indonesian itself to put it on first place instead of the nation awareness. overall indonesian success to maintain his cohessiveness and the pride of the citizen of this country as the first place.

I think a counrty like Indonesia has no choice but to adopt multiethnic ideology like Pancasila. Malaysia only has one major native ethnic group, the Malays (except some scaterred Dayak tribes in East Malaysia). The Javanese, Bugis, n others r really tiny proportion of population, so easily absorbed into Malay culture. Not the case with Chinese n Indians who are quite numerous. But the Chinese had learnt the lesson of 1969 riots n Indians r too few, so Malaysia is really a Negara Melayu Islam Beraja (Malay-Muslim-monarchy) state where Malays r the dominant ethnic.

Unlike Malaysia, Indonesia is way too diverse. no one ethnic group can rule the country on its own. If Pancasila is taken away, gone are the safeguard that maintain multiculturalism in our country. The clear way to maintain Indonesian unity is to defend Pancasila as an eternal national ideology.

House of Karo Batak people north Sumatra:

Not house of Sumatra.....just dont know where to put the pic

hv read about Istana Maimun ( or Maimunah ?? ) in Sumatra. its very beautiful....