Wednesday, June 25, 2014

A Roadtrip to West Sumatera - Part 2

Continuing from my previous post on Padang here... We just left Bukittinggi and headed to Batu Sangkar to visit the iconic Pagaruyung Palace.

My travelmates in front of the grandest Mingakabau palace - the Pagaruyuang.
Pagaruyung Palace

Rumah gadang, or also known as a grand palace is an icon of West Sumatera and can be found in many parts of the province. They are solid wooden structures, beautifully carved and has sweeping roofs with pointed ends. This is also known as the Minangkabau style.



The pointed roofs were believed by the Minangs as the reminiscent of the legendary water buffalo that helped won for Sumatera in a fight against the Javanese bull. I was fortunate enough to visit the grandest and most distinctive of the rumah gadang at Batu Sangkar.

Its shape has the likeness of the buffalo horns, no?
Pagaruyung (also Pagarruyung, Pagar Ruyung and, Malayapura or Malayupura) [Wikipedia] was the seat of the Minangkabau kings of Western Sumatra. There is little known about it and I've read that it was also a Malay kingdom. This palace has 5 stacked sweeping roofs, eleven sharp horns, and three storeys, the biggest of its kind. It is actually a replica of the original one which was burnt down due to fire back in the 1800s during a war. Sadly it was burnt again in 1861. The original palace was called Istana Si Linduang Bulan.
It is a huge, colorful, and heavily carved palace. Even the ceilings are lavishly decorated!
It was not until 1974, that the government decided to initiate the reconstruction of the once grand palace as symbol of the great Minangkabau land by building a replica of the Si Linduang Bulan Palace on a piece of land inherited from the kings’s family. The original site was actually on a hill named Bukit Batu Patah. However, disaster strike again and the palace burnt down to the ground after being struck by lightning in 2007. Haha. Now, the newly rebuilt replica can be visited by the public near the roadside at Batusangkar. It is easily seen while on the way to Lake Singkarak. [source]
Now the palace is a museum that showcases the arts and culture of the Minangkabau heritage.
We were lucky that the palace was open that day and we were able to enter until the third floor. There were many tourists taking pictures and trying out the traditional costume of a wedding gown. Initially Nur and I wanted to try them but I kinda chickened out when I found out that Yayan (who is a Minang) will get married in those clothes. Heck... felt awkward wearing wedding gowns when you don't know who'll you end up marrying to! What if... errr.. nevermind. :P  *terlebih fikir*
The Minangkabau brides... wannabe. Hehehe
After looking around the first floor, we headed to the second floor which was just a wide space with more intricate wood carvings. It was only on the almost empty third floor that we started to rest and enjoy the natural breeze coming in from the window.

Cooling down at the windowsills of the third floor! The view was awesome!
Having our fill of the sights around the palace, we then headed down to go to our next destination.

The palace in many ways seemed slanted to me. Or has my eyesight been tricking me?
Our final stop before heading to Padang would be the unnamed hill in Danau Singkarak. I already posted about that here. So this ends my posts on my Padang trip. ^___^

Before closing this chapter. it's best if I end it with a group photo to immortalize the amazing memories I had there. 

Thanks travel-mates!! From left - Syahrial, Siti Nur, yours truly, and Yayan! 
I do hope we'll have another trip together in the future! I had the bestest of time! Thank you all for making it happen! :)

~ The End (for another New Beginning) ~



3 comments:

kak ina kl said... [Reply]

salam ramadhan jard
Masa pergi dulu tengah renovate..sayang kan

Jard The Great said... [Reply]

@ kak ina kl... salam ramadhan jugak kak. ahh.. ramai gak yg cakap masa diorg pergi, tempat tu tutup. hehe

Wahyu Alam said... [Reply]

Something, harus datang ke Madura nih om! :D