Bukittingi, Indonesia Click on thumbnails below for additional pictures.
“In your marriage, who is the boss?” our driver, Arman, asked in a playfully provocative tone, like he was setting up the punchline of a joke.
My partner and I looked at each other, laughed, and shrugged. Arman belonged to the Minangkabau, the society recognized among anthropologists as the world’s largest and most stable surviving matriarchy (though some prefer to call it a gylany, matrix, matrifocal or matricentric society, or something else to avoid conjuring images of mythical Amazons). Knowing this, I presumed his question was part of a routine entertainment for tourists.
“For us it is the woman who is boss,” he continued, predictably. “The woman has all the privileges; she owns everything. The men, we own nothing.” (READ MORE)
A Bukittinggi evening
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Fast food dinner stalls
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Nasi Goreng (more)
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Tonga (more)
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Mt. Merapi
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Remains of a Dutch fort (info)
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Mt. Singgalang (more)
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Bukittingi rooftops
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Jl Ahmad Yani north
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Jam Gadang (Clock tower)
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Statue of Imam Bonjol
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Jl Ahmad Yani south
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Minankabau wedding set
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Dadia Campua, local dish
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Sumatran elephant in zoo
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Pasar Atas, a Vegetable and Meat Market in Bukittinggi |
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Dozens of species
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Dozens of stalls
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Dried fish seller (more)
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Freshly killed & live fish
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Just point and buy (more)
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Assorted seafood
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Hello visitor
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Women run lots of stalls
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Brisk business
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Quartered sting ray
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Fish eyes staring at ya!
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Red meat section
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From a kill this morning
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A choice cut?
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Assorted innards
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Cow boots against the wall
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Severed leg
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More cow boots in the sun
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Assorted innards
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Fowl for sale
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Pick the fattest bird
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Chicken's endgame
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Slaughter and quarter
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Ducks in a sack
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Skinning fresh killed chicken
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Produce seller
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Heaps o' snacks
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Vegetables (more)
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Heaps o' chillies
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Chilli paste
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Grinding chillies
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A traditional Minangkabau Dance Performance |
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12 lively dances performed
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At Medan Nan Balinduang,
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Peragaan Penganten,
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The bride
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Tari Pasambahan
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Tari Pasambahan
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Tari Bagurau
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Tari Bagurau
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Aluang Bunian
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Tari Indang
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Tari Indang
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Tari Piring
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Day Trip 1: East and South of Bukittingi |
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House on a plantation
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Avocado (tree)
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Chillies
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Cheekoo fruit
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Cacao pods (tree)
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Drying cacao beans
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Holy cacao!
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Cloves (tree)
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Lemon grass
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Soybeans (Squash)
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Eggplant
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Basil (Tulsi)
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Turmeric (root)
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Our guide (middle) with
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Plantation owner
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Yellow hibiscus
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Poinsettia
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Coffee mill, water powered
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Grinding coffee beans
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Fish farms in the village
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Woman working
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A Minangkabau home
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Padang-style lunch for two!
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A family at lunch
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600-700 years old (1, 2), (from
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Meeting Room (more)
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Giggly girls
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Ceremonial drum
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King's palace (being restored
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Rau-Rau Village
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Minangkabau design
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Typical rooftops
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Papaya
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Inside a home (exterior)
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Bollywood fans here!
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Room adjacent to kitchen
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Kitchen (doorway to it)
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Another house
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Another interior
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Kitchen fire on sheet of iron
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Modern Minangkabau house
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Average village house
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The inheritance of women
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Women in the village (more)
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School teacher (more)
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Pausing for a smile
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Two boys
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Schoolgirl
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Balimbing village house
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Another house
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Village scene
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Rice paddies near Balimbing
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Rooster
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Kids having a *great* time
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Soursop fruit
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A small river
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Water intensive crop
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Terrace farming
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Handicrafts souviner shop
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India-inspired dresses & designs
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Young weaver
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Wood carving
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A typical big mosque
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Day Trip 2: West of Bukittingi |
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Koto Gadang village
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Koto Gadang street
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Meeting House (more)
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Close-up of wood carving
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Filigree silverwork
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Landscape w/ village (more)
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Roasting peanuts
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Minangkabau house
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Mid-afternoon light
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Rice fields by the lake
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Rice and coconuts
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In a volcano's caldera
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Rice - almost ready
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Long-tailed monkey
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Weaver-bird nest
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Making (unrefined) sugar from sugarcane |
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Fresh cut sugarcane
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Big juicer
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Boiling in large vats
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Sugarcane husk is fuel
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Thickening juice
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Poured into cups
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Unrefined sugar (jaggery)!
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