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BUKITTINGGI |
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The gorgeous mountainous landscape, soaring rice terraces and easily
accessible traditional culture make the Minang highlands a justly
popular stop on any trip through Sumatra. The highlands consist of three
large valleys, with BUKITTINGGI , a bustling hill town, the
administrative and commercial centre of the whole district. The
surrounding area holds plenty of attractions, including craft villages,
a rafflesia reserve, the beautiful Harau Canyon, and some fine examples
of Minang culture. Located to the west of the main highland area, Danau
Maninjau is rapidly developing as an appealing travellers' destination.
The highlands around Bukittinggi are the cultural heartland of the
Minangkabau (Minang) people. The Minang are staunchly matrilineal, one
of the largest such societies extant, and Muslim. The most visible
aspect of their culture is the distinctive architecture of their homes,
with massive roofs soaring skywards at either end (to represent the
horns of a buffalo). Typically, three or four generations of one family
would live in one large house built on stilts, the rumah gadang ("big
house") or rumah adat ("traditional house"), a wood-and-thatch structure
often decorated with fabulous wooden carvings. In front of the line of
sleeping rooms, a large meeting room is the focus of the social life of
the house. Outside the big house, small rice barns, also of traditional
design, hold the family stores.
The Town
A few hundred metres to the north of the Clock Tower, Fort de Kock
(daily 8am-7pm; Rp1500, plus Rp350 for the museum) was built by the
Dutch in 1825 and is linked by a footbridge to the park, Taman Bundo
Kanduang, on the hill on the other side of Jalan A Yani; there's little
left of the original fort but some old cannons and parts of the moats.
From here you can see Gunung Merapi, on the left, and the much more
dramatic cone-shaped Gunung Singgalang to the right. The park's museum
is housed in a traditional rumah gadang, and features clothing, musical
instruments, textiles and models of traditional houses. En route you'll
pass through the the abysmally inhumane zoo.
Much more pleasant is a trip to Panorama Park (daily 7am-7pm; Rp500),
perched on a lip of land overlooking the sheer cliff walls down into
Ngarai Sianok Canyon, the best Bukittinggi sight by far. Beneath the
park stretch 1400m of Japanese tunnels (Rp500) and rooms built with
local slave labour during World War II as a potential fortress. You can
venture down into these dank, miserable depths, although there's nothing
really to see. The Ngarai Sianok Canyon is part of a rift valley that
runs the full length of Sumatra - the canyon here is 15km long and
around 100m deep with a glistening river wending its way along the
bottom.
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