Gonjong Roof

When you visit Minagkabau, West Sumatra region, you'll find gonjong-roofed houses and buildings: government buildings, hotels, restaurants. The word Gonjong means buffalo horn-shaped which was formerly described in ancient Minangkabau literatures as the roof of Rumah Gadang (Rumah= house, Gadang=Big) where a big family of the Kingdom lives.

There are two kinds of Gonjong- roofed Rumah Gadang : Koto Pialang and Budi Caniago. Koto Pialang gonjong consists of 3 hornes ( 3 right gonjongs, 1 front gonjong , 1 gonjong at the back ) which can be found in Luhak Tanah Datar area, while Budi Caniago Gonjong has 2 gonjongs on the right, 2 on the left ,1 gonjong at the front dan 1 gonjong at the back.


These gonjongs are taken from the Minangkabau Village in Padang Panjang where you can find all kinds of traditional houses in Minangkabau.

90 kilometres from Padang, you can find the Jam Gadang-- the Big Ben of Bukit tinggi-- which has tiny gonjong roof top.

If we drive to Batu Sangkar from Bukit Tinggi, there is Pagaruyung Palace .The original building was built by the Minangkabau kingdom founded by Adityawarman in the 14th century, but it was destroyed by fire in 1976. A replica of the palace has since been built in its place .

The bull's horn shaped roof stems from the legend of Minangkabau.

Once upon a time, Javanese Majapahit soldiers came to West Sumatra to conquer the area. The locals challanged the Majapahit folks to a bullfight (bull vs bull). If the Javanese bull wins, they will happily became part of Majapahit. If locals' bull wins, the Majapahit soldiers must leave.

Confidently, the Majapahit soldiers brought a strong female buffalo with heavy horns. On the other side, the locals brought a small baby bull with knifes attached to its head. The Majapahit soldiers laughed at the small opponent. However, when the fight started, the baby bull immediately ran into the belly of the big female bull, trying to suck milk from her nipples. In the process, the knifes attached to the baby bull's head disembowelled the big bull. Ever since, the locals called their area Minangkabau (victory of the bull) and adopted the bull-shaped roof forms that is so characteristic of the area today .

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One of the datuks (the head of the clan) says that the three gonjongs symbolizes three parties : government, the religous leaders or the house of represntatives, and the Wise. As the Minang people believe in the wise saying "Tiga tali sapilin" or "Tiga api sarancang" which basically means to make a good governeance, we have to include those three parties.

Interested in visiting Ranah Minang (Minang Land)?