Why House Gadang Has A Leveled Home, Turns Out This Is The Reason
Why Does House Gadang Have a Leveled Top (Instagram @ihsancolank)

YOGYAKARTA - It cannot be ruled out that the house is one of the primary needs of humans. Without a human house will be cold, hot, and there will be no place to hide. From home, everything begins and ends. The house can describe how the people who live in it. In fact, it can prove the habits of people living in the area. Then why do houses have multilevel roofs?

Even so with traditional houses of West Sumatra. Traditional houses that are often found in the Solok, Padang Panjang, Pasaman, and other places are a sign of the unique traditions of West Sumatra. Not all areas can become areas where Minangkabau traditional houses are built. The reason is, only the area has the status of a nagari (village or kelurahan) which can be realized in this customary house.

So far, what we know as a traditional home in West Sumatra is Gadang or Godang. However, there are some kinds of traditional houses of West Sumatra known by the community. The function of the traditional house is for family gatherings, wedding parties, community deliberations, and the busyness of other associations.

However, as with the usual house, Gadang's house is also applied as a residential area for extended families, especially for women. In fact, the number of rooms available in this room rests on the large number of women in the family.

Based on the story, this ancestors originally sailed to the upstream of Batang Kampar. After arriving somewhere, the passengers and crew of the ship boarded the land. This Lancang was also pulled ashore so that the river water did not rot.

Lancang was then propagated with wood to stand strong. Then, the roof was given by hanging the screen on the rope that was connected to the mitigation pole. Next, because the screen that hangs is really heavy, the ropes compose a arch that resembles a gongjong.

This Lancang is a temporary residential area. Next, the passengers of the boat made houses for the residential area that resembled the shop. After the ancestors of the Minangkabau people spread, the form of a starch that continues to be made as a characteristic of their house.

The Unique Side of West Sumatra Traditional Homes

It cannot be ignored that West Sumatra's traditional house is really easy to identify because its shape is unique and distinctive. The ends of the roof tapered like a buffalo's horn and curled down in the middle component.

The uniqueness of this traditional West Sumatra house, starting from an architectural, manifestation, or color perspective, makes it interesting to visit. No kidding, traditional houses that exist today are often the destinations of domestic or foreign travelers. In fact, not a few of them are proud to take fun pictures in front of them and upload them on social media.

Not only that, the uniqueness of Gadang's house building has inspired architecture in other parts of the country. For example, the building The House of the Five Senses which began operating in 1996 as the main gate of the Effeling Entertainment Park in the Netherlands. The building was designed by Ton van de Ven which adopted the design of Gadang's house

Not enough there, the design of Gadang's house was also adopted by Malaysia. At that time, Malaysia demonstrated a pavilion building in the World Shanghai Expo 2010.

There is still some uniqueness in West Sumatra's traditional house. Below, we will discuss in more detail what the uniqueness of this traditional house is.

The Shape is Similar to a Boat

Horn roof

Tiding of Tidings

Wood that Holds Termap

Don't use paku

Earthquake Hold

Pumbung Pangan Separately from Home

Ideal Hometop for Tropical Areas

After understanding why houses have multilevel roofs, see other interesting news on VOI, it's time to revolutionize news!


The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)