Bukit Tinggi Indonesia

“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	Fast food dinner stalls	Nasi Goreng (more)	Tonga (more)
Mt. Merapi			Mt. Singgalang (more)
Remains of a Dutch fort (info)			Bukittingi rooftops
Jl Ahmad Yani north	Jam Gadang (Clock tower)	Statue of Imam Bonjol	Jl Ahmad Yani south
Bukittingi museum (1, 2)			Dadia Campua, local dish (fruit, yoghurt, oats, jaggery)
Minankabau wedding set and attire (more)			Sumatran elephant in zoo
Pasar Atas, a Vegetable and Meat Market in Bukittinggi
Mounds of dried fish (1, 2)	Dozens of species	Dozens of stalls	Dried fish seller (more)
Freshly killed & live fish	Just point and buy (more)	Assorted seafood	Hello visitor
Women run lots of stalls	Brisk business	Quartered sting ray	Fish eyes staring at ya!
Red meat section	From a kill this morning	A choice cut?	Assorted innards
Cow boots against the wall	Severed leg	More cow boots in the sun	Assorted innards
Fowl for sale	Pick the fattest bird	Chicken's endgame	Slaughter and quarter
Ducks in a sack	Skinning fresh killed chicken	Produce seller	Heaps o' snacks
Vegetables (more)	Heaps o' chillies	Chilli paste	Grinding chillies
A traditional Minangkabau Dance Performance
12 lively dances performed to energetic music	At Medan Nan Balinduang, a cultural center in town	Peragaan Penganten, (with a wedding couple)	The bride
Tari Pasambahan	Tari Pasambahan	Tari Bagurau	Tari Bagurau
Aluang Bunian	Tari Indang	Tari Indang	Tari Piring
Day Trip 1: East and South of Bukittingi
House on a plantation	Avocado (tree)	Cinnamon bark (tree, sticks)	Chillies
Cheekoo fruit	Cacao pods (tree)	Drying cacao beans	Holy cacao!
Cloves (tree)	Lemon grass	Soybeans (Squash)	Eggplant
Basil (Tulsi)	Turmeric (root)	Our guide (middle) with one plantation's owners	Plantation owner
Yellow hibiscus	Poinsettia	Coffee mill, water powered	Grinding coffee beans
Fish farms in the village	Woman working	A Minangkabau home	Padang-style lunch for two!
A family at lunch	Sanskrit in pallava script	600-700 years old (1, 2), (from kingdom of Adityawarman)	Meeting Room (more)
Giggly girls	Queen's house (front, back)	Ceremonial drum	King's palace (being restored after 2007 lightening fire)
Rau-Rau Village	Minangkabau design	Typical rooftops (former rice store)	Papaya
Inside a home (exterior)	Bollywood fans here!	Room adjacent to kitchen (more)	Kitchen (doorway to it)
Another house	Another interior	Kitchen fire on sheet of iron	Modern Minangkabau house
Average village house	The inheritance of women	Another old house (1, 2)	Women in the village (more)
School teacher (more)	Pausing for a smile	Two boys	Schoolgirl
Balimbing village house	Another house	Village scene	Rice paddies near Balimbing
Rooster
Lake Singkarak (more)	Kids having a *great* time	Soursop fruit	A small river
Rice paddies (1, 2)	Water intensive crop	Terrace farming	Handicrafts souviner shop in Pandai Sikek village
India-inspired dresses & designs	Young weaver	Wood carving	A typical big mosque
Day Trip 2: West of Bukittingi
Koto Gadang village	Koto Gadang street	Meeting House (more)	Close-up of wood carving
Fruit bats (1, 2)	Filigree silverwork	Landscape w/ village (more)	Roasting peanuts
Lake Maninjau (more)	Volcanic lake (1, 2)	Fishermen (1, 2)	Caldera formed 52K years ago
Minangkabau house overlooking lake (1, 2)	Mid-afternoon light	Rice fields by the lake	Rice and coconuts
In a volcano's caldera	Rice - almost ready	Long-tailed monkey	Weaver-bird nest
Making (unrefined) sugar from sugarcane
Fresh cut sugarcane	Big juicer	Boiling in large vats	Sugarcane husk is fuel
Thickening juice	Off the fire	Poured into cups	Unrefined sugar (jaggery)!
www.shunya.net/Pictures/Indonesia/Bukittinggi/Bukittinggi.htm