Song in the Sumatran Highlands

Introduction to the Minangkabau World

The Alam Minangkabau (Minangkabau World) is a conceptual place. The mainland part of the contemporary Indonesian province of West Sumatra is part of the Alam Minangkabau, but the boundaries of the Minangkabau world extend beyond provincial borders that are an artifice of state making and politics. It is important to note that the Alam Minangkabau is not coterminous with the province of West Sumatra: the Mentawai island chain that is also part of the province is not populated by people who identify as Minangkabau. It is populated by an Indigenous group who call themselves the Mentawai.  

Historically, the Minangkabau World was split into two parts: the darek (cultural heartland) and the rantau (the areas of migration outside the darek). Those distinctions, along with a sense of the spillage beyond the provincial boundaries--more conceptual than accurate--can be seen on the following map. 


The Bukit Barisan, which literally means a line of mountains, runs the length of Sumatra from its northern tip to its south. With its towering volcanoes--including Mount Marapi and Mount Singgalang--and jagged mountain ridges, the Bukit Barisan splits the Alam Minangkabau into a narrow coastal plain and a highland region with a series of fertile valleys and crater lakes. These map loosely onto the rantau and darek respectively. 

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