The Minang community in Malaysia has plans to set up a Rumah Gadang, or a large house with horn-like roof, in Gombak, Kuala Lumpur as part of efforts to preserve the Minangkabau culture overseas.
“The wish to build the Gadang house has partly materialized through the purchase of a 2 hectare plot of land in Gombak,” said chairman of the Minangkabau Community Union (PIKMM) Buchari Ibrahim on the sidelines of a familial gathering of the Minang community in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday evening.
Buchari said that the union was now in the process of arranging a land ownership certificate.
According to Buhari, the community has 20,000 Malaysian Ringgit to settle the paperwork for the Rumah Gadang.
“Minang people in Jakarta, Surabaya as well as those in West Sumatra have lent their support to the construction of the Rumah Gadang in Malaysia,” he was quoted as saying by Antara news wire.
Also present at the Sunday meeting was an official from the Indonesian embassy, Rusdi MA, and hundreds of Minang people living and working in the country.
Two artists from West Sumatra, Lepay and Bunda (Rafflesia) had been invited to enliven the gathering.
"Songs and pantun [poetic quatrains] recited by Lepay and Bunda, serve to quench the people's longing of homecoming,” said Uni, a waiter at a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, who attended the gathering.
Another union committee member, Syafrinaldi Sa’ad, said that thousands of Minang people were living in the country. The union counts more than 1000 households within its membership.
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