Minangkabau is the name of a tribe living within the West Sumatra province of Indonesia. This tribe is known for being the most important matriarchal tribe in the whole world, with a population of over 4 million. But this will not be the one interesting fact about this ethnic group. The name “Minangkabau”, a mixture of the words “minang” meaning victory and “kabau” meaning water buffalo, has a tremendous story behind it.
The arrival of the Javanese prince
It is believed that this legendary story began with the arrival of a prince from Java. But the prince was not alone and took a military with him to beat the indigenous people of Sumatra. This event is usually related to Singhasari’s expedition to Pamalaya in 1275, but nobody is bound about this.
The local leaders knew that in the event that they decided to go to war, not only would a lot of their men die, but since the prince got here with a trained and well-armed army, the chances were stacked against them. Local leaders then meet to see what they’ll do to avoid confrontation and repel the approaching invasion.
Strange idea
Eventually they got here up with an idea after which proposed it to a Javanese prince. The idea was that as an alternative of going to war and avoiding heavy losses for either side, they might stage a fight between two water buffalos to settle the dispute. The prince agreed and ready his largest and most aggressive buffalo, which he took with him.
Instead of preparing a bigger and more aggressive buffalo for the approaching fight, local leaders released an extraordinary small buffalo. But they separated the child buffalo from its mother to make it hungry. In addition, additionally they grind the horns of the child buffalo to make them as sharp as possible. So what were local leaders going to do about it?
Battle
Finally, the day of the bullfight arrived and other people began to assemble to witness it. The prince was surprised to see that the local leaders had only brought a small buffalo to fight his big and mean buffalo. Thinking that he would have a extremely easy victory, the prince felt really comfortable and was able to see his buffalo tear and tear the little buffalo.
Since the little buffalo was hungry since it had been separated from its mother, once the battle began, it immediately ran as much as the large buffalo and climbed under its belly, trying to search out its udder. While doing so, the little buffalo inadvertently stabbed the large buffalo with its sharp horns after which killed it. Their buffalo won and that’s the reason they decided to call their tribe “Minangkabau”, meaning “victorious buffalo”.
Moral of the story
This legendary story is incredibly famous in West Sumatra and is taught in every school within the province. This is a crucial story that teaches children that they need to prioritize their wisdom, cunning and strategy relatively than resorting to violence.
