Minangkabau is the name of a tribe inhabiting the province of West Sumatra, Indonesia. This tribe is famous for being the largest matriarchal tribe in the whole world with over 4 million populations. But that’s not the only interesting about this ethnic group. The name ‘Minangkabau’ which is the combination of ‘minang’ means victorious and ‘kabau’ means water buffalo, has an amazing story behind it.
The Arrival of a Javanese Prince
This legendary story believed to be started by the arrival of a prince from Java. But the prince wasn’t alone and brought an army with him in order to subdue the indigenous people of Sumatra. This event is often associated with the Pamalayu expedition of Singhasari in the year of 1275, but nobody knows for sure.
The local leaders knew that if they decided to go to war, not only a lot of their people would be killed, but since the prince arrived with a trained and well-armed army, the odds were against them. The local leaders then hold a meeting to find out what they could do to avoid any confrontation, with the possibility to repel the incoming invasion.
The Odd Idea
They finally came up with an idea and then propose it to the Javanese prince. The idea was instead of going to war and avoid large casualties for both sides to settle the dispute, they would hold a fight between two water buffaloes. The prince agreed and then preparing his largest and most aggressive buffalo he brought with him.
Instead of preparing a bigger or more aggressive buffalo for the incoming fight, the local leaders set forth a mere baby buffalo. But they separated the baby buffalo from its mother to make it hungry. On top of that, they also ground the baby buffalo’s horns to make sure they are to be as sharp as possible. So, what were the local leaders up to with this?
The Battle
Finally, the day of the bullfight came and people were gathering to witness it. The prince was surprised to see that the local leaders only brought a baby buffalo to fight his large and mean buffalo. Thinking that he would get a really easy win, the prince was really comfortable and ready to see his buffalo ripping and tearing the baby buffalo up.
Since the baby buffalo was hungry because it was separated from its mother, once the battle started, it immediately run to the big buffalo and went under its belly trying to find an udder. In doing so, the baby buffalo inadvertently stabbed the big buffalo with its sharpened horns and then killed it. Their buffalo won, and that’s why they decide to name their tribe as ‘Minangkabau’ or ‘victorious buffalo’.
Moral of the Story
This legendary story is extremely famous around West Sumatra and being taught in every school in the province. It’s an important story to teach kids that they should prioritize using their wisdom, wits and strategy instead of resorting to violence.
