Batusangkar (batu: stone/rock, sangkar: cage) is the capital of the Tanah Datar regency of West Sumatra, known as "the city of culture".
The town is near the former Minangkabau royalty established by Adityawarman in Pagaruyung, represented by the reconstructed Pagaruyung Palace. A number of stones bearing inscriptions in Sanskrit left by Adityavarman that remain in the region are the first written records in West Sumatra. After the death of Adityavarman (1375) no more stone inscriptions were produced. Adityawarman was a king of Malayapura, a state in central Sumatra. He was the cousin of Jayanegara, king of Majapahit in 1309–1328, and the grandson of Tribhuwanaraja. Adityawarman was awarded the senior minister of Majapahit (Wreddamantri) and used this authority to launch Majapahit military expansion plans and conquered east coast region in Sumatra. Adityawarman then founded the royal dynasty of Minangkabau in Pagaruyung and presided over the central Sumatra region to take control of the gold trade between 1347 and 1375.
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Batu Basurek / Prasasti Pagaruyung. It is a group of stone which are carved with Javanese Sanskrit. Each stone explaining the life, family tree, and other significance date of things that are happening during that era.
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Ustano Rajo Alam (located between Kota Batusangkar dengan Silinduang Bulan Palace); is the cemetery of the Kings of Pagaruyung. There are 13 tombs here. The tombstone looks like a P megalith, unlike nowadays tombstone, these ones do not have writings on them.
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Pagaruyung Palace is the royal palace of the former Pagaruyung Kingdom. Located in Tanjung Emas subdistrict near Batusangkar town. It was built in the traditional Minangkabau Rumah Gadang, vernacular architectural style, but had a number of atypical elements including three stories structure and larger dimension compares to common rumah gadang.
Although today there is no king or royal family resides in this palace, since the Pagaruyung Kingdom was disbanded in 1833, the palace still held in high esteem among Minangkabau people as the descendants of scattered Minang nobles (bangsawan) still seeks their root and link to the former royal house of Pagaruyung. The palace has been destroyed by fire for several times, in 1804, 1966 and 2007. It has been rebuilt again and today function as museum and popular tourist attraction.
The palace was destroyed by fire on the evening of February 27, 2007 after the roof was struck by lightning. It was estimated only 15 percent of valuable artifacts survived the fire. Today the surviving artifacts were stored in Balai Benda Purbakala Kabupaten Tanah Datar (Archaeology Authority of Tanah Datar Regency). The heirloom of Pagaruyung Kingdom are stored in Silinduang Bulan Palace, located about 2 kilometer from Pagaruyung Palace. Restoration of the building has taken six years and an estimated US$1,9 million to complete. The building was completed and inaugurated by Indonesian President in October 2013.
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Silinduang Bulan Palace
You can read details of Silinduang Bulan Palace
here
Funny spiraled coconut tree
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Rumah Tuo Kampai Nan Panjang, in Balimbing. This house is 300 years old, making it the oldest house in all Bukit Tinggi. It has 7 rooms and like all the longhouse in general, this house was built without using nails to connect all the wooden frame, beams, etc.
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Ombilin river
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Lake Singkarak, located between the cities of Padang Panjang & Solok with area of 107.8 km², approximately 21 km long and 7 km wide. The natural outlet for excess water is the Ombilin river which flows eastward to the Strait of Malacca. A hydroelectric project however has diverted most of the lake outflow to the Anai river which flows westward into the Indian Ocean near Padang. This Singkarak power station uses this water to generate power for West Sumatra & Riau provinces. A species of fish called ikan bilih / bilis (Mystacoleucus padangensis) is endemic to the lake, and is harvested for human consumption, I am telling you; it is superrrrrrr yummie!!!!
A railway line, which connects Padang & Sawahlunto-Sijunjung, skirts the length of the lake on the eastern side. I was told that it is quiet a ride, and I miss it, one day I 'll be back and doing the train tour for sure!
thank you all for stopping by...
xxx
