Indonesia: A Minangkabau house at Padang, Sumatra. C. Buddingh, 1859

The Minangkabau ethnic group, also known as Minang (Urang Minang in Minangkabau language), is indigenous to the Minangkabau Highlands of West Sumatra, in Indonesia. Their culture is matrilineal and patriarchal, with property and land passing down from mother to daughter, while religious and political affairs are the responsibility of men. This custom is called Adat perpatih in Malaysia and Lareh Bodi Caniago in Indonesia.

Today 4 million Minangs live in West Sumatra, while about 4 million more are scattered throughout many Indonesian and Malay peninsular cities and towns.

The Minangkabau are strongly Islamic, but also follow their ethnic traditions, or adat. The Minangkabau adat was derived from animist and Hindu-Buddhist beliefs before the arrival of Islam, and remnants of animist beliefs still exist even among some practicing Muslims.

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