Pasaman

Pasaman lies at the northern edge of the Minangkabau highlands, where the Barisan Mountains give way to valleys leading towards the plains of eastern Sumatra. In the fourteenth century an inscription from the Rao area recorded the name of Bijayendrawarman, a prince of the Malayapura kingdom. Centuries later Rao was associated with Tuanku Rao, one of the religious leaders of the Padri movement, which brought conflict to the Minangkabau lands in the early nineteenth century.