Minangkabau

The Minangkabau of the West Sumatran highlands kept an older animist faith that blended with Buddhism. Their tambo, the traditional histories, say the first Minangkabau landed on Mount Marapi when it was no bigger than an egg.

Every living thing was said to have a vital spirit, the semangat. Illness meant that an evil spirit had caught the semangat, and a shaman, the pawang, was called to appease the spirits. Much of the customary law, adat, drew on these beliefs.

Buddhism was strong in the highlands, and Adityawarman, a Tantric Buddhist, ruled at Pagaruyung from about 1347 to 1375. Islam reached the highlands around the sixteenth century but was weakly practiced until the Padri movement of 1803, whose war against the old customs lasted until 1837.