Day 3, The Wedding - Rumah Gadang
We just arrived in time, half an hour before the wedding. The wedding was in a white mosque. I noticed that it was well designed. I didn’t see Harisko, but there were many guests inside the mosque, so we decided to go in. Then, I saw Harisko came and sat in front of the guests. Maybe about 10 minutes later his bride came. Before the “ijab kabul” (the statement from the groom that he accept), the bride’s father had to practice about 3 times, because he had misspelled one word. But, then the real “ijab kabul” ran smoothly. The nervous bride and groom before, now smiled happily.
After the wedding, we went straight to Lake Maninjau. But, first we stopped at the bride’s house and a Minangkabau traditional house, Rumah Gadang (big house). Actually, at Batu Sangkar there was a big palace called Pagaruyung Palace. It was a very big Rumah Gadang. But, unfortunately the palace was destroyed by fire in February 2007, after the roof was struck by lightning. Rumah Gadang that we visited called “Istana Salinduang Bulan” (Moon Protector Palace). It was as pretty as Pagaruyung Palace as I remembered. I had been there once about maybe 18 years ago! Only, it was much much smaller than Pagaruyung. All of the wall was carved and the interior was covered by bright colors cloths. The windows were many and huge.
