Socio Cultural

10 Incredible Facts about Traditional Indonesian Houses

Indonesia is a country with different cultures. Indonesian culture has its own cultural attributes that are influenced by various elements, especially geographical, spiritual, political, economic and other. One of the cultures owned is a traditional house.

Traditional house is one type of Indonesian society that is born from the art of building or architecture and generally have special characteristics depending on the initial region. This kind of culture is used for protection by ethnic people. Traditional houses in each region are the highest representation of society in the neighborhood or tribal community. For more information about traditional house in Indonesia, you could see these facts about Indonesian houses.

  1. There are at least 34 different types of traditional in Indonesia

Indonesia is a country rich in culture, each province in Indonesia has cultural values that distinguish it from other provinces, one of which is traditional traditional house. Each province in Indonesia has its own traditional customary house and even in one province there are two, three, even more traditional traditional houses. Can you imagine how many traditional houses owned by Indonesia, more than 40 types.

  1. Every shape and characteristics of traditional house has its function

Each traditional house in Indonesia has a variety of characters, usually touch traditional houses in Indonesia to adjust the natural and environmental factors. Such as floating houses, because most of the area is a river. Meanwhile, the stage house was made to avoid the attack of wild animals. In addition, traditional houses in Indonesia have a very distinctive characteristic with the culture of each region and tribe.

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  1. Rumah Gadang is the most popular Indonesian traditional house

Rumah bagonjong or gadang house is another term for traditional house of West Sumatra origin. Its uniqueness is most visible and prominent on the roof that has a horn-like formation on the tip of the roof. The room inside the house has no partition except in the bedroom.

As a common house, the rumah gadang is symbolized as the presence of a people. At the front of the house is usually equipped with ornamental carvings and generally patterned roots, flowers, leaves and rectangular plane and parallelogram. Every element in this house has its own meaning. The kitchen in the house was built separately on the back of the house attached to the wall. This house is the most popular because we usually find it on Padang restaurant that spread everywhere.

  1. The tree house of Korowai Tribe to protect human from evil

Some of you would often dream of visiting or having a tree house to take pictures and see the sights. Having a house on a tree is an irreplaceable paradise for some people. In Korowai, you can see the homes of people in the trees. The height of this tree house reaches 15-50 meters. Korowai tribe build houses in atass trees aimed to avoid the disturbance of wild animals and evil spirits. It is said that the higher their house the safer the interference.

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  1. The house of Tongkonan in Toraja, the most visited by foreign tourists

Tongkonan is a traditional house of Toraja people. Tongkonan comes from the word Tongkon which means sitting together. The roof is curved like a boat, made up of bamboo structures (but today some tongkonans use roofs from zinc).

At the front there is a row of buffalo horns. The number of buffalo horns indicates the social status of the owner of the house. On the wall, there is a very exotic animal and plant relief. This traditional house is the most visited by foreign tourist. Many foreigners are interested to study the Torajan culture, and so is the traditional house.

  1. The Papuan House called Honai, the simple house ever but it is unique

Traditional house of Papua is very unique. If we see from a distance the shape resembles a mushroom. The shape was second to none. The walls are made of wood while the roof is made of dry grass. Honai itself has three types. Honai is house for men, meanwhile Ebei is a house for women, whereas Wamai god is home for cattle. But, our society is more familiar with the title Honai.

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  1. Mbaru Niang, the rare house in Flores

Mbaru Niang is a traditional house located on the island of Flores more precisely in Wae Rebo village. This traditional house is very unique, conical, and has 5 floors with a height of about 15 meters. This traditional house is very rare because there are only a few, and is only found in the remote village of Wae Rebo that is isolated on the mountains.

The effort to conserve Mbaru Niang has been awarded the highest category of cultural heritage conservation from UNESCO Asia-Pacific in 2012 and became one of the Aga Khan Award winning candidates for Architecture in 2013.

  1. The floating house called Rumah Rakit Limas

This house is pyramid-shaped in the form of house stage. Uniquely this house floats on the water therefore is commonly referred to as a floating house. The main ingredients of this house are wood and bamboo. But bamboo not bamboo type carelessly. Bamboo is Bamboo Manyan. Bamboo is known to be durable and good to be used as a float home custom Bangka Belitung this.

  1. Rumah Gadang in Netherland

Rumah Gadang was not only found in Indonesia. The uniqueness of this traditional house form of Indonesia inspires the managers of a theme park in the Netherlands. Buildings with similar models can you meet when visiting the Efteling Park located in Kaatsheuvel.

The visitors who come to the amusement park will be immediately greeted by a building similar to Gadang’s house which is a gateway to the park. This gate is very popular and is named The House of 5 Senses, the building model is inspired from Minangkabau traditional house.

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  1. The Batak traditional house in Germany

Batak traditional house called Rumah Bolon is not only found in Indonesia only. Try to come to the City of Waperloh, the state of Niedersachsen, northern Germany. You will be amazed to see the traditional house of Batak standing upright there.

Batak traditional house in Germany has existed since 1978 and built on the initiative of pastor Matthus. Now a typical house one of the tribes in Indonesia serves as a museum and a tourist attraction for the German community.

Those are the facts of Indonesian traditional house. Although some of them have been rarely found, you could see the replica in TMII Jakarta. Hopefully, this information will help you to study the Indonesian culture. As Indonesians, you need to be proud of this plurality.

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