The Minangkabau people, (Orang padang in Malay) people of the plains are one of our country's many ethnic groups.. They originated from the West central highlands of Sumatra. Traditionally they cultivated the terraced fields and garden plots. Their main crops were rice, tobacco, cinnamon and local fruits and vegetables.  

Their traditional family unit is the Rumah Gadang (“big house”) which was under the control of the head woman and her female kin. Although Muslim, they were matrilineal, passing inheritance and tracing descent through the female lineage. Many family houses form a ‘suku’ (clan) and several clans make up a negari which is equivalent to a village. 

They migrated to Peninsular Malaysia en masse in the 19th century in search of better economic prospects. Initially most of them came to work in the booming tin mines of Malaya but with the arrival of capital intensive mining technologies that reduced labour requirements, many of them later returned to agriculture in the interior river valleys. It is believed that nine Minangkabau Negaris eventually formed the state that we now call Negeri Sembilan. 

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