Did Minangkabu have swords? What were they?
 

Me and a buddy were discussing this recently.

I have been thinking... Harimau Silat styles rarely exhibit longer blades... the longest usually a short golok - otherwise it's extremely close range fighting, without or without knives. I have heard of blades from Palembang, Bengkulu, and the lowlands, Batak blades, and Acehnese swords... but never Minang. The only blades I have heard of as being Minang are their styles of keris, siraui, sewar, tumbuk lada, etc. All short range fighting knifes / daggers.

Of course "traditional" warfare involved spears and matchlocks too...

Were there swords/pedang that can be specifically attributed to the Minang?

Or were they very general golok-like designs?
Or imported designs from West Java, or the Acehnese?

I thought that, a culture with such a notorious fighting prowess would have it's distinct weaponry too...

:shrug: Anyone can help a curious forum-mate out? :)

It seems like local variations of sabers with D-guards were popular in this region (see picture below and those in Leiden).
Otherwise the swords found in museums, like Leiden, are more from neighboring regions like you suggest.
Do a search on "zwaard minangkabau" in the Leiden database and you will find some swords collected in Minangkabau.

Michael

PS Maybe the reason why there was found a lot of swords from other regions in Minangkabau was because of the tradition that young men left the village for some time to travel around before getting married and settled?

You may be onto something, after-all the Minang are traditionally matrilineal, and the men did often leave their home villages...

And so perhaps that led to the adoption of a wide variety of local swords, probably so long as they fit the stylistic preferences of the Minang fighting styles... ? The database would suggest that Minangkabu sword were often of the long thin saber variety, some with D-guards like you said... but nothing overly unique as far as I can tell. Makes me wonder, if this design was indigenous, or perhaps part of the Arab and Indian influences that also led to such blades such as piso podang in the Acehnese and Batak.. ?

Yes, it seems like the swords were influenced from other cultures (maybe more European than Arab and Indian?) and the daggers and keris were indigenous.

Michael