Guarded by Women

The Minangkabau, a Muslim tribe in West Sumatra, is still truly matriarchal. Traditionally bride and groom are being brought into their new home by the heads of the two families. The couple is dressed in beautiful clothes trimmed in gold. The bride is wearing a highly ornate headdress which makes her taller than the groom (didn’t weight them, but it also seems that she might be even heavier than the groom with all that gold). Minangkabau means ‘victorious buffalo’, female I suppose.

Photo from one of the villages close to the caldera lake of Maninjau, West Sumatra, March 2008.