Minang people are commonly thought of as being hard-working, strategic and diplomatic. The Minangkabau are the largest matrilineal society in the world, with property, family name and land passing down from mother to daughter, while religious and political affairs are the responsibility of men, although some women also play important roles in these areas. This custom is called Lareh Bodi Caniago and is known as adat perpatih in Malaysia. Today 4.2 million Minangs live in the homeland of West Sumatra.
The Minangkabau are famous for their dedication to knowledge, as well as the widespread diaspora of their men throughout southeast Asia, the result being that Minangs have been disproportionately successful in gaining positions of economic and political power throughout the region. The co-founder of the Republic of Indonesia, Mohammad Hatta, was a Minang, as were the first President of Singapore, Yusof bin Ishak, and the first Supreme Head of State or Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia, Tuanku Abdul Rahman.
The Minangkabau strongly profess to Islam while at the same time also follow their ethnic traditions, or adat. The Minangkabau adat was derived from animist and Hindu-Buddhist beliefs before the arrival of Islam, and remnants of animist beliefs still exist even among some practising Muslims. The present relationship between Islam and adat is described in the saying "traditions are founded upon the law, and the law founded upon the Qur'an".
As one of the world's most populous matrilineal ethnicities, Minangkabau gender dynamics have been extensively studied by anthropologists. The adat traditions have allowed Minangkabau women to hold a relatively advantageous position in their society compared to most patriarchal societies, as most property and other economic assets pass through female lines.
The Minangkabau's West Sumatran homelands was the seat of the Pagaruyung Kingdom, believed by early orientalists to have been the cradle of the Malay race, and the location of the Padri War (1821 to 1837).
According to wikipedia
