Nights of the Dark Moon by Tutu Dutta

Author:Tutu Dutta
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789814779166
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish International

CHIEF NAAM GAZED at the eight clan chiefs gathered around him with his dark, unwavering eyes. They were seated in a semi-circle on finely woven mengkuang mats in the main hall of his house; a house constructed entirely of wood resting on stilts a few feet above the ground. They had been summoned to deliberate on an important matter. Although it was a democracy of sorts, with each clan chief having a vote, Chief Naam was the unspoken chief of chiefs.

After the formalities, he told them the true purpose of the gathering. “Now that my eldest daughter, Cik Emas, is of marriageable age, I propose that we send a messenger to the palace of Pagar Ruyung…” He paused momentarily for emphasis, “to invite a prince here, to marry her and eventually to take over my role as penghulu of Rembau.”

The chieftain squared his shoulders and composed his face, as brown and hardened as carved wood, and continued, “An alliance with the Minangkabau royal house would ensure the strengthening of adat, the pillar on which our way of life rests; at the very least, it will deter those despicable Bugis pirates from pillaging our villages.”

Everyone understood that he intended to establish a royal lineage by marrying his daughter to a Minangkabau prince, and none dared to refuse him. The chieftain of Rembau was a fearless warrior and a skilled exponent of the martial art known as silat.

Like them, the chieftain’s forebears originally came from Minangkabau, and had carved territories for themselves in this new land. In the end, they all agreed to his proposal because they wanted to maintain their links with their ancestral land and uphold adat. The people of Rembau practiced the customary laws of adat perpatih, an ancient tradition they had brought with them from Minangkabau.

In a matter of weeks, five of the chiefs, accompanied by their men, travelled to Pagar Ruyung, in the heartland of Minangkabau. They knew they had reached their destination when the massive three-storey palace loomed into view.

Even those who had been here before held their breaths at this architectural marvel—built entirely of wood without the use of a single nail. The soaring carved roof, made from black ijuk palm fibres had upswept horn like projections of the roof ridges above the twelve gables. They were meant to resemble buffalo horns. The walls of the wooden palace were decorated with exquisite carvings.

When they arrived at the court, bearing the traditional gift of a silver betel box, decorated with motifs of curling vines, leaves and flowers, and a bouquet of flowers of chased gold, the Ruler of Minangkabau agreed immediately to the proposal. One of his sons, Raja Marwar, was chosen to be groom. Raja Marwar could not object to this marriage; the Minangkabaus were the originators of adat perpatih, which was both matrilineal and patriarchal, built upon the saying: “Perempuan mewarisi pusaka, lelaki menyandang saka” — women inherit ancestral land, men uphold the clan.

His eldest sister would inherit the ancestral land and her firstborn son would be ruler of Minangkabau.

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