The Ship House of the Proto-Malay Society

Helloindonesia.id – Architecture is one of the nation’s legacies that can be learned from various sides, in terms of history, technique and culture. this time we will discuss one of the unique houses in the Malay proto community.

Communities often known as proto-Malay communities in the archipelago, among others, Daya, Batak, Donggala, and Toraja, raised ship images in their homes. This houseboat is more than just the sentimentality or romanticism of the community. There is an effort and manifestation of knowledge that is born and continues through the building of the house.

The houseboats also reflect the 3 worlds that also encompass the world of shipping, namely the main deck (middle world) as the center of trade navigation activities, the lower deck as part of important supplies and reserves, and the world of starfish as the navigation horizon.

Often called the house on stilts, this house also divides 3 worlds, between the underworld, the middle world, the upper world; often interpreted also as the present-world-later; also interpreted as an animal-ancestor and the Almighty.

Especially at the ceremony of the death of the Toraja community, for those who died, the coffin was formed in the form of a ship. In the Batak community, in addition to houses in the form of ships, civilizations around Lake Toba also continued maritime images in their civilization. Solu is used in daily life on the lake, and is also used in proverbs and umpasa Batak.

However, the term proto-Malay needs to be translated openly considering that the archipelago has been inhabited alternately by various groups of nations and tribes. Ship-based or maritime-based knowledge actually only emphasizes that the maritime area continues to shape the knowledge of the Archipelago’s societies even though it is inland and is agrarian.

The houseboat itself is combined with the form of a stilt house which has more or less the same function, especially in terms of harmony and function of the house-house-ancestor. The stage house is found in many Archipelago communities including Aceh, Lampung, Minangkabau, Bugis-Mandar, Baduy