Menhir Koto Tinggi
No licensed photograph yetWe have no photograph we may publish for this site, so the interpretive 3D view leads instead.
Overview
About this site
Overview
Menhir Koto Tinggi is a prehistoric megalithic site in Nagari Mahat, Bukit Barisan District, Lima Puluh Kota Regency, West Sumatra Province, Indonesia. It consists of about 311 menhirs of various shapes, sizes and decorations.
The site belongs to the Pisang clan and is held to preserve much of the history of the origins of the ancestors of the Minangkabau people. It is designated a cultural heritage site under Ministerial Regulation No. PM.86/PW.007/MKP/2011 and is managed by BP3 Batusangkar.
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Article
Menhir Koto Tinggi
The number of menhirs found is about 311, of various forms, sizes and decoration, and the menhirs are oriented to the south-east, towards Mount Sago.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Menhir Koto TinggiCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Menhir Koto TinggiCC BY-SA 4.0
The site lies at an elevation of 350 metres above sea level. The number of menhirs found is about 311, of various forms, sizes and decoration, and the menhirs are oriented to the south-east, towards Mount Sago.
InterpretationSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Menhir Koto TinggiCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Menhir Koto TinggiCC BY-SA 4.0
A menhir is an upright stone, worked or unworked, deliberately placed in a location as a medium of reverence and as a symbol of the people commemorated. In the megalithic tradition the erection of stone structures was always based on a belief in a relationship between the gods and the dead.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Menhir Koto TinggiCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Menhir Koto TinggiCC BY-SA 4.0
Indonesia is one of the few places where megalith-building is still a living tradition. Among the Nias, the Batak, the people of Flores and Sumba and the Toraja, megalithic cultures remained preserved and undisturbed well into the late nineteenth century. Menhirs, dolmens, stone tables and ancestral stone statues are also found in sites in Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands and New Guinea.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Megalith traditions of Indonesia
Indonesia is one of the few places where megalith-building is still a living tradition. Among the Nias of North Sumatra, the Batak of the interior of North Sumatra, the people of Flores and Sumba in East Nusa Tenggara, and the Toraja of the interior of South Sulawesi, megalithic cultures remained preserved, isolated and undisturbed well into the late nineteenth century. Menhirs, dolmens, stone tables and ancestral stone statues are also found in sites in Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands and New Guinea.
On Sumba, the megalithic burials found in the central regions of the island go back thousands of years. This stone-based burial tradition is still kept alive by the Sumba people, and has become a "living ancient tradition" that scholars can observe today. The megalithic remains on the island include dolmen tombs, upright stones, megalithic statues, stone enclosures and levelled terraces, built and carved to a high standard. Quadrangular adzes unearthed in the Anakalang area are among the notable finds. Nias is best known for its festivals, including stone jumping, a manhood ritual in which young men leap over stone towers about two metres high; some historians and archaeologists have called its culture one of the few remaining megalithic cultures in existence, though this point of view is hotly debated.
Because the tradition has not stopped, it is hard to give a single date to a monument. Megalithic culture still flourished in places such as Nias and Toraja when other parts of Indonesia had already begun their historical periods, and script was unknown there. The Atlas gives such sites a broad range, and dating is often impossible without excavation.
When visiting, remember that these are the burial places and ritual landscapes of living communities. Ask permission and do not move stones.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Megalith, Wikipedia: Sumba, Wikipedia: Nias, Wikipedia: Prehistoric Indonesia · CC BY-SA 4.0
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Where it stands
Indonesia
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 0°03′03″ S, 100°21′29″ EFor a GPS or map app: -0.05091, 100.35806
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Menhir Sungai Rimbang- Menhir (standing stone)Bawah Parit Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir Kampung
- Menhir (standing stone)Ronah I Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Ronah II Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Balai-balai Batu Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Ronah III Menhir
- Menhir (standing stone)Menhir Bukit Domo II
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q65213887wikidata.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Menhir Koto Tinggi" (Indonesian), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Indonesian): Menhir Koto TinggiCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q65213887CC0