, an archetypal
Minangkabawi mosque, with its multi-tiered, curving form and exaggerated roof height Surau originated in
West Sumatra amongst the
Minangkabau people around 1356 as a place of worship for
Hindus and
Buddhists, both of which were majority religions at the time. Amongst the
Batak people, the term "surau" was used to describe a wooden house that was used for ancestor worship, similar to a miniature temple. When the
Islamic religion spread to West Sumatra, surau became a place for Muslims to perform their
five daily prayers, akin to a mosque. During the
Padri Wars of the 19th century, the reformist Padris, who were influenced by the
Wahhabis of
Najd, condemned the building of surau as places of idolatry and even burned many of them. This was mainly due to the fact that many surau were Sufi institutions. These events, along with the introduction of secular schools by the
Dutch colonial government in 1870 and opposition from Muslim modernists led to the decline of surau in Indonesia. In Indonesian contemporary times, surau became synonymous with
musalla and were used to describe prayer rooms in shopping malls, petrol stations, hospitals, and schools. There has been a revival of surau usage among the Minangkabau. ==Outside West Sumatra==