The Preservation of Traditional Knowledge and the Cultural Expression of Craft Rumah Gadang’s Walls as the Intellectual Property Of West Sumatera

This study discusses the problems of the preservation of Minangkabau craft culture, especially the problem of Intellectual Property Rights in the form of traditional knowledge that is on the craft of Rumah Gadang’s walls. The method of this research is qualitative. The informant of this study is determined by using purposive sampling. The chosen informants that are people involved in crafting of Rumah Gadang’s walls and the Department of Tourism of West Sumatra Province. This research was conducted at Minangkabau representative area of Luhak Nan Tigo (Agam, Tanah Datar, Lima Puluh Kota). The results of the study shows the extinction of craft of Rumah Gadang's walls was caused by the development factor of modern society's mindset, thus eliminating the value of a local culture of desire to learn old local culture. Moreover, the history and the topic of craft of Rumah Gadang's walls are deleted from Muatan Lokal Subject from the elementary to college level. Besides, the absence of efforts of local governments in trying to preserve the cultural values contained in traditional of craft of Rumah Gadang’s walls