Baso is a village in Agam Regency,

West Sumatra West Sumatra () is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is on the west coast of the island of Sumatra and includes the Mentawai Islands off that coast. West Sumatra borders the Indian Ocean to the west, as well as the provinces of ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It is part of the

nagari (settlement) A nagari is a semi-autonomous Minangkabau people regional administrative unit in West Sumatra, Indonesia. From 1983-1999 the national government attempted to apply the Javanese ''desa'' village system to other ethnic groups throughout Indonesi ...

of Tabek Panjang, in the

kecamatan In Indonesia, district or ambiguously subdistrict, is the third-level administrative subdivision, below regency or city. The local term is used in the majority of Indonesian areas. The term is used in provinces in Papua. In the Special Regio ...

(sub-district) of Baso, located between the cities of

Bukittinggi Bukittinggi (, Jawi script, Jawi: , formerly ) is the third largest city in West Sumatra, Indonesia, with a population of 111,312 in 2010Biro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 121,028 in 2020.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2021. An official es ...

(15 km) and

Payakumbuh Payakumbuh (, Jawi script, Jawi: ) is the second largest city in West Sumatra province, Indonesia, with a population of 116,825 at the 2010 CensusBiro Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2011. and 139,576 at the 2020 Census;Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta ...

History

Baso was the transit and junction town of Payakumbuh, Bukittinggi and Batusangkar. It was known also as the most important farmers' trading and crops collection point in West Sumatra. The Dutch built railway stations, markets, and other supporting facilities like post offices and banks, as well as one of the biggest teacher training schools in West Sumatra, run by PGRI, the National Teachers' Association of Indonesia. In the early 1970s, as automobiles replaced

steam train A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomoti ...

and horse wagon transport in Sumatra, Baso slowly lost its strategic position as a transit point. In recent years, Baso has developed as a ribbon town with small shops and local community services. The famous Baso farmers' market is now only left as history. In the early 1990s most of its heritage, such as the old

train station A train station, railroad station, or railway station is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight, or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track, and a station building providing suc ...

, old market, and Dutch buildings, were replaced by semi-modern buildings.

References

Populated places in West Sumatra {{WSumatra-geo-stub