The mosque was built long before Dutch colonial influence reached the Minangkabau highlands, and its architecture shows it. There are no European elements. Instead, the five-tiered roof reflects a synthesis of Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic architectural traditions unique to the region. Each tier is concave rather than flat, channeling tropical rain quickly off the surface -- a practical adaptation to West Sumatra's wet climate. Between the tiers, gaps admit natural light into the interior. The topmost level forms an octagon with glass windows and a pyramid-shaped peak, offering views of surrounding houses and the city of Batusangkar in the distance. The concave tiers, the octagonal crown, the way the building manages light and water -- none of this came from an architectural manual. It came from Minangkabau builders solving problems with the materials and traditions they had, creating something that belonged to no single religious tradition and all of them at once.

Inside the main prayer hall, wooden pillars support the multi-tiered roof. The central pillar has a diameter of 75 centimeters and rises to a height that connects with the highest tier. All the timber used in construction was harvested from forests stretching between Bukit Sankiang and Bukit Dadieh Talago Gunuang -- a year's worth of gathering. The main pillar is encased in octagonal wooden panels, and hidden within it a staircase spirals leftward to the top of the mosque. Six windows line the north and south walls, four on the east and west, filling the hall with shifting light throughout the day. Despite multiple renovations over three centuries, the walls, floors, and pillars remain wood. Near the south side of the hall sits a bedug -- a large drum called tabuah in the Minang language -- carved from a single tree trunk, 220 centimeters long, used to call the faithful to prayer.

According to Minangkabau tradition, the mosque's five-tiered roof is not merely decorative. It is a symbol of reconciliation. Before the mosque was built, two powerful leaders -- Datuk Ketumanggungan and Datuk Perpatih Nan Sebatang -- were locked in a dispute over Minangkabau customs. The conflict escalated to the Batu Batikam incident, a confrontation that threatened to fracture Minangkabau society. The leader of Lima Kaum proposed a kenduri, a communal feast, as a gesture of peace. Alongside the feast, the community would build a mosque with a five-tiered roof -- the structure itself serving as a permanent marker of the resolution. Every time someone looks up at those five tiers, they are seeing an act of peacemaking rendered in wood and tile.

The mosque's significance was championed in the 20th century by Hamka -- Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah -- one of Indonesia's most prominent Islamic scholars and a native of the Minangkabau highlands. On April 14, 1951, Hamka wrote in the newspaper Haluan that the government should preserve the Lima Kaum Grand Mosque rather than demolish it, arguing that its architectural character was irreplaceable. In 1968, he returned to the subject, suggesting that the deteriorating palm-leaf roof be replaced with more durable materials but insisting that the five-tier structure be maintained. His advocacy worked. The mosque was recognized as an Indonesian cultural property in 2010, alongside other historic mosques in West Sumatra such as the Bingkudu Mosque and Rao Rao Mosque. The palm-frond roof is long gone, replaced by metal, but the five tiers remain -- honoring both the builders who raised them in 1710 and the scholar who fought to keep them standing.