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8. A Short History of Indonesia
Arts of the Archaic Indonesians
WC 4894 In this Unit I want to show you some of the traditional arts and crafts of the archaic Indonesians. Unfortunately there is not time to show more than just a few examples and it has not been possible to select those I do show in any systematic way to represent the whole archipelago. If my little sample is biased it is so partly because I have selected from technologies I personally know something about and also because these tend to be still more common in the east rather than west of the region. This latter is a product of history: the west has been far more influenced by cultural traditions from outside although, it must be said, Christian missionaries have destroyed a huge amount of indigenous culture, fearing perhaps that ancestor figures and the like are heathen idols. Islam also, with its prohibition on representations of the human form, has also diminished the local expression of regional cultures. Recurring symbols
Striped borders of this weaving from West Timor keep the spiritual power within the cloth.
Almost everywhere in Indonesia one sees women and even small girls carrying an infant on their back or on their hip wrapped in a striped cloth in which the infant is wrapped and then slung over the shoulders. Known as kain gedong these provide a very practical means for the carrier to go about her daily chores while keeping close care of the infant. However, these stripes are not as straight-‐forward as they seem but
instead are thought to retain spiritual power in the centre of the cloth. Furthermore, not only are these cloths protective and secure, they are also soft, transient and yielding and hence seen as “feminine” in contradistinction
to the hard and enduring “male” properties of metal. Indeed, kris are often wrapped in a kain which takes the symbolism to yet another level…. Lurik (Java)
In Central Java a striped weave called lurik is making
a comeback as a fashion fabric. Indigenous to Java, it has almost died out by
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1970, but present-‐day attempts to preserve old crafts coupled with earthquake aid has found women once more weaving this apparently simple but actually very complicated cloth. In an article called “Lurik Looms”, Jogakarta-‐based writer Linda Hoffman explained:
The width of the individual stripes and their arrangement in groupings are symbolic and are interrelated with Javanese philosophy. Some motifs are reserved for religious rituals and traditional ceremonies. The colors or combination of hues also carry different meanings. For example, when used together, green and white denote sanctity. As the colors of Nyai Loro Kidul, the fabled goddess of the South Sea, lurik with green and white motifs is used in offering ceremonies on Parangtritis beach1.
Lurik is thought to pre-‐date batik as the signature fabric of Java. Although eventually many colours and designs became the preserve of aristocrats at the kratons of both Jogja and Solo, lurik seems originally to have been a village weave. Hoffman also wrote:
Skillful weavers, always women, once had a particularly high social status; in some areas of the country, only noblewomen were permitted to weave. References to a horizontal striped cloth are made in ancient Javanese Hindu inscriptions dating back to the Mataram Empire in 851–852 AD; folklore and shadow puppet plays also contain legends referring to weaving.
Tumpal motif (Roti shoulder or waist cloth)
There are several other motifs immediately recognizable as archaic Indonesian, including the tumpal and a variety of rhomb-‐ and key-shaped figures. The tumpal is sometimes called the “saw-‐tooth” motif, especially when it occurs as part of an edge in a
weaving. This triangular motif is found in many variations throughout the archipelago and in different media but especially in wood carving and weaving.
The romb-‐ and key-‐shaped figures have evolved through ever more complex iterations. Rhomb- and key-shaped figure - Batak 2
1 “Lurik Looms” in The Jakarta Post – WEEKENDER, Sat, 12/13/2008 2 Wagner Op cit p 41
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Evolution of the key-shaped figure3
Examples of these can be seen in the central panels of the yellow and orange weaving shown earlier. This was woven in the West Timor region but variations on these motifs can be found all over Indonesia.
Rhomb- and key-shaped motifs in Timor selimut4 (in “sotis” weave ⎯ warp-faced alternating floating weave)
Yet another motif is the plain black-‐and-‐white check. This is found all over the place in modern Bali where inexpensive cotton printed in this way is wrapped around sculptures and even trees to signify their ritual purity.
Checker-board motif, Bali
Other common motifs are plant and animal representations although these are frequently abstracted so that at times they might not be immediately recognizable. This process of abstraction is well demonstrated in four carvings, two of which are clearly representational while the latter two are progressively abstracted human-‐like forms. These carvings are the hilts, or ulu of kris, the short sword or dagger characteristic of the Malay peoples of the Indonesian archipelago and Malay peninsular.…
Ulu of several kris In 2005 UNESCO inscribed the Indonesian kris as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The oldest known kris are called kris Madjapahit, although they probably are older than the Javanese empire of that name. These are small daggers made in one piece with a human form as the “ulu” or “head” as the hilt is known.
3 Ibid p. 36 4 A selimut is a shoulder or waist cloth worn by men in Timor and nearby islands.
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Although there are many kinds of kris, including some with straight or curved blades, the best known are those with wavy blades decorated with a damascene of different kinds of metal. Tradition has it that the usual silvery iron part of the damascene comes from meteorites. It also says the empu or priest-‐bladesmith who makes the kris, forges it with this bare hands and that the un-‐honed edges of the blade are as it came from the fire.
kris pamor (damescene) work.
It is the blade of a kris which is the all-‐important part and the one to which many superstitions and myths are attached. For example, it is believed that some kris are so powerful, if pointed at a distant house or other object, they can start a fire. They are also believed able to ward off attack or, in the case of the most powerful, they can kill at a distance. This was put to the grisly test when the Dutch finally invaded southern Bali, first at Badun (now Denpasar) in 1906 and then at Klungkung in 1908. The Balinese rajas and courtiers placed their faith in their kris and, dressed in their finest clothes, attempted to hold off the Dutch by simply pointing their golden kris at them. When this failed, they turned their kris upon themselves ⎯ more than 4000 of the Balinese aristocracy died in this puputan. In many ways, a kris is the man: in old Java, a man could send his kris to his wedding but stay home himself while his kris served as his proxy. You cannot
simply go and buy a kris because to do so can be dangerous. If the spirit of the kris is not compatible, bad luck, sickness and even death can result. There are many ways to test if a kris is compatible: in my case, my kris was concluded to be tjoktjok sekali when my host, an expert on kris, noted that my hand spans and thumb spans worked out to exact multiples and were both some magical number. He then
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showed me how to “bathe” my kris and care for it and advised me always to sleep with it on a level above my head and ⎯ a final piece of cultural syncretism ⎯ to keep it oriented in the direction of Mecca….
However, here I wanted to demonstrate how the ulu, the head or hilt of the kris, evolved into ever more abstract designs. There is no mystical cult of the ulu although many clearly take their form from distant beliefs in the supernatural. The first two examples, one of which is made of gold5, the other from wood,
both show mythical figures. The first is said to date from the classical Madjapahit time while the second, which I photographed in the Bali Museum in 1969, shows some kind of animistic figure, a spirit or demon. Both are rich in detail and clearly representational. The third, which is in my own collection, has some human form but it is abstracted almost beyond recognition. And the fourth, the ulu of my personal kris, the one I sleep with higher than my head, is completely abstracted although you can see some relation to the earlier one. It was suggested to me that the ulu of my kris comes from Madura (a deeply Moslem part of Indonesia) and is much younger than the blade which ‘Pak Mustabjab judged to be ‘very old’….
Textile Arts This gradual abstraction of traditional symbols is very common in weavings, particularly the ikat weaving for which Indonesia is famous. Weaving is one of the traditional crafts which was never greatly affected by the advent of Islam and of Christian missionaries, perhaps for two reasons, first that in many islands, textiles were woven by women as clothing for their families and sometimes, for other, often ritual purposes. Second, cloth was never seen as potentially as an object of worship ⎯ as in “false idols” ⎯ even though in many places, individual pieces and special weaves were believed to have magical or supernatural, including healing powers. 5 http://www.louismcwhinnie.com.au/mcwhinnie-‐collection/
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Although pottery spindle weights6 have been found in several Neolithic sites in Southeast Asia, it seems the back strap loom, the most common loom in Indonesia, came there with the Bronze Age. One of the jewels in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia is a bronze sculpture of a woman breast-‐feeding her baby while sitting at her loom. Using thermoluminescence tests this
has been dated to 556– 596 AD. The Bronze Weaver, Indonesia 6th century bronze, 25.8 x 22.8 x 15.2cm7
Woman operating a back-strap loom near Kupang, 1974 (Photo: BH).
Using the cire-perdue or lost wax technique, the sculpture is a remarkably detailed and accurate representation of an older form of the back-‐strap loom. In this early version, the tension is taken up using the feet; modern looms generally have the frame attached to posts in the ground and tension of the warp is maintained by backward pressure of the weaver’s body. The origin of the Bronze Weaver is unknown but was found as a family heirloom in Flores where backstrap looms are still found in many homes.
Indigofera tinctoria
Interestingly, the woman seems to have had plugged ear lobes, still practised in some parts of Southeast Asia, and to have worn a sarong but no covering on her upper torso. Even in 1969 when I first visited Bali married women there went
6 Of course these only indicate spinning but most probably they do suggest weaving. Evidence has also been fund of twine and rope making and of course, basketry. 7 Collection of the National Gallery of Australia.
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uncovered although I was told tourists ogling the women’s breasts was driving the practise into decline. Originally vegetable matter was used to dye the yarn. Indigo is a valued source of blues, purples and a blue so dark it looks black. Although indigo dye is extracted from other plants elsewhere in the world8, in Asia the plant Indigofera tinctoria (also known as Indigofera sumatrana) is used everywhere. The preparation of this dye is such a complex process that in some parts it was reserved for older women specialised in the art. Indigo is used medicinally as an antiseptic and as an astringent to stop bleeding. It also has a preservative effect on cloth, as in the original blue jeans which once
used more than half the indigo in the world. These days, the indigo dyestuff used in the manufacture of jeans is produced chemically. Caesalpinia sappan9
Other colours include the deep rust-‐red obtained from sappanwood (Caesalpinia sappan), a flowering tree belonging to the
legume family and is native to Southeast Asia. As well as providing a reliable dye, sappanwood also has medicinal uses as an anti-‐bacterial and anti-‐coagulant. Another source of a brownish-‐red is the bark of the Indian Mulberry tree (Morinda citrifolia) ⎯ also known, because of the smell of the ripening fruit, as the vomit tree! A yellowish dye can also be obtained from the roots.
Morinda citrifolia
Another source of yellow is the common culinary spice, turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a “rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family”10 Turmeric, Curcuma longa11
8 for example, from woad, Isatis tinctoria in Europe. 9 This and the following botanical illustration of Morinda are from Flora de Filipinas by Francisco Manuel Blanco, published about 1880-3. The plates are now in the public domain. 10 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric 11 plate from 'Koehler's Medicinal-Plants'' 1887 – Public domain.
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From the end of the 19th Century aniline dyes became available and replaced the use of the traditional dyestuffs in many of the great textile and carpet-‐weaving cultures of the world. Their greater brilliance and the variety of colours on offer seduced traditional weavers away from vegetable dyes until relatively recently when the muted colours of the old dyes regained favour among foreign collectors. The aniline and later commercial dyestuffs were collectively known as toko dyes, that is, shop-‐bought dyes.
The intrusion of industrial processes and commercial interests into traditional textile crafts in Indonesia also brought power looms and fabric printing processes, the latter ⎯ as we will see later ⎯ responsible for the mechanical production of batik tjap. In eastern Indonesia, the backstrap loom remained commonplace in the villages and the warp yarn continued to be hand-‐spun. However, these days the weft is usually a commercial black yarn sold, like the dyes, in local shops. Ikat Almost synonymous with weaving in Indonesia is the technique known as ikat. The word ikat means “tie”, the verb mengikat “to tie” of “to bind” in the sense of “to tie dye” as we who are old enough to remember those tie-‐dyed patterns popular among the hippie generation which were made by tightly binding a pinched-‐up section of cloth with cord, raffia or some other thread and then dipping the cloth in the dye. The binding acted like a resist so that the dye was unable to penetrate the fibres beneath, leaving a pattern, usually circular, of undyed cloth as a result. Ikat is done in the same manner but is a much more complicated process. In most cases, the warp threads are wound onto the loom or similar frame, bunches of yarn gathered up as the pattern demands and tied off with raffia, vines, grass or these days, usually plastic tape, and when the pattern is completed, the warp is removed from the loom and dipped in the dye. Sometimes, if more than one colour is required, the process is repeated several times over before the ties are removed, the warp replaced on the loom and weaving commenced. Although ikat is practised elsewhere in the archipelago, it is most at home in the eastern islands. There is not room here to catalogue the many styles which characterise the different islands so I will just show a few from my own collection. Most of the pieces I own were collected in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s so I don’t know how representative they might be now although there are organisations promoting the local weavers in an attempt to preserve the ancient art. One of the most interesting is Threads of Life:
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Revitalizing Traditional Skills As marriage gifts and everyday wear, as offerings to the ancestors or trade goods for cash or barter, traditional textiles have played integral parts in the social,
spiritual, and economic lives of the peoples of Indonesia for more than 2,000 years.
Today, Threads of Life helps to uphold those diverse and venerable traditions. All Threads of Life textiles are produced by traditional methods. Occasionally the women ask us, “What motifs and techniques should we use?” We always reply, “What did your mother and grandmother do?” Their textiles are not copies of classic antiques, but the latest evolutions of living traditions, re-felt and re-imagined by the women who weave them.12
Note: In the following photos, only details of the various cloths are shown.
Lembata, formerly Lomblen
Lembata is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands in the Solor Archipelago, lying between the much larger islands of Flores and Timor. It is only a small island, about 80 km long by 30 km at the widest and is
perhaps best known for the UN sanctioned whaling station in the south. Details of a weaving from Lembata (coll. BH)
Weaving from the peninsula on which the volcano, Ile Apa is situated, is said to be the best on the island, famous for its deep, rich reds. I don’t know how true it is but the story I heard when I obtained my weaving was that the community in which this piece was woven had been destroyed by a tsunami and the people all killed. I have not been able to find any confirmation.
12 http://www.threadsoflife.com/revitalizing.asp
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Sumba
Details of a Sumba cloth: note the old Dutch coat of Arms! (Coll. BH).
Historically, Sumba has long exported sandlewood and has been called Sandlewood Island. The indigenous inhabitants are a mixture
of Malay and Melanesian people and speak a mixture of Austronesian languages. Many of the present-‐day Sumbans practise the Marapu13 religion (some say about a quarter of the residents), a complex form of animism and ancestor-‐worship which incorporates megalithic burial. The remainder of the inhabitants are mostly Christian, both Calvinists and Catholics although Evangelical Christianity is making inroads into the former allegiances.
Hillside megalithic tombs in Sumba
13 See Wikipedia for explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marapu
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The megalithic tombs on Sumba14 and nearby islands are remarkable in that they are a living remainder of an ancient tradition once practised in many parts of the world in which the dead were buried in sarcophagi and stone cysts built with very large stones. In Sumba these take the form of dolmen on which
…. a menhir called penji was set up, sculpted with various decorations. These dolmen decorative patterns show human figures, fauna, flora, man-made and natural items and geometric patterns. According to local traditional chiefs, dolmens with statues especially are considered as bodyguards of the dead person’s soul or his own soul personification15.
While similar ancient megaliths are found on nearby islands of Sabu, Flores and Timor, as well as among the Toraja in Sulawesi and on the island of Nias south of Sumatra, on Sumba people still choose to be buried in a similar way even, as often happens, when they are practising Christians. The striking Sumba cloths have been known to the outside world for a long time and apart from batik, are probably the best-‐known of Indonesian textiles. Of the Sumba weavings, kombu hinggi, the man’s cloth, is the one most often seen in collections. This is typified by its bright rust-‐red colour which is obtained from the kombu (or Morinda) tree from whose bark the dye is obtained. Sumba hinggi show a plethora of symbols and design motifs including horses, deer, birds, fish, lions, stars and perhaps most striking of all, skull trees. Horses symbolise heroism, stars represent the people’s belief in their descent from a celestial deity, and the shrimp (or prawn, I am not sure which) symbolises the other world because it shreds its old shell for a new one… During funerals on Sumba, the dead are wrapped in hinggi because ⎯ so they believe ⎯ they must be properly dressed for the other world.
Flores Flores lies to the northeast of Sumba and takes its name from the Portuguese word meaning “flowers”. Although they were the first European power to establish settlements in Indonesia, the Portuguese legacy remained small16, leaving only a few words in what has become Bahasa Indonesia17, the romantic music genre known as keroncong (and along with this probably the introduction of the guitar), and most significant of all, the prevalence of Christianity in eastern Indonesia. Flores is almost completely Catholic with
14 See http://www.indonesianorphans.com/indonesia_mega.htm 15 ibid. 16 This cannot be said of Timur Leste which remained a Portuguese colony for about 400 years. 17 The influence also went the other way: for example the word for a cockatoo in Portuguese is cacatua, borrowed from the Indonesian kakatua.
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most villages possessing a church instead of the mosque found elsewhere in Indonesia. Flores was also the home of the recently discovered hominin, Homo floresiensis, more commonly known as “the Hobbit” the remains of which have been dated to 18 kya.
Ngada megaliths in Bena Village, Flores.
Three examples of ikat from Flores.
Present-‐day Flores is divided into five regencies or kabupaten, Manggarai, Ngada, Lio, Lamaholot with the main town Maumere in the fifth, Sikka. Several different Austronesian languages are spoken in Flores while, in the central part of the island, in Ende and Ngada, so many variations from village to village are spoken that linguists talk of the “Central Flores Dialect Chain” or the “Central Flores Linkage”. Not surprisingly, there is also great variation in the style of ikat weaving practised in the regions, ranging from almost completely black with small blue motifs to brilliantly multi-‐coloured textiles. My own collection contains only a small sample of the varieties found.
Timor Although Timor Leste fought long and hard to be independent of Indonesia, ethnically, culturally and in many other ways it is not truly separate from its neighbours and shares with them a long Austronesian history. The most
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significant differences are the result of relatively recent history, including the Portuguese and Indonesian occupations. Here, however, we will look briefly at West Timor, part of the Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timor of
which Kupang is the capital. A Timorese weaver family outside their house near Kupang, 1969 (Photo: BH). Note the man’s selimut… .
The example from my own collection was made in here. The woman in the centre of this family group is the same woman shown earlier sitting in her back-‐strap loom.
Two different styles of roof: the one on the left was south of Kupang (photo: BH); the other, a photo from the web18, is labelled only “Timor” and shows the characteristic roofs and some megalithic tables in the forecourt.
Note the difference in architecture: to the west, in Sumba and Flores, for example, as well as in parts of Timor, houses have characteristically high roofs like truncated pyramids whereas south of Kupang this prominent feature has almost disappeared. Interestingly, in 1969 when my photos were
18 http://www.indonesianorphans.com/indonesia_mega1.htm#Timor
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taken, a house in what was then Portuguese Timor, now Timor Leste, also showed only a vestige of the high pyramidal roofs seen in other parts of Timor and other islands to the west.
A house on the road to Bacau, Timor Leste Photo: BH, 1969)and (right) the Governor’s office, Kupang.
What makes these roofs of interest is the role they play in the ancestor worship beliefs: here, in Timor, the high roofs have beams extending from the ends and it is believed it is here that the spirits of the ancestors enter the home to bestow their blessings. It is interesting too to note that there are vestiges in Timor of megalithic culture still incorporated into the local way of life. We will discuss this in greater detail in the next Unit in which we look at religion in the archipelago in centuries gone by.
Savu Savu is a small island between Sumba and Timor. The VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Companie) made contact there in 1648 and after a Dutch vessel ran aground in 1674 and the crew all massacred, established a treaty with the Raja which included trade in slaves and gold. James Cook spent 3 days on Savu in 1770 before proceeding on to Batavia.
Savu ikat shawl (Coll. BH).
Most of the Savunese identify themselves as Indian-‐Aryan with ancient ancestral ties ⎯ so they believe ⎯ with Hindu-‐Java. These days most are Protestant, reflecting the long Dutch occupation, but about 20%19 still hold animistic beliefs. My first contact with an ikat from Savu was a gift of a shawl from an Indonesian student returning from holidays. It has a very soft and silvery quality to it, “Perfect,” my student friend told me, “for the women of Savu who have the most beautiful breasts in
19 http://www.biyunasakgallery.com/lavalon/savu.htm
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Indonesia.” I thought he was just being patriotic but as he explained, unromantically but probably medically correct, the Savunese eat lots of raw peanuts which are high in oestrogens.
Ikat weaving is a thriving cottage industry in Savu. As well as my silvery shawl, typical weavings include sarongs with blue or black stripes and bands of floral motifs. The example shown here from my collection I believe is from Savu but this has not been confirmed20. A (probable) Savu ikat sarong in my collection.
Roti Roti is yet another small island, this time to the south of Timor. It too has a flourishing weaving tradition, the motifs said by many art historians and textile curators to have been inspired by Patola cloths which, woven in Gujerat, were once traded throughout the archipelago and thought to have influenced the development of many weaving traditions in Southeast Asia. Of course it is unlikely Indian vessels reached as far as Roti; more probably the Patolas were traded from hand to hand, island to island, among rajas and others of the medieval wealthy élites.
Shawl or shoulder cloth from Roti (note the tumpals used earlier to illustrate this motif).
The experts point out that the borders on these Roti cloths, the tumpals, eight-‐pointed stars and other motifs are all derived from Patolas. These patterns were in historic times associated with royalty and indicated their high-‐birth and power in the community. Traditional society was divided into two clans, the “Sunrise” and “Sunset” clans, each of which was ruled jointly by a male and a female “lord”. During a New Year festival known as hus, Rotenese men made offerings to the clan ancestors. During this festival, they wore traditional clothing which included 20 An almost identical one (although slightly more red than rust-‐red like mine) was shown at http://www.crusoe-‐textiles.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=2&products_id=2
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a hat woven from strands of lontar palm (tilangga) which was said to have been modelled after the plumed hats worn by cavalheiros during Portuguese times. The lontar palm is also used to make the beautiful musical instrument called Sasando. Rotinese man wearing a tilangga and playing a lontar-palm sasando21
Non-‐ikat textiles
Weft ikats are known but even better known ⎯ but rare ⎯ are double ikat in which both warp and weft are tied to produce a very complicated design.
Geringsen, Tenganan Bali Aga22 (Below) The crater of Gunung Agung from a plane window.
Kamben grinsing Probably the most famous double ikat in Indonesia is produced in the village of Tenganan, near Karangasem, in Bali. The villagers there and in several other communities nearby are known as Bali Aga or Bali Mula, meaning ‘original Balinese’ since they trace their origins back to a pre-‐Majapahit settlement on the island23. They keep themselves very much to themselves; they live in walled villages and are endogamous ⎯ that is, they marry within their own group. If a person marries outside the Aga they must leave the village and live outside its walls. Friends told me in 21 Photo: http://hubpages.com/hub/Sasando-a-Traditional-Music-Instrument-From-Rote-Indonesian-Heritage-Series 22 www.museumnasional.org/textile3.html 23 We will see later that there was a large-scale immigration into Bali of people from East Java at the end of the Madjapahit empire and the overthrow of Kediri in 1527 or thereabouts..
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1969 that the Bali Aga of Sembiran, a village on the shores of Lake Batur, do not cremate their dead as do the Hindu Balinese but rather expose the remains to decompose in the open air. I also saw some evidence of small-‐scale hunting and trapping, particularly of birds. Although these people are mostly animists, worshipping above all the near-‐by volcano Gunung Agung, they also have incorporated some aspects of the worship of Indra into their religion. Whether this is the Hindu or Buddhist form of this god I don’t know but given the very early arrival in Bali by these people, their beliefs probably include at least some of the Buddhist Śakra tradition.
Geringsing “pepare” cloth for ritual use c.1900, Tenganan, Karangasem, Bali24
The double ikat weavings of the Bali Aga are not only highly respected25 because of the high level of skill required to weave them but also believed to be imbued with supernatural powers:
The Balinese also believe that human beings were sacrificed in Tenganan to make dyes for their famous ceremonial scarfs, the kamben grinsing,26 a cloth that, because it is supposed to be dyed
with human blood, has the power to insulate the wearer against evil vibrations and is prescribed at all important Balinese rituals.27
Kamben grinsing are part of the Bali Aga identity: it is said no woman truly belongs to these communities until she can weave this complex textile. About 20 different patterns are known to exist, all having special ritual purpose. Tampan Another ritual cloth, now rare and very valuable28 are the so-‐called “Ship Cloths” or tampan from Lampung in Southern Sumatra. It is said the ship shown in the cloth signifies transition, and this holds true for the rites de passage for which they are an essential part of ritual.
24 Art Gallery of South Australia collection 1974, http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Collection/detail.jsp?ecatKey=128 25 and very highly valued in monetary terms among collectors. 26 Kamben means simply “cloth”, “article of dress”; grinsing means “flaming” or “mottled like an orchid”. 27 See The Ancient Survival: The Bali Aga at http://blog.baliwww.com/category/guides 28 Even ‘fake’ modern ones are very expensive even when acknowledged to be recent.
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Tampan from Lampung, Sumatra, 19th Century.29
A baby was placed on one when introduced to its maternal grandparents; a boy sat on a tampan at circumcision while a second one covered the ritual food offering; at marriage negotiations, tampans covered gifts and food and the bridal couple sat on one. If a young couple eloped, the man would bring his fiancee gifts wrapped in a tampan. These small
ship cloths appeared on other ceremonial occasions as well and were wrapped around the handles of the funeral bier, although the significance of ship-cloths in funerary rites has probably diminished.30
Reverse of my tampan showing the supplementary weft. Tampan are woven in plain weave with a supplementary weft, usually in reds, browns and blues on a plain background. The elements of the designs are often reminiscent of decorations on
Dong Song drums, including hooks, diamonds and front-‐facing human figures. Apart from those woven now for the collector market, tampan are no longer woven, their use declining as social conventions changed, the decline hastened no doubt by the nearby eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.
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29 Collection: Honolulu_Academy of Arts 30 Source: Powerhouse Museum , http://about.nsw.gov.au/collections/doc/ritual-‐cloths-‐from-‐sumatra/