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122 Timor, East Timor
Tais (sarong)  
| | Locale: | Tutuala, Los Palos, Lautem district, Fataluku people, Jen i La'i Ratu clan. | | Period: | 1940 | | Yarn: | Cotton, hand-spun, medium - plus pinstripes in commercial cotton | | Technique: | Warp ikat | | Panels: | 2 | | Size: | 50 x 134 cm (1' 7" x 4' 4") LW: 2.68 | | Weight: | 620 g (21.9 oz), 463 g/m2 (1.52 oz/ft2) | | Design: | Cloth of the type sika lau, with designs insprired by the rock drawings of Ili Kere Kere. Two panels, both with several ikated stripes and three prorgessively wider ikated bands. Figurative motifs that represent mountain, the former homeland; kuca hiape, riders, which stand for a lost battle; boats, loiasu, which represent the ancestors' flight; and a squarish shape which stands for the new settlement. Hand spun, natural dyes, except accent stripes in bright red. Lima varna, five colours, sign of high rank. The snaking pattern is publicly explained as representing a white worm, but actually represents a mythical huge snake that lives in a lake. | | Comment: | Forms pair with 121. Older sarong in excellent condition. Very rare. Cloth belongs to the Jen i La'i Ratu clan from Hihoru (Portuguese name: Ioro) in the subdistrict Tutuala. Jen i La'i Ratu is the ruling clan of Hihoru. Usual slight tapering towards one end. Dark indigo undertone makes brighter indigo and morinda stand out. True lima varna cloth: apart from two shades of indigo and two of morinda, there is a greenish grey, probably was stronger green originally. (Stable green natural dyes are rarely found in the archipelago.) Characteristic motifs reflect proximity to Kisar. All thread is hand spun, except the red pinstripes which were done in double-ply commercial thread, probably pre-dyed. All other colours were made with vegetable dyes with a beautiful pastel tonality. | | Background: | Chapters on Timor and East Timor. | | Exhibited: | Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, 2014/15.
Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, 2017..
Timor: Totems and Tokens, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, 2019/20. | | Published: | Woven Languages, 2014.
Ikat Textiles of the Indonesian Archipelago, 2018.
Timor: Totems and Tokens, 2019.
| | Compare: | 121 077 | | Sources: | Similar to sarong in Khan Majlis, Woven Messages, Fig. 308. Very few pieces to compare with. As Khan Majlis wrote in 1991: 'Textiles from this region [..] have never been published to date.' Similar piece in Art Institute of Chicago, apparently acquired in 2002, No. 2002.998, published in Khan Majlis, The Art of Indonesian Textiles, The E.M. Bakwin Collection, Fig. 53. Also similar to Pusaka Collection No. 077. Clan attribution by Van Engelenhoven. | | |
©Peter ten Hoopen, 2024
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