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183 Timor, West Timor
Tais (sarong)  
| | Locale: | Northern Biboki, Insana district, Atoni people | | Period: | Late 19th c. | | Yarn: | Cotton, hand-spun, medium | | Technique: | Warp ikat | | Panels: | 4 | | Size: | 54 x 188 cm (1' 9" x 6' 2") LW: 3.48 | | Weight: | 1030 g (36.3 oz), 507 g/m2 (1.66 oz/ft2) | | Design: | The motif in the widest ikat bands is a variation of the patola inspired biboeks'ana, a prerogative of royalty and the nobility. For more information on the biboek'sa motif, described by Barrkman, see comments on PC 176. | | Comment: | Old sarong for wife of raja. Very few of these old sarongs are known (see Khan Majlis, below) because this motif used to be the prerogative of royalty, though after independence (and abolition of the rajas' formal powers) some weavers took the liberty to copy it. Two small sections on one edge, the size of a thumbprint, woven in by darning with black thread a long time ago. One area on other side, about the size of a palm print, very slightly paled. Several very small old repairs, but overall visual impact of the cloth is one of beauty and power. All hand spun yarn, vegetable dyes. Ex collection August Flick. | | Background: | Chapters on Timor and West Timor. | | Exhibited: | Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, 2017.
Timor: Totems and Tokens, Museu do Oriente, Lisbon, 2019/20. | | Published: | Ikat Textiles of the Indonesian Archipelago, 2018.
Timor: Totems and Tokens, 2019.
Ikat Textiles of Timor: Indonesian and Timor-Leste, 2025. | | Sources: | Similar to 19th C. tais in Granucci, Art of the Lesser Sundas, Fig. 120, but with a darker tonality. Similar to tais from Ponu, Biboki Utara, in Yeager and Jacobson, Textiles of Western Timor, Plate 138. Confirmation from local weaver Yulian Ufa that motif was for the wife of a raja, caption of Fig. 118g. Motif similar to that on tais with additional buna work in Khan Majlis, Woven Messages, Fig. 271. Khan Majlis: 'Very few of these sarongs are known to date.' Pattern has inspired weavers of two recent sarongs in Fowlers Museum, depicted in Hamilton and Barrkman, Textiles of Timor, Fig. 6.8 and 6.11. Overall similarity to tais depicted on Fig. 6.16. Similar motifs are seen on an early 20th c. sarong in the Sweetbriar Collection, California. | | |
©Peter ten Hoopen, 2025
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