Cultural background of Indonesian ikat
Ancient form of textile decoration
Ikat is one of the oldest forms of textile decoration, and curiously - given its immense complexity - at one time or another was practiced in most world cultures. Within the cultures that produced them, ikat textiles have always served as status symbols, on account of the advanced skills - both artisanal and artistic - and the vast amount of time their production required.On many of the Indonesian islands, ikat weaving is not just an important aspect of the culture, but the very heart of it. Dwellings apart, in many regions ikat textiles are by far the most visible aspect of the material culture, and the most valuable, both in worldly and in spiritual terms. Everywhere except in the Tanimbar Archipelago and on Luang, on the eastern fringe of the archipelago, their use is circumscribed by the rules of adat - the set of local customs and practices, based on (rudiments of) animist beliefs and complex class distinctions, that dictates the lives of most Indonesians, even those converted to Islam or Christianity. A few examples of usage:
- Sumatra: Heirlooms for display at festive occasions, separate shawls for numerous different occasions. Example: PC 057.
- Bali: Sacred cloth used in ceremonies only, offers protection from evil. Example: PC 058.
- Flores: Men's ceremonial stole or tube skirt, indicates class. Example: PC 054.
- Lembata: Sarong for use as bridewealth and ceremonial attire. Example: PC 047.
- Alor and Pantar: patolu manifests ruler's power, dynasty dies when last shred is buried with ruler. Example: PC 061.
- Sumba, East: Man's mantle, also serving as shroud to wrap the dead. Example: PC 187.
- Sumba, West: Man's mantle decorated to look like python skin protects deceased on journey to hereafter. Example: PC 163.
- Sulawesi: Sulawesi: Shroud to wrap the dead, very long cloths serve as pathway to heaven. Example: PC 100.
- Timor: Man's mantle, turban, and tube skirt, proof of weaver's nubility. Example: PC 189.
- Kalimantan: Man's mantle and loin cloth, jackets, tube skirts for women, and proof of nubility. Example: PC 202.
- Savu: sarongs with proprietary motifs identify women from different moieties. Example: PC 136.
- Raijua: Tiny sarong in which to wrap baby for birth ceremony. Example: PC 104.
- Kisar, Leti and Luang Islands: mnemonic instrument to help pass on myths of origin, legends about great ancestors. Example: PC 273.
- Timor, Tetum region: special sarongs doubling as shrouds, one of which every family needs to have lying ready. Example: PC 215.
- Timor-Leste, Suai region: sarong as semaphore - woman drapes tais of specific type over her shoulder as a she goes to family members and neighbours to announce a death. Example: PC 236.
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Girls from Ili Ape on Lembata wearing traditional ikat sarongs. Photo courtesy Kai Griffin. |
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Value in traditional exchanges
Most societies in the Indonesian archipelago used to be based on an exchange economy, which knowns neither markets nor monetary instruments. Goods, labour, services as well as brides were given and received as gifts in a continuous flow back and forth between the parties involved. Cloths, and especially ikat cloths, played a vital part in this reciprocal gifting. In several communities they still do, especially in the often elaborate ritual of bridewealth exchanges. In Nusa Tenggara Timur, the eastern part of Indonesia that ethnologists often call the 'exchange archipelago', typically a new wife's family gives textiles to that of her husband's, who reciprocates with animals such as water buffalo and horses, and other valuable items like elephant tusks, moko drums, and gold jewelry.On some of these islands, as also on Borneo, to be marriageable at all, women must show skill in the complex art of creating ikat. Daughters with great weaving skills represent high value for their parents, due to the wealth they are able to bring in through their bride price.
As field collector Aja Bordeville points out, "a sarong of equal vintage, quality and workmanship will always be worth more than a blanket from the same household. This is because the sarong has always been an important [or essential] part of the bridewealth exchange." This local valuation carries over into the trade. Not so much because of the multiple that dealers apply while setting their sales targets, but mainly because collectors value cloths not just for their aesthetics, but also for their link to ancient traditions.
All the older pieces, made according to the rules and taboos of adat, serve as keys to an unknown inner world that we will never know intimately, but can somehow sense, and with our intuition enter tentatively through the scrutiny and handling of these pieces.
A source of prestige
On several of the islands, particularly those with a strong headhunting tradition - such as Borneo and Timor - producing an ikat cloth of high quality was the women's chief way to attain prestige. Whereas a man could marry only after he had obtained at least one head, a woman could marry only after she had produced at least one cloth of masterly quality. Similar rules applied in many other areas: a woman's status, especially among the nobility, depended largely on her ability to produce ikat cloths of high complexity and refinement - though in some areas, such as the island of Roti and the Lio district on Flores, the hard work, the tying, might me executed by slaves.Ikating as commercial enterprise
Though most ikating was and is done for a family's own ceremonial or practical use, often involving closely held secrets of dyeing or patterning, ikating for commercial purposes has a long history on several islands - on some going back several centuries. On Timor, for example, women from families without land or other substantial sources of income would traditionally barter or sell their weavings. On Luang, where there is hardly any arable land, the traditional female occupation of horticulture was never open, so the women of Luang took to weaving instead and had their men hawk their ikat all across the eastern archipelago. There was even bespoke manufacture: one could get cloths made in the styles of other islands, though many of these imitations (we shall never know how many) still betrayed their true origin by a Luang 'feel'. On Lembata ikating was prohibited in certain parts of the island, so women from Lamalera or Ili Api would trade their handiwork with women of those regions. On Sumatra, the luxurious silk limar with gold brocade have been made for the market since at least the middle of the 19th C. Sumba weavers started making 'marketable' cloths early in the 20th C., adapting their patterns to what the Dutch liked to have hanging on their walls. For decades, Toba Batak women have made cloths for other Batak tribes, such as the Karo.A question of belonging
When a cloth is made by one community for use by another, to which should we ascribe it? As in the above example, would such Toba cloths made for sale to and use in Karo territory (see PC 174) be called Toba or Karo? And the ba'a boba ikat sarongs that the Sahu people on Halmahera use in their harvest festivals (see PC 260), but that are made by Butonese weavers, be it on Halmahera itself, on Ternate or on Buton? What are they, Butonese or Sahunese? We take the position that the absorbing community should prevail when attributing a textile to a locale, especially when its use has become deeply embedded in the culture – as is clearly the case both in the Karo Batak region and on Halmahera where the Sahu adopted a Buton-made sarong for use in their most important ceremony, and appear to have done so many generations ago.As Leontine Visser states re the Sahu cloths: "Pattern and color of textiles should be interpreted primarily in the context of the culture in which they are used, whether this is their culture of origin or the society into which the cloths may have been imported." Textiles when taken from another culture are not chosen at random but deliberately, "to fit the value system of the receiving culture." (Visser 1989:90 and 81) This is a crucial criterion, because it is the receiving culture that shapes the cloths, as we see in this day and age in the products of organisations promoting ikat revival: the only pattern that survives is the pattern that sells.
