Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff, Ruth Barnes and David J.

Stuart-Fox, Editors
INDONESIAN TEXTILE SYMPOSIUM 1991
WEAVING PATTERNS OF LIFE
INDONESIAN TEXTILE SYMPOSIUM 1991
Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff,
Ruth Barnes and David J. Stuart-Fox,
Editors
Museum of Ethnography
Basel, Switzerland 1993
This publication was supported by funding from:
The Government of the Canton Basel-Sladt
The Volontary Academic Society, Basel
The Max Geldner Foundation
The symposium was held from August 26th to August 30th 1991 in Basel.
Its organization was a joint venture of the Institute of Ethnology, University of Basel and the Museum of Ethnography Basel.
Cover
Ritual cloth raina wengf ('day/night')
Bali, Karangasem
Museum of Ethnography Basel (inv.no. lie 14044)
Editors
Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff, Basel;
Ruth Barnes, Oxford; David J. Stuart-Fox, Leiden
Layout Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff, Gabriele Froelich
Reprography
and Print Econom Druck AG, Basel
ISBN 3-9520538-0-5
1993 Museum of Ethnography Basel, Augustinergasse 2, CH-4401 Basel
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission
from the Museum of Ethnography Basel.
Copyright for the texts and the illustrations remains with the authors, the photographers or the archives and museums concerned.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Topic 1 Textiles in Archeology and History
Ikat to Batik ?
Epigraphic Data on Textiles in Java
from the Ninth to the Fifteenth Centuries
Jan Wisseman Christie
Textiles in Javanese Texts
Worn Aryandini Sumaryoto
Snakeskin Motifs on some Javanese Textiles
Awe, Love and Fear for Progenitrix Naga
Alit Veldhuisen-Djajasoebrata
On Protection and Textiles in Bali
Some Theoretical Observations
H.I.R. Hinzler
Textiles in Ancient Bali
David J. Stuart-Fox
Change and Tradition in Lamaholot Textiles
The Ernst Vatter Collection in Historical
Perspective
Ruth Barnes
Buginese Weaving in the
Metropolitan Area of Jakarta
Suwati Kartiwa
Indigenous Batak Cloth Production and Trade in
the Global Economy of the 19th Century
Sandra A. Niessen
31
51
71
85
99
115
127
The Theme of the Heavenly Garden
Gold Thread Embroidery in Aceh
Barbara Leigh
The Patterns of Pua Kumbu
in an Iban Cultural Context
Traude Gavin
177
191
11 Topic 3 Function and Meaning
The Sumbanese Textile Puzzle
A Comparative Exercise
Danielle C. Geirnaert
Snakes, Smells and Dismembered Brides
Men's and Women's Textiles
in Kodi, West Sumba
Janet Hoskins
Head-Dresses as a Medium
of Self-Expression in Laboya
Sumbanese Attire in Historical Perspective
Edgar Keller
Textile Change in 20th
Century Ndona, Flores
Roy W. Hamilton
Sacred Swords and Magic Cloths
Male and Female Concepts in
Maro, a Sa'dan Toraja Ritual
Hetty Nooy-Palm
The Role of Sacred Cloths in the Wetu Telu
Cosmology of Bayan, North Lombok
Sven Cederroth
203
229
247
271
287
305
Topic 2 Iconography
The Woven Balinese Lamak Reconsidered
Francine Brinkgreve 135
Mother Warp and Father Weft
The Social Meaning of Textiles in Sikka, Flores
An Outline
E. Douglas Lewis 153
Tilling the Cloth and Weaving the Land
Textiles, Land and Regeneration
in an East-Javanese Area
Rens Heringa 155
Garments for the Goddess of the Sea
Judith Schlehe 321
Beberapa Catatan Tentang Lurik
Notes upon Lurik
Martowikrido Wahyono 335
The Symbolism of Baduy Adat Clothing
On the Efficacy of Colours,
Patterns and Plants
JetBakels 347
A Tissue of Textiles
Textiles and Ethnicity in Tengger Society
Barbara Lttem 367
Topic 4 Techniques and Their Interpretation
Zur Faserweberei auf Sangihe und Talaud
Banana-fibre Weaving in Sangihe and Talaud
Petra Martin
Textiles and Weaving of the South Sulawesi
Muslim Peoples. A Preliminary Report
Christian Pelras
371
397
Batik Treasures of the
Special Region of Yogyakarta
Nian S. Djoemena
Batik or Plagiate ? How to distinguish between
Batik Tulis, Batik Cap and Direct Prints
Annegret Haake and Hani Winotosastro
433
449
Isinai Kinuttiyan - Traces of an Obscure
Weaving Tradition in Luzon, Philippines
Christiane C.Kron-Steinhardt
Batik Belanda 1840-1940 - A Summary
Harmen C. Veldhuisen
419 Programme of the Symposium on Textiles from
Indonesia and Related Areas 1991
431 List of Authors
457
459
PREFACE
In their closing session, the participants at the 'Symposium on Textiles from Indonesia and Related Areas 1991'
expressed their wish to bring out the proceedings of the third symposium of this kind within a reasonable time
and in the form of simple 'working material'.
This aim could not have been achieved without the generous help of Ruth Barnes and David Stuart-Fox who have
contributed a good deal of time, energy and their profound knowledge to revising most of the articles. I deeply
appreciate their support and thank them very much for making this volume possible. We have reduced our
editorial task to shaping the various contributions and the proposed illustrations to a standardized form. Only
texts by authors whose mother tongue is other than English have been corrected here and there. However, the
responsibility for content, style and accuracy, as well as the copyright for text and illustrations remain with each
author.
I am most grateful to all authors for their cooperation and assistance. I hope our joint efforts of which this
volume gives evidence meet their expectations. Of course, editing articles by authors from all over the world
logically implies complicated communication and delays. I regret, that due to various reasons, five papers
presented during the symposium, those by R. Maxwell, T.T. Soerjanto, A. Spertus, P. Wibisono and S.
Yoshimoto, could not be included in this volume. Two authors publish their contribution elsewhere (E.D. Lewis,
H. Veldhuisen); nevertheless, they agreed to have abstracts included in this volume. On the other hand, we are
happy to add two interesting articles by H.I.R. Hinzler and J. Schlehe. Both had prepared their papers but could
not participate at the symposium in Basel. The arrangement of the articles follows the chronology of presentation
at the symposium.
Due to a rather reduced budget, we unfortunately had to forego diacritical marks and colour illustrations which
would of course have made this publication even more valuable. We hope, however, the black-and-white figures
will provide the necessary information to the contributions.
My special thanks go to Stefan Biirer, technical assistant of the symposium, for his valuable advice in desk-top
publishing, to Gabriele Froelich for creating the layout of the illustration parts, and to Derk Everts from Econom
Druck AG for achieving the best printing results under the circumstances.
The organisation of the Basel Symposium as well as this publication were made possible only thanks to
substantial funds received from different institutions: we are indebted to the Swiss National Foundation for
Scientific Research, Bern, the Swiss Academy of Humanities, Bern, the Foundation for Research and University
Teaching, University of Basel, the Max Geldner Foundation, Basel, the Volontary Academic Society, Basel, and
the Government of the Canton Basel-Stadt.
With interest and with pleasure we are looking forward to the forthcoming fourth symposium which, we hope,
will be held in Indonesia.
Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff
INTRODUCTION
Never before has Basel been the setting for a meeting of scholars from twelve nations, all specializing in
one way or another on textiles. We were most happy to have not only a symposium on textiles from
maritime South-East Asia, but also to be able to welcome six colleagues from Indonesia, who attended the
meeting and contributed interesting papers. Thus it was a highly appreciated opportunity to exchange
information and opinions from different anthropological and art historical view points, as well as from
different cultural backgrounds.
Textile research at the Museum of Ethnography and at the Institute of Ethnology, University of Basel, has
a long and distinguished tradition. It has been the focus of particular methodological and theoretical
attention - not to speak of the large systematic collections preserved in the museum. Basel's renown as a
centre for textile studies goes back to the fundamental work of Alfred Biihler (1900 -1981), who became
curator of the museum in 1938, and then its director in 1950. He held that position until 1964, and
simultaneously had the Chair in Anthropology at the University of Basel from 1950 until his retirement in
1970.
The reason why the symposium took place in 1991 had of course to do with the interval between the
previous symposia, the first in Washington in 1979, and the second in Cologne in 1985. It was felt that a gap
of six years would allow for substantial developments in research methods and results. Moreover, in 1991 a
temporary exhibition on Indonesian textiles, "The Universe Arrayed: Textiles from Bali", had been set up
in the Museum of Ethnography. This was one of the results of the most recent Basel research project on
textiles, carried out by Brigitta Hauser-Schublin, Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff, and Urs Ramseyer
between 1988 and 1990 in Bali. Thus, the large exhibition (and a book published along with it) and the
extensive textile collections from all over Indonesia (made accessible during the symposium to the
participants) gave the incentive to organize this third international meeting. The symposium was a
common effort of the Museum of Ethnogrraphy and the Institute of Ethnology. It took place from August
26th through 30th, 1991; around 50 scholars attended it (see programme, p. 457).
During the first four days thirty-two papers were given. They were classified according to general topics:
Textiles in Archaeology and History', 'Iconography', 'Function and Meaning', Techniques and their
Interpretation'. A whole day was spent on each topic. On the fifth day, eight half-day workshops were held
on Regional Studies and on Methodology. In those on methodology two further Basel colleagues well-
known for their textile research, Dr. Annemarie Seiler-Baldinger and Dr. Ren6e Boser-Sarivax6vanis,
assisted and contributed much of their knowledge to the benefit and the success of the symposium.
Stimulating comments also came from guests who acted as chairs, Dr. Mattiebelle Gittinger (Textile
Museum, Washington), Dr. Reimar Schefold (Professor of Anthropology, University of Leiden) and Dr.
Eberhard Fischer (Director of the Museum Rietberg, Zttrich).
The papers given are of high standard and document the overwhelming variety of topics and approaches
implemented by anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, and art historians. They not only give evidence
of the richness of textiles in Indonesia in respect to techniques, manufacture, function and meaning, but
also of research recently carried out, as well as of the creativity of the individual scholars. There are
contributions dealing with textiles mentioned in written texts in early Java between the ninth and fifteenth
century (Wisseman Christie) and in ancient Bali (Stuart-Fox); they raise questions of taxonomy, as well as
of continuity and change. One further participant not only relies on written tacts from early Java as
sources, but also on pieces of fine art from different centuries depicting clothing (Sumaryoto).
Embroidered cloth in Aceh are presented in a historical perspective, too, giving evidence of influences
from outside Indonesia, mainly from India (Leigh). A historical perspective but in a different way is
applied in a paper on the Ernst-Vatter Collection of Lamaholot textiles in Frankfurt. Those textiles are
discussed against the background of the author's own fieldwork (Barnes).
Apart from cotton as the nowadays most widespread indigenous material used, banana fibre textiles were
formerly produced in different parts of Southeast Asia. One paper gives detailed evidence of such textiles
on two small islands in Eastern Indonesia; they are discussed in a wider geographical context (Martin). A
comparative approach is demonstrated with Sumbanese textiles (Geirnaert). On a regional level, that of
Java, one paper is concerned with comparison and classification of techniques, patterns, and their social
implications (Djoemena). Two authors (Bakels, Keller) stress the significance of garments and colours or,
more specifically, head cloths used by two different groups within the same culture as a means of
expressing identity (among the Baduy in West Java) or as individual self-expression (in Sumba). A
contrasting way of cultural self-definition vis-a-vis the groups surrounding them is used by the Tenggerese:
they abstain from producing textiles by prohibiting it (Liiem).
The bulk of papers deals with the analysis of textiles, their patterns and their function and meaning within
one culture like the Iban (Gavin), the Isinai on Luzon, Philippines (Kron-Steinhardt), the Buginese and
neighbouring groups (Pelras) and in Java (Wahyono). Some authors describe how textiles are among the
most sacred constituents of ritual life, e.g. in Wetu Telu communities in Lombok (Cederroth) and among
the Toraja in Sulawesi (Nooy-Palm), where they are preserved as heirlooms. Moreover, other textiles used
in rituals, as a fine analysis of Balinese lamak reveals, symbolize the whole cosmos (Brinkgreve). In other
rituals, like those for the deity Ratu Kidul in central Java, textiles are among the ephemeral offerings for
her that are deposited into the sea (Schlehe). Avery sensitive study on the snake skin motif of Antakusuma
jackets in Java reveals the complexitiy of meaning of patterns and their clearly protective connotation
(Veldhuisen-Djajasoebrata). The wide range of cloth serving as sacred protective and purifying coverings
and wrappings are put forward in a paper on Bali (Hinzler).
One contribution deals with the manufacture of textiles from the point of view of the repugnant smell of
indigo cloth and the meaning associated with it in Kodi, Sumba (Hoskins). Similarly, one author shows
how two types of highly-valued cloth are metaphorically linked to the two main categories of cultivated
land and to spatial and territorial concepts in Tuban, East Java (Heringa). A further number of papers
focusses on colonial as well as modern impacts on weaving traditions, as e.g. the effects of the global
economy on Batak handwoven textiles in the 19th century (Niessen), or the changes of Ndona textiles,
Flores in the course of the twentieth century (Hamilton). Whether a batik is a batik or a plagiate is
discussed jointly by two scholars (Haake and Winotosastro). And, finally, revitalizing weaving traditions of
a Buginese community within Jakarta is the topic of the paper given by the Director of the National
Museum in Jakarta (Kartiwa).
To sum up: the range of topics and approaches was extremely rich and the organizers of the Basel
Symposium do hope that there will be an opportunity again to continue the many fruitful discussions that
were initiated during the meeting. The efforts to bring scholars from four continents together has been
rewarding indeed; the present volume gives testimony of it.
BrigUta Hauser-Schaublin
9