Textiles of Southeast Asia. Robyn Maxwell
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Throughout the island of Borneo, the leaf of a wild swamp grass (Curculigo latifolia) widely known as Zemba, and to the Benuaq people as daun doyo, is woven into fabric with warp ikat patterns to make women's skirtcloths and, in the past, ceremonial hangings.25 On Tanimbar it is the threads of the lontar palm (Borassus flabelliformis) that are tied and dyed into warp ikat patterns before weaving. Other threads for weaving are obtained in eastern Indonesia from the pineapple, from varieties of palmyra plants including the pandanas and sago palms, and from a number of lesser known plants native to the region. Throughout Southeast Asia, the processing of thread, like the weaving of traditional cloth, is the work of women.
tol belts Kusae, Micronesia vegetable fibre, natural dyes linked warp weave, supplementary weft weave 18.4 x 149.0 em 11.0 x 168.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.772; 1984.771
The linked warp fibres of these nineteenth-century Micronesian girdles are an unusual decorative feature, difficult to execute on the standard Southeast Asian body-tension loom with a continuous circulating warp. Patterns of similar visual effect are worked in warp ikat in most parts of Southeast Asia. However, the floating supplementary weft bands and their geometric designs are a familiar feature on the cloths of many islands of eastern Indonesia. The finely woven Kusae ceremonial girdles were highly prized possessions throughout the former Caroline Islands where they were acquired through trade. The longer tol is red-brown with white supplementary wefts, and the shorter, wider belt has a plain black centre, with yellow, red and white end-patterns.
(detail) hoté; tepiké room-divider; hanging Sangihe-Talaud Islands, Indonesia abaca fibre, natural dyes, brass rings supplementary weft weave 775.0 x 160.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1986.1239
Until the twentieth century the textiles of the Sangihe-Talaud Islands continued to be woven of Musa textilis fibre, locally known as hoté. This huge nineteenth-century cloth is composed of five joined panels, patterned in banded, supplementary weft weave and containing the ancient spirals and hooked lozenges that occur on many of the oldest textiles in the Southeast Asian region. Textiles of these dimensions were used as hangings and room-dividers and this particular example still has brass rings attached to its upper side. Finer threads of hoté, sometimes mixed with wild pineapple fibres, were also woven into fabric that was used to make long gowns for men and tunics for women. Because narrow loom widths of fabric were joined in many parts of Southeast Asia to make larger objects, design similarities can often be distinguished in the textiles of neighbouring regions. This hanging is thus similar in structure and motif to the large batik hangings made by the Toraja living further to the south in Sulawesi.
tawit'ng doyo ceremonial textile Benuaq people, east Kalimantan, Indonesia doyo fibre (Curculigo latifolia), natural dyes warp ikat 207.0 x 98.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1985.386
This nineteenth-century example of a Benuaq ceremonial cloth is formed from two large panels. While the structure of this cloth is similar to the well-known Iban pua kumbu, the central section and the motifs displayed there are stylistically related to both Iban and T'boli warp ikat designs. The natural colours are soft, yet sharply defined, indicative of precise tying of the warp threads of the doyo fibre before dyeing occurs. Little is known of the function of these cloths although their structure and size suggest that they were used as ceremonial hangings.
A Benuaq woman in east Kalimantan knotting dried lemba or daun doyo fibres (Curculigo latifolia) into long strands to make thread for warp ikat skirtcloths (ulap doyo). The woman wears a long wrap-around skirt of more modern decorative technique, embroidery and appliqué on commercial cotton fabric, although the structure of the garment is similar to the ancient fibre ikats.
kumo a pair of ceremonial cloths T'boli people, Mindanao, Philippines abaca fibre, natural dyes warp ikat 65.0 x 220.0 em; 62.0 x 220.0 em Australian National Gallery 1984.1228
These two identical textiles in red, black and natural colours would probably be stitched together to form a ceremonial hanging (kumo). Separately, they may have functioned as women's skirts. The main diagonal grid motif is the snake or python pattern (sawo), a popular and powerful design throughout Southeast Asia, where a variety of ikat motifs are so named. The intervening zigzag lines are known as sigul. During the t'muke kumo ceremony, a protective warp ikat (t'nolak) cloth is placed over the bride, to be removed later by one of the groom's family (Casal, 1978). The same symbolism is evident after the settlement of bride-wealth agreements, when children who are betrothed are blanketed with these abaca ikat. Early twentieth century
A Filipino woman preparing abaca fibres before they are woven into fabric in 1920. The fibre is rolled into yarn on her thigh.
70 Women on the island of Solor in eastern Indonesia spin locally grown cotton using a wooden drop-weight spindle as they stroll to the fields to carry out routine agricultural tasks.
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The fibre used in many parts of eastern Indonesia as the resist-binding for ikat is obtained from the Corypha palm. While today it is rarely the basic fibre for woven fabric,26 it continues to be used to produce the material for sails in some of the oldest sea-going cultures of insular Southeast Asia.27 The Southeast Asian textile traditions were probably spread to Madagascar from Indonesia early in the first millenitim AD by seafaring travellers using the Corypha sails (Bellwood, 1979: 124; Mack, 1987).
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One of the most important stages in the preparation of textiles is the dyeing of the woven fabric or, in the case of many ancient forms of decorative textiles, the dyeing of the threads before weaving. Many strong natural dyes and mordants are available to the peoples of Southeast Asia. Of the range of naturally-obtained materials found in the region, dyestuffs used to make blue-black and pink-red-brown colours predominate.28 These include mud29 and varieties of indigo for blue-black colours,30 and barks or roots such as Morinda citrifolia, Caesalpina sappan, and Pelthophorum ferrugineum (saga) for red-brown. Stick lac, the residue obtained from insect deposits in tree bark (Coccus lacca), is the most widely used red dyestuff in mainland Southeast Asia (Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman, 1987: 45). Some art historians believe that indigo has a far longer history in Southeast Asia than red dyes (Buhler, 1941), although indigo has generally been replaced by the red dyes of Morinda citrifolia and stick lac as the preferred dye for ceremonial textiles. Brown soga dyes, like those associated with fine hand-drawn wax-resist batik from central Java, seem to be a later development. The tricolour of red, black and white has symbolic significance for many Southeast Asian peoples, and these are the colours found on very old types of textiles such as the abaca warp ikats of Mindanao, the banded cloths of eastern Indonesia and the bark tunics of the Toraja.
ceremonial hanging, skirt (?) Toraja people, central Sulawesi, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes supplementary warp weave 151.0 x 139.0 em Australian National Gallery 1983.3692
(detail) woman's skirtcloth (?) Benuaq people, east Kalimantan, Indonesia doyo fibre (Curculigo latifolia), natural dyes supplementary warp weave,