Textiles of Southeast Asia. Robyn Maxwell
This creature (or creatures?) has multiple legs and appears to have two heads. According to the documentation attached to a similar beaded skirt collected in 1883 after the Colonial Exhibition in Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden 370-3767), the creature is tentatively identified as a scorpion. Its bold white shape is outlined in bright red, blue, orange and green beads.
Black m1,1d-dyeing is probably one of the oldest techniques in Southeast Asia and can still be found in a few places, including Lombok, central Sulawesi and Sumba. In each case it appears to be the woven cloth rather than the threads that are treated. A hot mud process is used in Sumba to dye certain types of women's skirts (tau), including those to which bands of heirloom beads (hada) are later added. The fringe of a cloth can be made during the weaving process or it can be added later with a needle. Although fringes usually appear at either end like the cut warp, needle-inserted fringes decorate the surface of the fabric on this type of lau hada. Thus two forms of designs are formed on the same mud-dyed ground - one in the brightest beads and shells and another in a dark embroidered fringe. Late nineteenth or early twentieth century
(detail) tapis woman's ceremonial skirt Paminggir people, Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia silk, handspun cotton, natural dyes warp ikat, embroidery 65.5 x 127.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1980.1633
The mature and careful weaver can harness the very qualities and power that make certain spirits, animals and insects so dangerous to humans. However, the original meaning of the ambiguous motif appearing in the embroidered bands on this Lampung textile is now unknown. The presence of small creatures within the larger squid-like form suggest that it may have been one of the imaginative Paminggir monsters also found on the tampan cloths. In other renditions of this type of embroidered skirt these motifs appear to be stylized human forms. The base fabric of this nineteenth-century textile is decorated with bands of warp ikat.
alu mama betel-nut bag Atoni or Dawan people, Timor, Indonesia cotton, shells, beads, natural dyes supplementary warp weave, appliqué 53.0 x 21.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1986.1250
In Timor, the great crocodile motif (besi mnasi) is based upon a creature of central importance in ancestral legends. Offerings are made to appease the crocodile spirit, and this always includes the ingredients for betel-nut chewing. This twentieth-century woven betel-nut bag also displays rhomb, spiral and key motifs in indigo and white, with subtle stripes of other natural colours, and illustrates how shells and beads are used as a subsidiary element to provide finishing decoration to textiles.
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Crocodiles, pythons, and predatory beasts are linked in east Sumba with the ruler whose power over life and death is unquestioned. However, the relationship of mortals with such potentially dangerous creatures is often ambiguous, so the crocodile and snake are both symbols of danger and symbols of protection throughout many parts of Southeast Asia. When these creatures appear on cloths used as funeral shrouds they are invoked as figures of the Underworld to secure safe passage for the dead to the next life.
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Birds, also significant in legend and ritual, are widely depicted in textile iconography as the domestic fowl, various exotic species of bird from the natural world, and mythical winged creatures rep-resenting the gods, spirits and ancestors who inhabit the Upper World and frequently assume these guises. At their most important rituals, especially those connected with male prestige and head-hunting, the Iban prepare a carved and painted effigy of the mighty horn bill. This is known as a kenyalang, and is associated with the legendary god of war and supreme augury bird-deity, Lang Singalang Burong. On occasions when the kenyalang is displayed in his honour, textiles are always present. A bird identified as the hornbill also often appears on various art forms, including mats, textiles and carving, in other parts of Borneo and in the Lampung region of Sumatra. Another ancient textile motif is the domestic fowl, a part of Southeast Asian village life in prehistoric times which remains a minor but essential sacrificial animal in many family and community ceremonies.
Colours are also a part of the ancient Austronesian dualism that has ordered conceptions of the universe. Black is often associated with the left and with femaleness, while red is associated with the right and maleness. Hence red is the suitable colour for a warrior's outfit. While the application of these colours reflects the availability of dyestuffs during early history, the significance of these colour categories can still be detected in Southeast Asian costume. For example, in the Thai court of the late Ayutthaya period, the right-hand guards wore red and the left-hand contingent wore black (Terwiel, 1983: 11); and at the court of Bima in Sumbawa, the Sultan's troops wore red as a sign of bravery, while his civil retainers wore blue-black (Hitchcock, 1985: 19). Throughout Southeast Asia, it is common to find that red is the favoured colour for ceremonial costume while black is used for everyday apparel.54
Red, black and white threads twined together into yarn form a symbol of the unity of the cosmos and the divergent or conflicting forces it encompasses. Bundles of these threads are used as magic talismans by the Balinese and the Bataks of north Sumatra, and a jacket of red in northern Thailand is adorned with a black and white cross which is believed to lengthen the wearer's life (Campbell et al, 1978: 37). Certain Balinese offerings are only considered complete when they incorporate both black and red sacred geringsing double ikat textiles.55 The Karo Batak of north Sumatra, on the other hand, believe that the tricolour threads represent the three elements that form the foundations of their social structure. The intertwining of threads of the three colours (benang tiga rupa) symbolizes the ideal unity and co-operation which should exist between a family and its bride-givers and bride-takers, since no ceremony can be properly and effectively performed without the presence of these three essential elements of the Karo kinship system.56
(detail) kuma ceremonial cloth; hanging T'Boli people, Mindanao, Philippines abaca fibre, natural dyes warp ikat 766.0 x 57.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.1217
The birds depicted on Southeast Asian textiles are often legendary creatures. The stylized motif on this mid-twentieth-century ceremonial hanging is said to be a large bird with great flapping wings (g'mayaw) that possesses the power to make the observer dizzy. This is not a bird familiar to village Mindanao but is known only to the ancestors and today 'is seen only from afar' (Casal, 1978). This long single panel with a plaited fringe is a recent fine example of abaca ikat.
tambai gawai ceremonial banner Iban people, Sarawak, Malaysia cotton, natural dyes warp ikat, twining 122.4 x 26.4 cm Australian National Gallery 1981.1111
Long banners (tambai) are hung from a kenyalang, the carved wooden representation of the mighty hornbill at important Iban festivals (gawai) connected with male prestige and head-hunting. This is one of three banners, collected in the Baleh region of Sarawak in 1950 by Emeritus Professor Derek Freeman and Monica Freeman. It shows three mythical water serpents (nabau).
(detail) hom non cloth for a woman's skirt Kisar or Luang, South Maluku, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes warp ikat 69.4 x 260.5 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.606
The major bands of warp ikat on this length of cloth contain motifs representing the domestic fowl, as well as human figures and schematic star motifs. These motifs are known generally as rimanu in this region Gasper and Pirngadie, 1912b: Plates 26- 7). Although the exact meaning of the term is unknown, in many Austronesian languages manu is a word used for the domestic chicken. Such designs were only worn by local leaders and their families. This early twentieth-century textile was taken as a souvenir to the Netherlands and so was never cut and formed into a woman's cylindrical skirt