Textiles of Southeast Asia. Robyn Maxwell
by the other. Fine textiles are given as shrouds to honour prominent relations. In some places this custom has escalated into a potlatch competition of conspicuous consumption, when dozens of richly decorated textiles are buried and large numbers of buffaloes, cattle and pigs are slaughtered.66
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Designs representing architectural structures and manned boats have been found on ancient Southeast Asian pottery and metal objects dating from the Neolithic and Metal Ages and in early Austronesian rock art. Archaeologists have argued that the appearance of such designs upon objects found in burial sites suggests that they were intended to represent 'the ship of the dead'. Although ship-like structures have been prominent in funeral rites throughout Southeast Asia, it is misleading to assume that such depictions in the region's art always symbolized 'the ship of the dead'. The notion of a symbolic soul ship gives a fuller meaning to the motifs that appear on many traditional textiles, since the same cloths may be used at various stages in the life-cycle when an individual moves from one social or spiritual state to another. The huge palepai supplementary weft hangings of south Lampung in Sumatra, which are the possessions of the Paminggir clan leaders, are the finest examples of ship symbolism to be displayed at ceremonies of the life-cycle. Smaller tampan textiles, also containing these powerful transition symbols, are more widely used throughout the southern region of Sumatra for marriage ceremonies and initiations into adulthood, such as tooth-filing and circumcision.
tampan ceremonial cloth Paminggir people, Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes supplementary weft weave 67.0 x 63.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1981.1103
The rich red ship images on the smaller tampan are often more schematic, and huge animals on board simple canoe-like vessels dominate the designs. There is usually a boat structure at both top and bottom of the tampan, and in some instances the design has been planned to read both ways. The size and dress of the human figures under large umbrella structures in Plate 164 indicate their superior status.
The association of the ship motif with rituals of human transition suggests that motifs representing the human form may also be situationally defined. Mythical animals with human riders are familiar images in ancient Southeast Asian design, particularly on objects required at rites of passage. It has been suggested that because the place of textiles is paramount at the funerals of significant members of east Sumbanese nobility, the horses and riders found on certain wraps (hinggi kombu) may serve as psychopomp for the final journey to the next world (Adams, 1969: 167). As such, these anthropomorphic riders and their steeds may, like the ship motifs, represent the transition from one life state to another for those present at these ceremomes.
(detail) tampan; titi jembatan agung ceremonial textile Paminggir people, Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes supplementary weft weave 284.0 x 74.0 cm Art Gallery of South Australia 747A150
A series of tampan, removed from the loom without being divided, was not only used for the same ritual functions as the single square tampan but it was also given a unique place in certain Lampung ceremonies. This long brown and white fabric served as a floor runner along which a bridal couple walked towards a ceremonial bedroom. As 'king and queen' of the day, their textile pathway was known as the royal bridge, the titi jembatan agung (Gittinger, 1972). Late nineteenth century
(detail) lelangit sacred canopy Sasak people, Lombok, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes slit-tapestry weave, tie-dyeing (?) 90.0 x 90.0 x 18.0 cm Australian Museum E.78856
This nineteenth-century canopy was woven with a rare and sacred type of brown cotton. The four sides of the box are worked in slit-tapestry weave in rich natural colours and it is possible that the plain centre has been lightly tie-dyed. A canopy in the collection of the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden (2407-259), recorded as having come from Sewela in east Lombok, has tie-dyed circles in pale pastel shades scattered over a warm brown ground. The textile is hung as a heaven cloth or canopy (lelangif) above the deceased at traditional Sasak funerals.
(detail) pidan (?) cerembnial hanging Khmer people; Chvear Dam, Kanda! province, Cambodia silk, natural dyes weft ikat Musee de L'Homme, Paris 70.61.33
A figurative design in weft ikat (hol) contains trees, temples, birds, dragons and other creatures from each of the realms - sea, land and air. Elaborate sailing vessels are a prominent motif on these cloths which were used to decorate the bride's home during the marriage ceremony. Early twentieth century
(detail) kré alang skirtcloth Semawa people, west Sumbawa, Indonesia cotton, dyes, metallic thread supplementary weft weave 181.0 x 124.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1983.3687
The head-panel of this ceremonial skirtcloth from the court of Sumbawa displays ships with masts and rigging. The structure at the feet of the oversize crew suggests an outrigger, a familiar and ancient feature of Southeast Asian sailing craft, although it may also be an attempt to depict the poop deck of a local prau, repeated in mirror image during the supplementary weft weaving process. Like other Southeast Asian textiles that display these motifs, the ship on Sumbawa cloth is often linked with the ancient symbols of trees and birds. The human figures are presented in a flat frontal style with arms akimbo, and the field displays a characteristic diagonal grid pattern. The division of this early twentieth-century cloth's design into separate grey-green field and red head-panel is typical of later developments in the cloth structures of coastal principalities.
pha biang (?) ceremonial cloth Phutai people, Laos silk, cotton, dyes supplementary weft weave 40.0 x 75.0 em Australian National Gallery 1987.1824
In the mountainous northern areas of mainland Southeast Asia, the ship is usually a minor textile motif combined with other cosmic symbols, and small boats can be found on many Tai shawls in the bands that flank the central design. However, on this early twentieth-century Phutai example, a human figure stands on a platform, possibly a schematic version of a mythical creature, and the clearly depicted dragon-scaled boat is bordered by tree motifs. The foundation weave is lac-red with numerous bright supplementary coloured silks.
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The people of the island of Sumbawa, who have been closely connected with seafaring and trade for over a millenium, weave supplementary weft skirts containing figures in poses with arms akimbo and on boats which vary from simple canoes to fully-rigged barques. On the textiles of south Lembata, boat motifs allude to the important place of ships and voyages in the economic life and legendary history of this coastal community. Significantly, ship motifs are also a part of the textile iconography of the hill-dwellers in Cambodia, Laos and northern Thailand. On their garments, for instance, the small figures - sailors and riders of mythical beasts -are depicted in a symmetrical frontal perspective.
The upward curving bows of the more schematic versions of the ship motif can be linked with other transition symbols in Southeast Asian art. On certain textiles used in south Sumatran rites of passage, an ambiguous, bifurcated and hooked shape appears to be a compound symbol of ship, bird, tree and shrine, an important and highly appropriate image on such occasions (Gittinger, 197 4). On other Southeast Asian textiles, and on jewellery and sculpture, the curved ship form blurs with the buffalo horn and the crescent moon shapes or with the traditional house and its characteristic upward curving roof.
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