Textiles of Southeast Asia. Robyn Maxwell
other animals. One has already been consumed. Although the horns suggest a water buffalo and the scaled body of one creature suggests a crocodile or dragon, these brown monsters seem to have arisen entirely from the vivid imagination of the weaver. Tampan depicting large ferocious animals were one of a number of style categories produced during the nineteenth century. Overwhelmed by the larger figures, the human forms depicted here are simple standing figures with pronounced genitalia. The background is filled with small hooks which repeat the bold strokes in the creatures' tails and the prows of the ships. Nineteenth century
dodot bangun tulak alas-alasan pinarada mas royal ceremonial skirtcloth Javanese people, Surakarta, Java, Indonesia cotton, natural dyes, gold leaf stitch-resist dyeing, gluework 357.5 x 207.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.3167
This late nineteenth-century cloth belongs to a category of Javanese cloths known as kain kembangan (flowered cloth). These stitch-resist dyed cloths have an ancient history of sacred and ceremonial use in Java, and combine a number of auspicious elements. The black and white colours are considered especially propitious. It is decorated with scenes of animals and foliage known as alas-alasan (forest-like pattern), which are whimsically worked in fine gold leaf gluework (pinarada mas). While many of the small animals and insects depicted on the cloth are dangerous to humans and threatening to life-giving crops, their presence may serve as a form of symbolic protection since the particular name of the cloth (bangun tulak) suggests the notion of repelling evil (Solyom and Solyom, 1980a: 260; Veldhuisen-Djajasoebrata, 1985). These huge skirtcloths (dodot) are worn in the courts of central Java, and this indigo and white example also has gold leaf gluework on those reverse sections of the cloth that are revealed when it is draped around the loins. Royal bridal couples appear in these textiles during the manten lemon part of the marriage ceremonies.
COOLING CLOTHS: TEXTILES AS PROTECTION
Throughout Southeast Asia cloths are used in many sacred activities that are intended to ensure the safety of the individual, the prosperity of the group and the equilibrium of the universe. Textiles appear both in times of unpredictable disaster and during the regular cyclical rituals associated with agriculture, fertility and prosperity. Different cloths or sets of cloths are appropriate to each level of ritual. While those used in bride-wealth exchanges or in cases of individual illness or misfortune are the property of families, the cloths used at agricultural fertility rites often belong collectively to the clan or village and are stored in a central shrine or ritual house. There they are secured away with other sacred objects in the high peaked roofs of traditional buildings - the dwelling places of benevolent ancestors and spirits, and where offerings are placed to ensure their guardianship.73
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Textiles are believed to have the power to ward off evil spirits who attempt to steal an individual's soul, and thus inflict illness and ultimately death. Geringsing are renowned as a type of double ikat cloth in Bali and also as the name of a particular batik pattern in Java, and both have special protective qualities. The chronicles tell of the use of geringsingby Javanese warriors in battle, while in Bali and even in the Sasak districts of Lombok, the double ikat geringsing cloths appear in cyclical ceremonies and rites of passage, and at times of unusual and unexpected crisis.
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The concept of using a textile as a protective barrier against malevolent forces is implicit in the name of the ban gun tulak cloths of central Java, a term meaning 'to turn back evil'. These blue-black and white tie-dyed cloths are an important part of the paraphernalia of the garebag, an ancient annual feast of renewal when the links between the heavenly and earthly realms are stressed and which, since the arrival of Islam in Java, is celebrated on Muhammad's birthday (Veldhuisen-Djajasoebrata, 1985: 132). These cloths are also worn as huge ceremonial wraps (dodot) by court dancers and by royal bridal couples at the marriage rituals that ensure the prosperity and fertility of the court of Surakarta in central Java. Combinations of blue-black and white on textiles are considered propitious in Java and Bali, and are appropriate colours for protective textiles (Solyom and Solyom, 1980b: 278). Banners in these colours were hung at times of community crisis, and in certain villages in one part of Java today, black and white cloths referred to by the term for banner (panjz) are used in exorcism rituals (Heringa, 1985: 120). In Javanese and Balinese legend, black and white checked cloth (kain poleng) is worn by particular gods and heroes, and the stone temple guards of Bali are swathed in poleng checks during temple festivals.
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The depiction on textiles of motifs associated with danger and aggression, including grotesque and mysterious creatures, seems to be a deliberate attempt to harness these qualities to repel life-threatening forces.74 We find, for example, rows of teeth (ipon-ipon) and centipedes (ansisibang) placed on the intricate white supplementary weft panels of certain Toba Batak textiles,75 and these same creatures are also displayed on the bangun tulak alas-alasan of central Java. Bands of poisonous scorpions (maeng ngord and maeng ngao) and pythons (ngu hluam) on Esarn fabrics in northern Thailand are believed auspicious (Peetathawatchai, 1973: 49-51), while saw teeth, tiger claws, thorns, and forks appear on Mien embroideries that are used during important life-cycle ceremonies associated with the notion of repelling danger. The tiger, once a constant threat to villagers in northern Thailand, must be placated with annual rituals. However, it is also believed that its powers can be assumed through the wearing of a textile displaying its symbols. For the Mien, only their priests have sufficient power to control such forces, and the use of the strong tiger design is restricted to the robes of these religious leaders.76
usap sacred textile Sasak people, Lombok, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes supplementary weft weave 45.5 x 58.2 cm Australian National Gallery 1986.2454
(detail) owes(?) ceremonial shawl; hanging Tinguian people, Luzon, Philippines handspun cotton, natural dyes supplementary weft weave Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 108887
In many parts of Southeast Asia, strange and enigmatic monsters appear on supplementary weave textiles. Today, the meaning of such images is often unclear to the weavers who merely follow patterns established in ancestral times. In the case of the rare figurative Lombok usap, the blue bearded creatures and the diamond-shaped remnants of rider or howdah are no longer a part of twentieth-century Sasak textile iconography. On the indigo and natural Tinguian cloth, the main figure is also bearded. Nineteenth-century textiles.
(detail) kain panjang skirtcloth Javanese people, Yogyakarta, java, Indonesia cotton, natural dyes batik Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden 8110.19
The broken sword pattern (parang rusak) is considered to be one of the most powerful batik designs in central java. It was originally one of the restricted patterns permitted to be used only by the Javanese nobility of the Mataram court (Veldhuisen-Djajasoebrata, 1988: 60). The higher a noble's rank, the larger the parang rusak pattern that could be worn. This example was collected in the early twentieth century by the famous Dutch Javanologist, R.A. Kern, who recorded it as the barong (giant parang) pattern.
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The deployment of dangerous sharp symbols - swords, knives and teeth - for protection is also widespread throughout Southeast Asia. One of the most famous symbols of this kind is the parang rusak (broken sword) pattern used on wax-resist batiks in central Java. There are several interpretations of this pattern, all of them variations on the ancient interlocking double spiral. Significantly, terms remarkably similar to parang rusak are also used to describe certain warp ikat textiles found throughout the Malay world bearing the equally ancient arrowhead pattern. This arrowhead pattern is known as plang rutha in Aceh and plang rosa in Malaysia. It also appears on Toba Batak ceremonial baby-carriers (ulos mangiring), where it is known as the