Textiles of Southeast Asia. Robyn Maxwell
the Great Traditions of Asia and Europe were transformed into Lesser Traditions with trade and distance. The Chinese peasant fleeing his homeland, the Gujarati merchant-pedlar, the Dutch colonial soldier and the Islamic teacher-traveller did not represent the great artistic centres or courts of their cultures. The objects and impressions that reached Southeast Asia were unlikely to have been the finest that the East and West could produce. In fact, historians cannot agree about what Southeast Asians really saw of the arts of the Great Traditions of India and China and there is much debate about the actual means by which new philosophies, religions and arts were transmitted to the distant lands of Southeast Asia.
Since traditional textile production in Southeast Asia was exclusively the task of women, textiles are able to show history from a different perspective by reflecting a female view of the contact between different cultures and are an alternative to the princely epics of war, succession and dominance. Textiles also remind us that many cultures and traditions existed outside the powerful court centres and kingdoms that dominate most accounts of Southeast Asian history. Many of the fabrics illustrated here - particularly the warp-decorated vegetable fibre textiles - provide valuable information about life in some of the more isolated and remote locations in Southeast Asia not directly in contact with the centres of international power and trade.
Perhaps the most difficult influences to assess are those of any one Southeast Asian culture upon its neighbours. Interregional influences have existed since prehistoric times, and while changes in textile design have often resulted from the political hegemony of a particular group during certain periods, most have been subtly absorbed and have passed undocumented. However, the important role of decorative textiles in establishing group identities has contributed to great diversity of colour, pattern and style.
Transformations have not only occurred in textile technique and design. The function and meaning of Southeast Asian textiles changed over time to accommodate new circumstances, new political structures and new belief systems. As religious ceremonies have changed, so too has the role of textiles. Changing notions of modesty, for example, have contributed to the development of new garments in the region and new applications for existing fabrics. Various foreign influences have gradually encouraged changes away from rectangular and cylindrical cloths towards more structured clothing.
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Sometimes old cloths take on new meanings with new ideas from the modern world, and when ancient heirloom textiles are too fragile to be used as in the past, locally made substitutes have often assumed some of the status of the heirloom models, even those originally obtained from foreign sources. The original meanings of patterns have also changed and nowadays weavers often look to their immediate world to explain the meaning of motifs and are no longer aware of what they may have meant to their ancestors. Old motifs have sometimes been retained or reworked, often appearing with new symbols on the same textile. Recent social, religious and cultural change merely continues a process which has been occurring throughout history though at a dramatically faster rate.
(detail) patolu (Gujarat, India); sindé (Lio, Flores, Indonesia) treasured heirloom and ritual object Gujarat region, India; Indonesia silk, gold thread, natural dyes double ikat 462.0 x 104.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1981.1140
(detail) luka semba male ritual leader's shawl Lio people, Flores, Indonesia cotton, natural dyes warp ikat 209.0 x 72.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1981.1142
The sources of the motifs on Southeast Asian cloth were sometimes imported luxury fabrics such as the silk patola from north-west India. One of the most popular of all Indian textiles imported into Southeast Asia was the star-patterned patolu, known today in Patan (the only centre in Gujarat still to weave the double ikat silks) as the basket design, chhabadi bhat (Biihler and Fischer, 1979, vol.l: 77). The pattern appears on different coloured grounds, the most common versions having red or yellow backgrounds. The popularity of this textile inspired weavers from tnany Southeast Asian cultures to produce their own versions of its motifs and even design structure, which appear in cotton and silk, in batik and ikat, throughout the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.
On some Southeast Asian fabrics the original Indian design was faithfully copied while on other textiles it was absorbed and incorporated into existing patterns. There is a striking congruity between certain ancient Indian textiles and even twentieth-century Lio cloths. However, while the brightly coloured Indian double ikats were obviously the original source of the dark brown and cream Lio designs, these trade cloths are now rare in this part of Indonesia, and Lio weavers nowadays associate the star-shaped motifs with certain types of local sea crabs.
kalamkari (south India); ma 'a or mawa (Toraja, Sulawesi, Indonesia) treasured heirloom and ritual object Petaboli district, Coromandel coast, India; Toraja region, central Sulawesi, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes and mordants mordant painting, batik 225.0 x 134.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.1093
Indian trade cloths have been valued heirlooms in the Toraja region of central Sulawesi for centuries. These figurative red and blue cloths (ma'a, mawa, also known as mbesa in the northern Toraja districts) appear to have generated a new genre of hand-drawn and block printing techniques among the Toraja people themselves. This particular example dates from the 1720s.
This genre of Indian mordant-painted cotton cloth (palampore) with its ornate flowering tree and border of garlands and bouquets, was created specifically for the European market. Many, however, reached Southeast Asia where their exotic foliage also had wide appeal and provided a rich source of design.
(detail) kain panjang skirtcloth Cirebon, Java, Indonesia cotton, natural dyes batik 106.0 x 258.3 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.3103
The motif of this particular hand-drawn batik from the north coast of Java is clearly derived from the designs on Indian palampore, the mordant-painted and dyed cotton bedspreads and hangings containing the 'tree of life' motif which were traded for many centuries into Southeast Asia. Indian palampore are now extremely rare heirlooms in java. However, this batik, although made around 1970, shows minimal local interpretation. The pattern, in brown and blue against a white ground, is known in Cirebon as the coconut (krambil). The culture of the people of this coastal region of west Java displays both Javanese and Sundanese elements.
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Design elements are formed from a variety of apparently conflicting symbols derived from different philosophies. The paths by which both objects and ideas arrived were often more circuitous than the trade routes. For example, the so-called 'tree of life' was a popular design on both Western and Oriental textiles traded into the region, but the history and development of this motif followed a complex path across several continents on its way to Southeast Asia (Maxwell, 1990). It is often impossible to distinguish clearly between symbolic representation and decorative devices, and to decide at which stage certain designs moved from one sphere to the other. In some cultures the break has been so dramatic that it is no longer possible to attach significant meaning to symbolism on textiles, although their aesthetic qualities may be greatly admired.
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Textiles do not represent discrete instances of historical or cultural change; numerous decorative techniques, and several sources of patterning may have contributed to a single cloth. Many textiles can only be understood by reference to the history of other cloths, other objects and other cultures. A ceremony performed in an isolated village may require many textiles of different age, technique, and origin - local cloths and neighbouring Southeast Asian or imported Indian and European fabrics. In Borneo, an Iban Dayak festival may draw a display of Chinese porcelain, Javanese gongs, ancient or European beads, Malay gold brocade and batik from Java, as well as large numbers of textiles woven by the Iban themselves. Certain lost