Indian trade textiles in Indonesia

April 23, 2010 - PRLog -- The quantities of cloths sent to Indonesia and the documented evidence of purchase by the nobility and the wealthy confirm that Indian trade cloths played a very important role in the social and cultural life of the people.

The Indonesians did not discriminate based so much on quality of the pieces but rather on the perceived spiritual value of the cloths. Exactly how the value was assigned or how much value it was, no one can say for sure, but there was a definite hierarchy among the imported textiles established throughout the islands which was surprisingly consistent.

The Patolas stood at the top of the totem pole, the figurative ones followed by the florals, next came the Bengal muslins and the Coromandel outsized cloths used as ceremonial hangings and finally the coarse cottons of the Malabar Coast. Since Indian trade cloths were regarded as spiritually loaded works of art, they had to conform exactly to an established set of specific pattern rules, any deviation rendered the cloth valueless.

There was very little secondary trade in Indian textiles between the countries of this region, because Indonesian buyers were not interested in Indian cloth manufactured for the Thai or Khmer markets as they were made to satisfy different aesthetic parameters than those demanded in Indonesia.

Indian textiles were elevated to a higher status in Indonesia than they ever assumed in India, the country of origin. To Indonesians, the first Indian textiles must have seemed refined beyond comprehension. In addition, they represented the aesthetic parameters of Cambay, serving as evidence of a philosophy that was very attractive to the island people. The fact that some of the cloths exported were not of the highest quality did not seem to be of much concern to their foreign buyers.

The custom of exchanging cloth to cement relationships and obtain land rites was very widely followed in Indonesia. Cloths were also extremely important in rites of passage such as deaths, births and marriages. Hence, naturally, when these seemingly complex cloths turned up in Indonesia, they became the benchmark for the highest value barter currency in circulation. Indian cloths were accorded the status of talismans and assumed a spiritual meaning for the people who purchased them, in many ways becoming most precious because they couldn't be duplicated in the host country.

Indian cloths were not only heirlooms to be passed on from generation to generation, but also were repositories of wealth for their owners. They were protected as best the people knew how: through little wear and careful placement in the tallest rafters of the house away from mice and damp. In many instances, the cloths were divided so that they could be distributed equally amongst the children, in such cases, though the cloths lost a great deal of their aesthetic and resale value, they were believed to still possess most of their protective power.

The buyers of the cloths were very discriminating in terms of patterns and their usage. In Java certain cloths could only be owned and worn by the nobility, while in Bali special cloths were believed to protect the wearer from harm during potentially risky ceremonies like tooth filing, a custom followed to this day.

Indian trade cloths influenced every aspect of Indonesian society, on a broad basis determining land rights and providing safety during rites of passage. However their most lasting influence has been on the textiles of Indonesia from ikats to batik.

Javanese batik was very influenced by the dye resist Kalamkaris of the Coromandel Coast. When the trade in Kain Sembagis and Kain Lahores dried up, the batik makers of Jambi in South Sumatra began to produce respectable imitations that soon became valuable in their own right. The batiks of Jambi were strongly blue and red echoing the colors of the Coromandel cloths and in many cases block-printed and hand resist painted like their Indian forebears. They also displayed tumpals along the edges.

The influence of Indian trade cloths can be seen in the ikats of Indonesia, from the island of Bangka in the west right through to Roti in the east. Bangka weft ikats were very finely woven, not so much in the tradition of Patola cloths, but more capturing the floral meander patterns of the Masulipatam cloths.

The single ikats of Roti played tribute to the Patola cloths, incorporating many Patola designs into the local weaving vocabulary. Some of the double ikat Gerinsing patterns woven in the village of Tenganan are also clearly inspired by Patola and like the Patola are also believed to have healing properties and protect the wearer from harm.

Indian influence in every aspect of Indonesian life is vast. Clearly the Indian trade cloths contributed to the spread of Indian culture throughout the archipelago and cemented cultural ties between the two countries.

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Reinhart Frais of Asian Textile Art (http://www.asiantextileart.com/) has copyright to many essays relating to rare, antique Indian and Southeast Asian textiles.