Indonesian Textiles Bibliography - Jackson School of International ...

INDONESIAN TEXTILES
A Selected and Annotated Bibliography
THE ISLAND GALLERY
Susan Swannack-Nunn
January 2002
This annotated bibliography includes a selection of books and articles on
Indonesian textiles. While the bibliography covers the range of textiles produced in
Indonesia, there is more discussion on batiks, the primary focus of The Island Gallery.
Academic texts, and more popular texts on interior design that show how these textiles
are exhibited today, are included. The selections provide a good start for those wishing
to read more about Indonesian textiles. However, there are some publications that were
out of print or unavailable when assembling the bibliography, so readers and researchers
are encouraged to pursue the most recent publications on the subject.
Ament, Deloris Tarzan. “Threads of Tradition/Weavings are Deep in Texture and
Significance.” two articles discussing the Manring Collection, a portion of which was
established in the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle Times, January 12, 1992.
These articles discuss Timothy Manring and his wife, Indrastuti Hadiputranto,
who donated 500 Indonesian ikat textiles to the Seattle Art Museum. The couple has
collected Indonesian textiles since 1970. At the time of the article, they said that a 2 ½
meter sarong-length batik by a famous maker such as Javanese artist Osy Soe Tjoen
could cost $1,000, gold-leafed batiks $5,000, and good silk batiks $80-$200 each. “Still,
in one of those ironies that abound in the world of art, batik makers may earn as little as
$3 a day.” Prices for fine ikats are harder to predict, because there are no standard
dimensions. The Manrings noted that originally they had intended to give SAM examples
of both ikats and batiks, but found that the museum was interested only in ikats. Ament
notes that “Indonesia’s exquisite batiks, tapestry weavings, and shell embroidery all win
worldwide admiration. But no textile exceeds ikat in complexity and pure artistic power.”
The article discusses that the fineness of an ikat depends on how many threads are
bunched for tying. In ordinary ikats, 10 to 15 threads are bunched; in the finest weavings,
as few as three may compose a bundle.”
Brenner, Suzanne April. Domestication of Desire: Women, Wealth and Modernity in
Java. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Written by an anthropologist who conducted field research for two years in
central Java during the mid-eighties, this book provides a fascinating view of the social
and economic structures prevailing in Laweyan, a neighborhood of Solo once known for
its vibrant batik production. “Laweyan had developed around the turn of the century into
one of the preeminent centers of the batik industry in Solo and, in fact, in the whole of the
Netherlands East Indies.” (34) She presents a good history of batik production and tries to
understand how “a fundamentally modern community in the first half of the twentieth

century” was to become in later years “a stronghold of tradition that continually erected
barriers…to further modernization.”
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She examines gender relationships and the importance of women in batik
production and trade. “It is no exaggeration to say that women were the heart and soul of
the community, as they were of the family firm, and that women’s centrality here defined
in critical ways the community’s internal social relations as well as its connections with
the outside world. “The domestic sphere in Laweyan….revolves around the woman who
stands at its core. As the main agents of domestication in the household, women often
take on the burden of producing and accumulating not only material wealth but also
social status and cultural capital for their families – the latter of which have been
inadequately recognized in most studies of Javanese society.” (204)
Details on social interactions (such as the combined arisan-slametan (the first
term referring to a social gathering of a women’s rotating credit association combined
with a formal religious ritual to commemorate a significant life event such as a death or
marriage) provide interesting insights into Javanese culture at the time - how women
could be kasar (unrefined or crude) in contrast to men’s interactions having to be more
alus (refined or cultured). However, as a female participant observer, with greater access
to women’s activities, I wonder how this may have affected some of her observations,
especially the stark contrasts between female and male behaviors.
“We will also see how gender itself came to figure prominently in the
transformation of Laweyan from a locus of modernity to a site of nostalgia…. It is the
belief in the batik industry both as a channel of ancestral value and as a way of asserting
their own (tenuous) claims to cultural legitimacy, I would argue, that has led Javanese
batik entrepreneurs to cling so tenaciously to this field of business even as they see their
own once-substantial profits dwindle to a fraction of what they were in the heyday of the
industry.” While I would agree with some of her conclusions, I think there were a
number of factors probably responsible for the decline of the batik industry in this area,
including changing labor markets (the availability of higher paying jobs for batik
workers), inability to access sufficient credit (which she alludes to in other parts of the
book), and the rise of crony capitalism (which affected access to credit, among other
things). It would have been helpful if she would have incorporated some analysis on the
size of batik industry (numbers of firms and workers) that is sustainable in the Indonesian
economy at various times, because some consolidation was inevitable in the textile
industry, as has occurred in other countries. What is interesting is the continuing role of a
range of batik industrial types – from cottage industries of less than 10 workers to
factories employing thousands (see descriptions of batik factories in Fraser-Lu).
In examining the modern family and the New Order regime’s gender ideologies
and policies, she sees the independence of the female merchant class eroded, but does not
see the broader picture of female society as a whole, in particular the female kampong
residents whom she earlier had described in rather bleak terms as the batik workers for
the female juragan. She described these workers as having an impoverished existence.

Did their condition improve with the New Order, particularly as the number of poor
declined so dramatically during the eighties and pre-crisis nineties?
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The author sees the modern capitalist state evolving in Indonesia with the
separation of home and work place, in contrast to batik industries, which were mostly
home-based. As many in the West establish home offices with modern technologies and
communications, and there is a better understanding of how innovation occurs - that large
industries often rely on smaller firms for innovation, the continuum is not as
unidirectional as the author implies. Why cannot this be applied to the batik industry and
art form; indeed there are examples of periodic efforts to encourage the batik industry
from the time of the Dutch colonialists, during the period of Sukarno and today. A whole
range of batik industries continue today, and it would be interesting to analyze in more
depth their evolution according to structure and other characteristics, including female
participation.
Cassidy, Carol. Beyond Tradition: Lao Textiles Revisited (The Handwoven Textiles
of Carol Cassidy). New York: The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology,
1995. Printed in Hong Kong by Pearl River Printing Company.
I wanted to read this book as an inspiration for opening a gallery, as this
American woman has been successful in trying to bridge cultures and bring new
technologies and marketing skills to a Southeast Asian country with an impressive textile
tradition. Carol Cassidy, formerly a consultant to the United Nations, in 1989 established
a business in Vientiane which involves working with and training local Lao weavers and
dyers, producing wall hangings, clothing and custom furnishing fabrics which utilize
traditional design motifs in making products to meet contemporary market demands.
“With the combination of her entrepreneurial skills and her talent as a weaver, Carol
Cassidy is a catalyst in the preservation of Laotian weaving. Her fine sense of color and
design has resulted in the production of finely made fabrics which draw from and
preserve past traditions by bringing them to the present.” (Foreword)
This publication was produced in conjunction with the exhibition, Beyond
Tradition: Lao Textiles Revisited that was held June-September 1995 at the Museum of
the Fashion Institute of Technology. This book, with a brief text and fine quality
photographs of contemporary weavings from her workshop juxtaposed to older textiles
that serve as the inspiration for contemporary pieces, is itself an inspiration. Photographs
also illustrate the weaving process. Weaving types are weft patterning, weft ikat, and
interlocking tapestry. I was particularly impressed by the artistry and simplicity of
Cassidy’s showroom in Vientiane, which is photographed.
Cote, Joost, Trans. Letters from Kartini: An Indonesian Feminist 1900-1904.
Melbourne: Monash Asia Institute in association with Hyland House Publishing Pty. Ltd.,
1992.
This book is important because it highlights the “ethical policy” concerns about
women and workers during a period of Dutch colonialism. This is the first complete and

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unabridged English translation of more than 100 letters which Kartini and her two sisters
wrote to her mentor, Rosa Abendanon-Mandiri, wife of the Director of the Department of
Education, Religion and Industry of the Dutch East Indies between 1900 and 1904. The
original letters, discovered in the early nineties, were edited by F.G.P. Jaquet and held by
the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-,Land-en Volkenkunde in its archives in Leiden. The
first publication of some portion of these letters was in 1911 in Dutch, followed by
various editions and translations in Dutch, Malay, Arabic, Sudanese, Javanese,
Indonesian, Japanese and English (the latter first available in 1920 under the title of
Letters of a Javanese Princess).
The collection includes letters and details that were considered too sensitive to
have been made public in 1911. Kartini and her two sisters were living in the coastal
town of Japara on Java The letters are gripping for what they reveal about the aspirations
of a bright young Javanese woman who has been exposed to modern ideas and longs for
an independence that is in conflict to the adat and traditions of Javanese society at the
beginning of the 20 th century. Her observations, even to readers today, remain relevant
and reflect the tenacity of traditions in Moslem and other traditional societies and the
compromises that often must be made to further personal ideals. Kartini reveres much in
her own culture, endures hardships, and ultimately compromises her personal desire for
total independence by marrying a regent in order to further her goals of education for
native women. The book also includes a very useful bibliography of editors of Kartini’s
letters, other published writing by Kartini, and a chronological listing of works on
Kartini.
Djoemena, Nian. Batik: Its Mystery and Meaning. Indonesia: Penerbit Djambatan,
1986.
Nian, of West Sumatran origin, was born into a textile family. Her father, Rahman
Tamin, was the first businessman in Indonesia to establish a factory for the finishing and
printing of textiles in Surabaya. After completing secondary education, Nian continued
her education at the Hogere Textiel School in the Netherlands. After 1960 Nian began to
seriously collect batiks from a number of different regions. This book is the result of her
studies and travels, including interviews with batik-makers, and includes photographs
from her private collection.
In general, Nian classifies the batiks into two broad categories: (i) the batik of
Solo and Yogya where the symbolic motifs reflect a Hindu-Javanese cultural background
and the colors emphasize sogan (rich brown color), indigo (blue), black, white and cream;
and (ii) the batik of the coastal areas where motifs are naturalistic, reflecting foreign
influences, and a variety of colors. She goes on to discuss the motifs and color
combinations of the batiks in nine regions, which she considers the most important: Solo,
Yogya, Cirebon, Indramayu, Garut, Pekalongan, Lasem, Madura, and Jambi. A brief
description is presented for 273 different designs and color combinations, discussing
them in relation to the geographical situation where the batik is made, the social order
and customs of that particular region, the natural environment, and contact with other
batik-making areas. It concludes with short descriptions of well-known batik artists

working at the time of publication, linking them to the particular designs for which they
are noted (particularly helpful to anyone considering starting up an Indonesian batik
business). A glossary of Indonesian terms is included.
Fraser-Lu, Sylvia. Indonesian Batik: Processes, Patterns and Places. Singapore:
Oxford University Press, 1986.
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Fraser-Lu presents a useful classification of batik design into (i) isen or
background designs (some 15 different motifs); (ii) geometric designs (Ceplokan or
repetitive designs and Kawung or circular designs, Nitik or weaving designs, Garis
Miring or parallel diagonal designs, Tambal Miring or patchwork design, and Tumpal or
triangular design); and (iii) Semen or Non-geometric Designs (flower, fruit, and leaf
motifs, bird motifs, animal motifs, rock and cloud designs, mountain and landscape
designs, ship motifs, and human figures). The explanations include both description and
symbolism with small pictures of each type. Her typology of batik industries is also
interesting, as she describes specific batik companies and their organizational structure in
the towns that she visited.
This book is a well-written straightforward text with a brief historical account of
the origins of batik and the batik process. Of particular interest is her notation of the
integration of batik with the wayang kulit shadow plays and the gamelan orchestras.
According to Fraser-Lu, the Javanese dalang (puppeteer) not only presides over the most
important of the performing arts, but he also is an important source of batik patterns. The
names of well-known gamelan melodies have their counterpart in batik (for example,
Pisang Bali, Kawung, Limar and Srikaton). In the conclusions, the author notes the
existence of the Wastraprema Society, an organization dedicated to maintaining the
purity of Indonesian batik and weaving and the Batik Research Center (Balai Penelitian
Batik Kerajinan) in Jogjakarta, as well as the role of Iwan Tirta in preserving the art of
batik while innovating in ways to use it more effectively. The author meant this book to
be a brief guide or “apertif” for the general reader or traveler, and the small book is
indeed something one could take along when studying or purchasing batik.
Gavin, Traude. Women’s Warpath: Iban Ritual Fabrics from Borneo. Los Angeles:
UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1996.
This book is the third in a series of projects sponsored by the UCLA’s Fowler
Museum of Cultural History focusing on the textile traditions of Southeast Asia, and
accompanies an exhibition of Iban textile holdings in the museum that was curated by Dr.
Gavin. Most of the earlier literature on Iban textiles was based on secondary sources
rather than original fieldwork; therefore Gavin’s fieldwork between 1986 and 1995
breaks new ground. “My research provides conclusive evidence that traditional Iban
patterns are not encoded with a pictorial language of symbols,” in contrast to the earlier
literature that said designs were assumed to originate as realistic depictions of nature
which over time degenerated into simplified forms. The author illustrates a number of
Iban textile patterns and their meaning.

Gillow, John and Dawson, Barry. Traditional Indonesian Textiles. London: Thames
and Hudson, 1992.
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This book is a standard introductory survey of Indonesian textiles, with separate
chapters covering: history; yarns, looms and dyes; batik; warp and weft ikat, plangi and
tritik; the art of embellishment covering supplementary weft and warp, embroidery,
appliqué, beadwork and shellwork and bark cloth. The illustrations and color photographs
are of fine quality and there is a useful section on museums and galleries with collections
of Indonesian textiles.
Gittinger, Mattiebelle. Splendid Symbols: Textiles and Traditions in Indonesia.
Washington D.C.: The Textile Museum, 1979.
During the 1970s and early 1980s, interest in Southeast Asian textiles “took off,”
according to Michael Howard (see Textiles of Southeast Asia below). A number of
important books on Indonesian textiles were also published. This particular book became
the standard reference work for collectors at the time. Several chapters are devoted to
exploring the role of textiles in the social customs and religion of Indonesia, followed by
individual chapters discussing the general characteristics of textiles in 14 geographic
areas: Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Sumba, Flores, Solor and Lembata,
Timor, Roti, Savu and Ndao, Southern Moluccas, Kisar and Tanimbar, Ceram, Sulawesi,
Sangir and Talaud, and Borneo. This book was originally published to document a
comprehensive exhibition of Indonesian textiles from the holdings of The Textile
Museum and private collections. The quality of the photographs (largely black and white)
is far superior in more recent publications.
Gittinger, Mattiebelle, Ed. To Speak with Cloth: Studies in Indonesian Textiles. Los
Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, 1989.
This book presents an anthology of essays addressing current research interests on
Indonesian textiles by a group of internationally recognized scholars, commissioned by
the UCLA Museum of Cultural History which houses a significant collection of
Indonesian textiles originally assembled in the 1930s with significant acquisitions made
during the mid-seventies to mid-eighties.
Gittinger notes that previous texts on Indonesian textiles tended to be broadly
based, generalizing about many cloth types from various parts of Indonesia. “Happily,
now that textiles are increasingly recognized as primary source material, researchers are
asking the questions and obtaining the answers that reveal, even more convincingly, how
remarkable and important they are in the socio-religious scene of Southeast Asia….In a
larger perspective, the conclusion I hope will be drawn from the entire collection of
essays is that textiles deserve to be considered as valuable primary source material,
subject to as much scrutiny as kinship structures for the anthropologist and ancient
chronicles for the historian.”

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On batik, Anthony Forge, Professor of Anthropology at the Australian National
University, in “Batik Patterns of the Early Nineteenth Century,” discusses the earliest
known visual records of particular batik patterns from a collection of carved models or
puppets commissioned by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles during his period as Lieutenant
Governor of Java (1811-1816). Judi Achjadi, a specialist in Indonesian women’s dress
and wedding ceremonies, writes on “Batiks in the Central Javanese Wedding Ceremony,”
discussing the traditional uses of textiles for the marriage ceremony, considered the most
important event in traditional community life. She presents a good collection of
photographs showing the various uses of textiles, as costumes.
Robyn and John Maxwell, in “Political Motives: The Batiks of Mohamad Hadi of
Solo, reflect upon the relationship between politics and art as seen in the batiks of Hadi
during the early 1960s. Hadi, a painter, was a member of the radical Institute of People’s
Culture during the 1950s, a group that “rejected the domination of Western cultural and
artistic influences and sought to establish the grounds for an independent national culture
based upon the interests and shared experiences of the Indonesian people.” While batik in
its classical form had become closely identified with the Javanese aristocracy, Hadi
sought to use traditional batik forms and infuse them with artistic expressions of the
common people. For a short period, until his arrest in 1965, he designed batiks within
traditional formats, subtly adapting traditional shapes into new symbols. One example
shows how he transformed auspicious elements of the wedding cloth (birds and insects)
into symbols of a new social order glorifying the Javanese peasant farmer (ears of corn
and stalks of rice). “Hadi’s work…was an example of one man’s attempt to find a
continuing vital role for batik in the culture of modern Java as part of Indonesia’s
national heritage. Although his designs were unique, they were firmly located within a
Javanese tradition. If it is true that batiks and their designs reflect the batik designer’s
own innermost wishes, thoughts, and feelings, then Mohamad Hadi’s work reveals a man
steeped in Javanese traditional culture and possessed of a strong social and political
concern for the plight of the people, particularly the peasant farms of rural Java.”
Grayston, Graham, Editor. Cultures at Crossroads: Southeast Asian Textiles from the
Australian National Gallery. Canberra: Australian National Gallery, 1992.
This publication, with essays by Michael Brand, Anthony Reid, and Robyn
Maxwell, was written to document an exhibition of Southeast Asian textiles from the
Australian National Gallery. By focusing on broad cultural interactions between
Southeast Asia and the rest of the word as seen in textiles “…we have sought to present
an exhibition that elevates the purely formal beauty of the textiles to a new level of
cultural understanding.” The collection is discussed in chapters on early Southeast Asian
Textiles largely represented by ikats and supplementary warp and weft weavings, the
impact of Indian textiles, Chinese influences, textiles for the new faiths of Islam and
Christianity, and the many design sources of batik.

Hauser-Schaublin, Birgitta; Nabholz-Kartaschoff, Marie-Louise; and Ramseyer, Urs.
Balinese Textiles. Singapore: Periplus Editions, Inc., 1991.
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This book is based on the extensive Balinese textile collection at the Basel
Museum of Ethnography, where Hauser-Schaublin and Nabholz-Kartaschoff are curators.
Documentation of the textiles was carried out by Ramseyer in 1972-74, when he studied
the geringsing cloths of Tenganan, and by the three authors between 1988-90 for the
other types of textiles. The book is divided into chapters according to the most important
categories of textiles: Endek, Songket, Perada, Bebali, Keling, Poleng, Cepuk and
Geringsing. “Our attempt is to direct the reader’s attention from the material to the nonmaterial
– to the social and the semiotic. In other words, textiles are presented here as a
cultural “language,” to the understanding and interpretation of which we have addressed
our special attention.”
This book is one of the most comprehensive texts on the textiles of a geographic
area in Indonesia. For each type of textile, it includes a historical perspective, ritual uses,
the technology and structure of production over time, and comments from the producers
or users of Bali reference their views on the particular type of textile. Color photographs
and drawings illustrate the ceremonies where the textiles are used, the production
process, and the resulting textiles, showing both the older textiles from the museum
collection and new textiles of the type produced today (when the book was published).
I found the comments of the Balinese to be quite refreshing, for example, in the
discussion of cepuk (a special type of weft ikat cloth). According to the authors, the
“developments of the last sixty years have been aimed at saving labor and cost in all steps
along the way. Cheaper and more resistant factory-made yarns, synthetic tying materials,
quick-acting synthetic dyestuffs and longer warps are all in demand. Logically enough,
cepuk cloths are also now being made on modern ATBM looms with high-speed weft
bobbins in the capital city of Denpasar. Needless to say, all of this has been achieved at a
cost – in quality, aesthetics and variety of patterns used. A comparison of fine old cepuk
cloths with modern ones shows the differences only too clearly, and one may readily
appreciate why many Balinese deny that the new cloths possess the inherent power of the
older ones.”
The authors include quotations from interviewees: “And I still have ringing in my
ears the laughter of weavers in Nusa Penida, who on seeing a cloth bought in Denpasar
exclaimed: ‘Oh no! That’s not a proper cepuk. That’s been made by a child or a
beginner!’ Yet here again we find the Balinese broad-minded and adaptable, as in the
remark made by one of the wives of the late raja of Tabanan, who died in 1987: ‘If we no
longer have an old cepuk, we can make do with a new one. Only fanatics object to the use
of such modern cloths in rituals.’” (100)

Herringa, Rens and Veldhuisen, Harmen C. Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the
North Coast of Java. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art and
Weatherhill, Inc., 1996.
This book serves as the catalogue of the Inger McCabe Elliott batik collection,
which was donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1991. McCabe Elliott
states that “my collection draws almost exclusively from the exuberant fabrics of north
coast Java, the Pasisir, an area almost forgotten by earlier batik scholars, who
concentrated on the courtly textiles of central Java. Making sense of these cloths has
proven to be a formidable challenge, requiring both visual skills and historical insight.”
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The essay “Batik Pasisir as Mestizo Costume” by Rens Heringa, an anthropologist
involved with Javanese and Pasisir batik as wearer, craftswoman, and researcher for
many years, discusses the role of batik cloth in indicating group affiliation, as women’s
property, the role of Javanese female batik traders in providing batik textiles to well-to-do
European and Indo-European women up to the mid-nineteenth century who were often
segregated and secluded in house compounds, and the evolution of Javanese dress
through the 20 th century. “Instead of serving as lingua franca, it [batik Pasisir] consisted
of a series of different dialects and Creole languages based on the same roots.”
This book has one of the best discussions and illustrations of costume of those I
reviewed. The essay, “The Role of Entrepreneurs in the Stylistic Development of Batik
Pasisir,” by Harmen Velduisen, a well-known collector of Javanese batik and author of
Batik Belanda 1840-1940: Dutch Influence in Batik from Java: History and Stories
(1993), presents the best discussion in English that I have encountered on Indo-European,
Peranakan, Javanese and Indo-Arabian entrepreneurs active along the north coast of Java,
spanning the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. The Catalogue, written by Heringa and
Velduisen together, classifies the collection of 82 batik textiles into (i) traditional Pasisir
style batik in red and blue, (ii) diversification: batik from Peranakan and Indo-European
entrepreneurs, (iii) Pekalongan: stronghold of batik belanda (after 1860), (iv) Emblems of
Colonial power, (v) modifications by Peranakan entrepreneurs for Peranakan wearers,
(vi) return of the kain panjang (vii) additions to traditional Pasisir dress, and (viii)
ceremonial cloths. The authors discuss the maker and wearer of each textile presented,
introducing characteristics of particular batik designers or workshops and the person who
generally wore the particular textile.
A very useful appendix illustrates the design format and stylistic variations of the
kain panjang and sarung, variations in design format indicating wearer’s marital status,
free or slave status prior to 1860, and ethnic distinctions.
Hitchcock, Michael. Indonesian Textiles. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.
The author states that this book is intended “to provide an overview that draws
attention to certain issues rather than provide an encyclopedic record.” The book focuses
on common themes and issues concerning Indonesian textiles. It is organized by general
textile-related subject matter: (i) raw materials used in producing Indonesian textiles

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(cotton, silk and a wide range of different fibers from tropical plants, a whole range of
natural dyes), (ii) traditional looms, (iii) ikat, batik and other resist-dye methods (pelangi
and teritik), (iv) decorative weaving, embroidery and related techniques, (v) textiles in
society, and (vi) dress, design and color. A nice selection of photographs (100 color and
50 black and white) illustrates each element of the discussion, and a bibliography is
organized according to the themes presented. A useful list of museums to visit is
included. The author is formerly an Assistant Keeper at the Horniman Museum in
London and at the time of publication was a Lecturer at the Centre for Southeast Asian
Studies at the University of Hull.
Howard, Michael C. Textiles of Southeast Asia: An Annotated and Illustrated
Bibliography. Bangkok: White Lotus Co., Ltd., 1994.
Howard’s discussion on the evolution of literature about the textiles of Southeast
Asia and, Indonesia, is particularly useful. He also discusses the evolution in the
collection of ethnographic materials, including textiles and weaving implements, by
major museums worldwide. He notes important exhibitions that have been held in various
countries. A section on Museum Collections describes the collections of museums in 29
countries. The bibliography on Indonesia (45-125) is comprehensive, noting for each
publication: the format, the types of textiles discussed, regions covered, and the
photographs included. A reference section includes small color photographs illustrating
the various types of textiles. The annotation for each publication is very brief and factual,
however, and does not give much commentary or any evaluation by Howard.
Kartiwa, Suwati. Kain Indonesia dan negara Asia lainnya sebagai warisan budaya
(Indonesian and Other Asian Textiles: A Common Heritage.) Jakarta: Proyek
Pembinaan Museum Nasional, 1994/5.
This book, written in both Indonesian and English, accompanied an exhibition in
Jarkarta in 1994. The Director General of Culture in the Department of Education and
Culture, Professor Dr. H. Edi Sedyawati, noted the importance of the exhibition: “The
objective of this exhibition is to arouse interest and enlighten the public about the
importance of traditional cloths as a nation’s cultural treasury. In making the public
aware of values contained in these traditional textiles it is hoped that they will become a
source of inspiration for creativity and so develop the national culture which reflects the
nation’s identity.” The book includes a selection of color and black and white
photographs of batiks, ikats, and ceremonial cloths as well as photographs of life
ceremonies and people weaving textiles. I found one passage of special interest; noting
that the Indonesian Designers Association has been engaged in the development of
traditional textiles by producing them as printed textiles or on a handloom, and this has
created a demand for traditional textiles.

Langewis, Laurens and Wagner, Frits. Decorative Art in Indonesian Textiles. 1st
Edition. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij C.P.J. Van Der Peet, 1964.
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According to Michael Howard, “Southeast Asian textiles were virtually ignored
by scholars during the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. About the only exception was
the work of a few individuals in the Netherlands focusing primarily on textiles in the
Dutch museum collections.” This Langewis and Wagner book was considered one of the
two most important works produced by this group, although these books were considered
to have broken little new ground beyond what had been done before World War II. (See
Howard, 3).
This book’s discussion is based on the collection at the Royal Tropical Institute at
Amsterdam on cloths dating from the beginning of the 19 th century to the beginning of
the 20 th century. The authors consider the most beautiful and most interesting textiles to
be the ceremonial cloths. “This results from the fact that the sacral objectives aimed at
make it mandatory to use those designs and patterns which developed from tradition.
Such decorative ornamentations are often the purest in style. As the entire community
where such textiles have a ceremonial function is interested in the ultimate result, the
maker is compelled to give the very best of her craftsmanship.” (9)
The book includes 216 largely black and white plates classified into three main
types: (1) reserve dyeing techniques (ikats – warp, weft and double, batiks – paste,
bamboo stick and tjanting, plangi and tritik), (2) weaving techniques (supplementary
weft, warp, kelim, sungkit, and pilih), and (3) other ornamenting techniques (embroidery,
appliqué, painting, shell and bead work, and glue work). Each type is further divided into
six subdivisions denoting general design motifs: human figure, animal figure,
representations of vegetable objects, representations of other objects, purely geometric
designs, other than purely geometric designs, and composite designs. A further
subclassification is based on the way the motif has been placed in the total
ornamentation. There is no attempt to discuss the functions of the textiles. Most examples
are ikats.
Nabholz-Kartaschoff, Marie-Louise; Barnes, Ruth; and Stuart-Fox, David J., Eds.
Indonesian Textile Symposium 1991 (Basel, Switzerland). Weaving Patterns of Life.
Basel, Switzerland: Museum of Ethnography Basel, 1993.
These international symposia, apparently convened every 6 or more years, are
interesting to study for the range of topics being researched (symposia were convened in
1979, 1985, 1991 and 1999). Four topics were covered in the 1991 symposium, attended
by specialists and students of Indonesian textiles: (1) Textiles in Archaeology and
History; (2) Iconography; (3) Function and Meaning; and (4) Techniques and Their
Interpretation. Several articles, noted below, were of interest to me. I had not encountered
much information on these topics in other literature: an inquiry into the hand-drawn
batiks worn by villagers today, research on the “smell” of ikat textiles and its
significance, and some practical techniques to discern different types of batik.

12
Nian S. Djoemena, in “Batik Treasures of the Special Region of Yogyakarta,”
433-448, categorizes batik produced today into three types: (1) fine, hand-drawn batik
taking 9 months to 1 year to make; (2) medium or “dagel” (or “rini”) which is a
combination of cap and hand-drawn batik; and (3) coarse quality or “kasar” which
includes hand-drawn batik done by village people. She noted this last type of batik as
hard to find, since it has been outmoded by mechanically printed batik that is more costefficient
for villagers to buy rather than produce for their own use. “Since there is a
possibility that village people’s batik or batik kasar might become extinct, it is
worthwhile to look into and take note of its presence.”
A second article, “Batik Plagiate? How to Distinguish between Batik Tuliks,
Batik Cap and Direct Prints,” by Annegret Haake and Hani Winotosastro, 449-455, gives
some hints on how to tell if a batik is wax resist; the reverse side will never be lighter
than the facial side and single uncolored threads on the reverse side in a colored area are
proof of direct prints or drawings. Illustrations are given to distinguish between batik tulis
and cap, while noting that definitive decisions on natural vs. synthetic dyes can only be
done in a laboratory.
Janet Hoskins, in “Snakes, Smells and Dismembered Brides: Men’s and Women’s
Textiles in Kodi, West Sumba,” 229-246, discusses the pungent smell of indigo cloths
produced by the Kodi people on the western tip of Sumba. “The ‘sniff test’ determines
the appropriateness of the cloth to be used in certain ritual contexts, especially funerals
and marriages, and its place in the hierarchy of local textiles.”
Shambhala Agile Rabbit Editions. Batik Patterns, Book and CD-ROM. Boston:
Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1999.
This book, which should be used in combination with Van Roojen’s book on
Batik Design, contains high-quality images for use as a graphic resource (free of charge).
All the images are stored on an accompanying CD-ROM in professional-quality, highresolution
format and can be used on either Windows or Mac platforms. The documents
can be imported directly from the CD-ROM into a wide range of layout, imagemanipulation,
illustration and word-processing programs. It will be extremely useful for
educational purposes, and I expect to utilize this resource for projecting onto a large
screen and for producing graphics in connection with my gallery.
Solyom, Bronwen and Garrett. Fabric Traditions of Indonesia. Pullman, Washington:
Washington State University Press and The Museum of Art, Washington State
University, 1984.
This book was originally published in conjunction with the exhibition Fabric
Traditions of Indonesia organized by the Museum of Art, Washington State University,
largely based on the textile collection of alumnus Timothy Manring and his wife
Indrastuti Hadiputranto. The authors have looked at the evolution of textiles in Indonesia
linked to non-loom traditions such as painted bark-cloth, beadwork and plaitwork. The
publication is organized with separate chapters on bark-cloth, mats and plaitwork

13
traditions, beads and shells, warp stripes and warp ikat, silks and international trade,
cotton supplementary weft traditions, cloth painting and batik traditions. The authors try
to show that the sophistication and artistry of non-loom products equals that found in
loom-woven textiles. The discussion includes 72 color and black and white figures.
The Textile Museum. Arts of Asia. Washington D.C.: January-February 1996. The
Journal of the Textile Museum is a useful reference for students and collectors, covering
a broad range of subjects related to research on textiles.
This particular volume is noteworthy for several articles. The first, “Legacy of
Collector George Hewitt Myers,” by Carol Bier, discusses the establishment of The
Textile Museum in 1925, preceding the National Gallery of Art that was established in
1941. Myers always challenged his Board to consider the wisdom and benefit of utilizing
historical collections to inspire contemporary artists and designers, as evidenced by the
Museum’s active role in exhibitions, research and licensing. “Always perceptive of
historical textiles as indicators of cultural change, Geroge Hewitt Myers knew that to
study textiles was to learn about the world. With that understanding he laid the
intellectual foundation that continues to sustain the institution…” (64)
The second, “Southeast Asian Textiles at The Textile Museum,” by Mattiebelle
Gittinger, discusses the role of collector George Hewitt Myers in collecting Southeast
Asian textiles. She makes the point that only recently has Southeast Asia been recognized
as a major textile producing area of the world, despite the early efforts of a few Dutch
scholars in the first quarter of the twentieth century. She notes that the intent of most of
the early acquisitions of textiles from this region was as ethnographic specimens not as
textile art. “Admittedly a few individuals who had access to this material recognized its
artistic value [A.K. Coomaraswamy at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston as well as a
number of individuals in the Netherlands], but there was not the swell of interest that
would eventually grow during the last half of the twentieth century to culminate in the
textile collecting frenzy of the 1980s.” (94) Gittinger therefore treats Myers generously
since he collected a few Indonesian textiles as textile art in 1931 and 1943 (purchases
from Colin McPhee) and again between 1953 and 1957 (from Laurens Langewis, a Dutch
collector). At this time, there was not a literature base on these textiles to serve as a guide
to collection building. The remainder of the article highlights textiles from the collection.
The third, “Caring for Textiles,” by Sara Wolf, Director of Conservation and
Collection at The Textile Museum, provides extremely useful advice for the collector on:
properties of textile fibers, deterioration of textiles, care and maintenance of textile
collections, and proper storage and display. One particular fact, that some of the worst
deterioration occurs when wood, paper and cardboard are used improperly in display and
storage, has already led me to reconsider my gallery design. Addresses of archival
suppliers in the United States are included.

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Tirta, Iwan. Batik, A Play of Light and Shade (Volume 1) and Gallery, A Collection
of Batik Patterns and Designs (Volume 2). Jakarta: Gaya Favorit Press, 1996.
This two-volume set is a piece of art itself with pen and ink drawings and
photographs, telling the story of batik within the structure of a classical wayang kulit
play. The Talu or overture discusses the history of early batik; the Adeg Jejer gives an
overview of batik in the royal courts; Adeg Sabrang explains outside influences; Goro-
Goro, a period of upheaval, Tirta uses as a metaphor to discuss the period starting with
the outbreak of World War II and the downfall of the Dutch administration during which
Hokokai batiks appeared and pagi-sore batik compositions emerged as a practical
invention to conserve cotton. Batik with a pan-Indonesian character emerged in the early
1960s and culminated in the late 1970s; he highlights the roles of Harjonagoro (also
known as Go Tik Swan) whom he considers the pioneer of ”Batik Indonesia” (born into a
well-known peranakan Chinese family that had made quality batik for years in Solo).
Harjonagoro added new colors and enlarged traditional designs from central Java and
with Mrs. Bintang Sudibyo (known as Ibu Sud) opened Indonesia’s first batik boutique in
1953. Harjonagoro was heavily patronized by Sukarno and his batik activities waned
following the aborted coup in 1965. Other personalities that Tirta considers important
are: Ibu Kanjeng Harjowiratmo from Wonogiri and her daughter Raden Ayu Praptini
Partaningrat who are well-known for their golden soga batiks, Nyai Bei Mardusari whose
batiks are distinguished by the use of special isen-isen, Haji Maria Noor’s workshop in
Yogyakarta whose brown and white batiks are considered of special quality, Mrs.
Setyowati Sakri from Pekalongan who specialized in soft pastel batiks, and the
workshops of Madmil and Masina near Cirebon. Iwan himself is well known for his
experimentation, what he calls his “microscope approach” to batik design where he
enlarges designs. He has also experimented with different materials and with design
motifs from all parts of Indonesia.
Finally the Tancep Kayon or epilogue discusses the mass production of silkscreened
prints and his vision of batik in the future. While he believes that batik has a
robust future, he predicts that the mid-sized batik workshops will disappear, that batik
cap will no longer be profitable, and that studio-type workshops producing high-quality
handmade and hand-drawn batiks will survive, directed to highly discriminating clients.
“It is ironic to end my reflections on batik by saying that the batiks of Java, which started
as ceremonial cloth worn by a precious few, now in a modern form will emerge again as
a specialty product for the elite in Indonesia, as well as abroad. It will be available to
those who recognize and support batik for the high artistry and top quality this fabled
cloth has brought to the world.” (198) Volume 1 includes a glossary of important terms
and a selected bibliography.
Volume II includes a collection of 69 color plates that are personal choices of the
author based on what he perceives as beautiful, organized according to regional origin.
They are preceded by pen drawings of batik motifs, which show the intricacy and
structural basis of the patterns before they are enhanced by dyes. On the reverse side of
each plate are some historical, artistic and personal observations about the patterns and
designs, the artists, the craftspeople, and the methodology.

15
Van Hout, Itie. Editor. Batik – Drawn in Wax: 200 Years of Batik Art from Indonesia
in the Tropenmuseum Collection. Amsterdam: Royal Tropical Institute/KIT
Publishers, 2001.
The most recent publication on batik that I have read, this book is published in
conjunction with the 2001 exhibition Drawn in Wax – 200 Years of Textile Art from
Indonesia mounted in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam. The Tropenmuseum now owns
a collection of over 3000 pieces from the major batik centers on Java, Madura and
Sumatra. The book emphasizes batik as a product of intercultural contact in a society
where different ethnic groups lived “next to or with each other” and contains
contributions based on recent research in batik discussed from a historical or a combined
historical/anthropological point of view. There is an attempt “to avoid presenting textiles
as ‘timeless’objects from a ‘timeless’ culture, as ethnographic objects are so often
represented, and to see them as meaningful items from a specific cultural context and a
well-defined historical period.” The authors accomplish this by tracing the personal
stories of the textile donors and relating these stories to the textiles.
The book presents an interesting collection of essays covering history, design,
and research methodology on batik. The book is particularly strong on tracing the
changing Dutch-Indonesian relationships through the changing Dutch approach to batik
between 1815 and 1950. There are good discussions on Juynboll and Rouffaer, the role of
Kartini (who also wrote on batik), exploring the main theme of Rouffaer’s writing “that
batik is in danger and the authentic quality of Javanese design and production will be lost
under the influence of ‘Europeanization.’ Gerret Pieter Rouffaer and H.H. Juynboll
published the famous De batik-kunst in Nederlandsch-Indie en haar geschiedenis in
1900, a very influential book that included detailed descriptions of batik from all known
sources at that time including social and economic studies conducted by colonial
government officials, scientific research about the history of Javanese culture, exhibitions
and private collections that were available to their research, Kartini’s manuscript on
batik, and the experiments conducted by Dutch artists in the Colonial Museum in
Haarlem in the 1890s. Rouffaer, Secretary of the Royal Institute of Linguistics and
Anthropology in Leiden for many years, was considered by many as the ultimate
authority on batik. “His authority connected the world of private collectors with the world
of museums and research and with the commercial use of batik.” (56)
A chapter on “Javanese batik for European artists: Experiments at the Koloniaal
Laboratorium in Haarlem” by Maria Wronska-Fiend is especially interesting, showing
how Javanese batik techniques were used by European artists as part of the movement to
revive Western crafts at the turn of the century, in opposition to industrial mass-produced
decorative objects. “The fascination of Javanese batik…had not only to do with its
perception of being the ultimate example of a harmonious integration of practicality and
aesthetics …Javanese batik textiles offered European artists the technical qualities they
most admired: hand-applied wax-resist provided each of the decorated fabrics with
individual, unique features resulting from the touch of the human hand and allowed a
great deal of personal expression.” (107) The students and artists who worked at the
Haarlem laboratory, including a number of foreigners, were influential in popularizing

16
batik in Europe. “..although the direct impact of Haarlem batiks on European textiles
came to an end with the First World War, the introduction of this Javanese technique to
European art remains the lasting contribution of the Koloniaal Museum, which allowed
thousands of Europeans to become acquainted with one of the greatest textile traditions in
the world.” (123)
Chapter 6 on “The Chinese batiks of Java,” presents interesting genealogical
research that G. Duggan carried out on Peranakan or Indo-Chinese batik manufacturers
along the north coast of Java, discussing what the signatures on batik cloths reveal about
batik designers. Chapter 9 on “Batik on Batik: A Wayang Story as a Record of Batik
Design” by Itie van Hout is instructive in showing how the latest research techniques are
applied to an unusual textile that had been studied several times in the past. In the last
part of the book, the various themes of the exhibition are illustrated by many of the
masterpieces from the collection.
Van Roojen, Pepin. Batik Design. Boston: Shambhala, 1997.
Following a brief discussion of batik techniques and applications, the book
presents four classifications of batik designs: classical batik, Pasisir batik (batik of the
Northern Coast of Java), batik in Sumatra, and batik from the Malay Peninsula. The
author traces the origins and developments of the motifs and patterns; enlarged color
photographs of batik textile fragments allow a detailed view of the particular designs,
while the addition of black and white design illustrations help to delineate the major
floral, plant, and animal motifs. Batiks are also identified by the workshop or designer.
The most extensive treatment is of Pasisir batik. A useful glossary of Indonesian terms is
included.
Warming, Wanda and Gaworski, Michael. The World of Indonesian Textiles. Tokyo:
Kodansha International Ltd., 1981 (paperback edition, 1991).
This book is an introductory text on the range of textiles found in Indonesia today,
with separate chapters devoted to warp ikat, other ikat cloths and tie-dyeing, weaving and
woven patterns (supplementary warp textiles, embroidery, prada cloth and beaded
textiles) and batiks. The discussions are detailed with 52 color plates and 153
photographs and illustrations of textiles and textile techniques and tools. The discussion
of batik includes formulas for actual wax resists used in both hand-drawn and stamped
batik and formulas for dyeing and fixing solutions.
Books on Architecture and Interior Design
Ginanneschi, Isabella and Wijaya, Made. At Home in Bali. New York: Abbeville Press,
2000.
Helmi, Rio and Walker, Barbara. Bali Style. New York: The Vendome Press, 2000.

Sosrowardoyo, Tara; Schoppert, Peter; and Damais, Soedarmadji. Java Style.
Singapore: Periplus, 1997.
17
Tan, Hock Bong. Indonesian Accents: Architecture, Interior Design and Art. New
York: Visual Reference Publications, Inc., 1999.
I have reviewed all four of these books to see how architects and interior
designers, from both the East and West, have integrated Indonesian textiles into their
design concepts. All of these books have wonderful photographs of Indonesian
architecture and landscaping, showing the evolution of design incorporating various
traditional motifs and modern design concepts and technologies, yet they do not reflect as
much of the textile arts as I had expected.
Indonesian Accents highlights the work of the architecture and design firm of
Grahacipta Hadiprana in Jakarta, a firm that has handled residential and commercial
projects throughout Indonesia. While acknowledging the importance of Indonesian
textiles, in particular batik, ikat and prada, the work shown in this book features relatively
few examples in the interiors other than an antique Sumba weaving and batik-clad
wayang kulit puppets. Java Style is the best of these books in showing how Indonesian
textiles are utilized in interior design within Javanese homes owned by higher income
artists today. The chapter on “Contemporary Homes: Java Style for the 21 st Century,”
shows batiks as table linens, batik designs in tinted concrete floors, the homes and
workshops of two well- known batik designers K.R.T. Hardjonegoro and Iwan Tirta (the
latter showing quilted batik bed linens started by a group of Americans living in Jakarta
in the late 1980s), Madurese batik, Savu ikat hangings, batik and other textiles in the
homes of batik designers Asmoro Damais in Jakarta, Ardyanto near Yogyakarta, and
Josephine Kumara of the Bin House in Jakarta (a gallery and workshop in central
Jakarta). A useful chapter illustrates the furniture of traditional Indonesia, Batavia,
Neoclassical, and Modern periods – all of which are still produced and exported today.
Bali Style and At Home in Bali include a wonderful selection of photographs,
capturing the exotic beauty of the landscape, architecture and art of the island. At Home
in Bali features 24 houses, both traditional and modern, built in different settings – a
pondok pavilion dwelling amongst the rice fields, a classic village house situated in the
mountains, and beach homes and gardens. Many of the homes or sites are owned by
Western artists and designers who work in Bali, and include restorations of homes owned
by legendary Western artists who lived in Bali in the early twentieth century. These
include a series of cottages approximating the original pavilions on land once owned by
Colin McPhee (the Canadian born writer and composer who lived on Bali during the
1930s), Walter Spies and Theo Meyer. The author is an Australian-born architect and
landscape designer who has lived in Bali since 1973. Bali Style is a broader treatment of
Balinese religion, custom and culture (agama, adat and budaya), illustrated with some
330 color photographs of temples, homes, arts and crafts. “Bali’s distinctive style is a
multiplicity of concepts intricately woven for dramatic effect; a layering of vivid colors,
textures and rhythmic patterns boldly revealed in elegant forms…Startling imagery and
highly sophisticated design motifs are unexpectedly interlaced with pure whimsy.

Incredibly beautiful art forms contrast with a sense of humor to create a smile and
provide a reminder that life is not so serious.” A section, “Architectural Notebook,”
illustrates principles of architectural design and design motifs. The author is Barbara
Walker, an American design consultant to several museums in the U.S.
18
Clifton-Mogg, Caroline. Textilestyle: The Art of Using Antique and Exotic Fabrics to
Decorate Your Home. London: Jacqui Small, an imprint of Aurum Press Ltd., 2000.
This book features photographs of interiors designed by five internationally known
professional decorators and includes a discussion and photographs of the major groups of
textiles, which has the distinction of omitting batik and within the category of woven
textiles – the great variety of those produced in Indonesia! The book is wonderful for the
interplay of color and texture in the textiles displayed and the ways they are displayed in
home interiors. But what a shame that this author apparently has no knowledge of
Southeast Asian textiles, although she devotes one section to paisley shawls from
Kashmir! This book is sold through the Textile Museum in Washington D.C.

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THE ISLAND GALLERY
INDONESIAN TEXTILES IN SEATTLE MUSEUMS
MAY-JUNE 2002
I. BURKE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY AND
CULTURE
27 ITEMS ARRANGED BY BATIK AND IKAT
II. HENRY ART GALLERY
107 ITEMS ARRANGED BY BATIK AND IKAT
III. SEATTLE ART MUSEUM
466 ITEMS FROM THE MANRING COLLECTION
ARRANGED BY PROVINCE
SUMATRA: 1-234
JAVA: 235-260
BALI: 261-279
KALIMANTAN: 280-281
SULAWESI: 282-292
LOMBOK: 293-300
SUMBAWA: 301-305
FLORES: 306-318
LEMBATA: 319-322
SUMBA: 323-352
SAVU: 353-365
ROTI: 366-394
TIMOR: 395-426
TANIMBAR, KISAR AND LUANG: 427-435
LAOS, INDIA, MALAYSIA: 436-466
IV. INDONESIAN TEXTILES: A SELECTED AND
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY