Batik
Batik is a cloth that is traditionally made using a manual wax-resist dyeing technique to form intricate patterns. Traditionally batik cloth is a large piece of intricately decorated cloth used by Javanese women as
kemben or torso wrap. Batik cloth were wrapped around the hips with multiple folds in front called
wiron, while the upper torso wear kebaya fitted dress. Traditionally for men, the edge of batik cloth also can be sewn together to make a tubular cloth as
sarong, or wrapped around hips as
kain in fashion similar to women's. Later for men, the batik cloth also sewn and made into contemporary batik men's shirt.
(
Javanese pronunciation: [ˈbateʔ];
Indonesian: [ˈbatɪk]) is a technique of
wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth, or cloth made using this technique. Batik is made either by drawing dots and lines of the resist with a spouted tool called a
canting (
IPA: [ʈ͡ʂantiŋ], also spelled tjanting), or by printing the resist with a copper stamp called a
cap (
IPA: [ʈ͡ʂap], also spelled tjap). The applied wax resists dyes and therefore allows the artisan to colour selectively by soaking the cloth in one colour, removing the wax with boiling water, and repeating if multiple colours are desired.
A tradition of making batik is found in various countries, including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Nigeria
[dubious – discuss]; the batik of Indonesia, however, is the most well-known. Malaysia batik made in the island of
Java has a long history of
acculturation, with diverse patterns influenced by a variety of cultures, and is the most developed in terms of pattern, technique, and the quality of workmanship.
[1] On October 2009,
UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a
Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity
Wax resist dyeing of fabric is an ancient art form. It already existed in
Egypt in the 4th century BC, where it was used to wrap mummies; linen was soaked in wax, and scratched using a stylus. In Asia, the technique was practised in China during the
Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), and in India and Japan during the
Nara Period (645-794 AD). In Africa it was originally practised by the
Yoruba tribe in Nigeria,
Soninke and
Wolof in Senegal.
[6] These African version however, uses
cassava starch or rice paste, or mud as a resist instead of
beeswax.
[7]
The art of batik is most highly developed in the island of
Java in Indonesia. In Java, all the materials for the process are readily available — cotton and beeswax and plants from which different vegetable dyes are made.
[8] Indonesian batik predates written records: G. P. Rouffaer argues that the technique might have been introduced during the 6th or 7th century from India or Sri Lanka.
[6] On the other hand, the Dutch archaeologist J.L.A. Brandes and the Indonesian archaeologist F.A. Sutjipto believe Indonesian batik is a native tradition, since regions such as
Toraja,
Flores,
Halmahera, and
Papua, which were not directly influenced by Hinduism, have an age-old tradition of batik making.
[9]
Rouffaer reported that the
gringsing pattern was already known by the 12th century in
Kediri,
East Java. He concluded that this delicate pattern could be created only by using the
canting, an etching tool that holds a small reservoir of hot wax, and proposed that the
canting was invented in Java around that time.
[9] The carving details of clothes worn by East Javanese
Prajnaparamita statues from around the 13th century show intricate floral patterns within rounded margins, similar to today's traditional Javanese
jlamprang or
ceplok batik motif.
[10] The motif is thought to represent the
lotus, a sacred flower in Hindu-Buddhist beliefs. This evidence suggests that intricate batik fabric patterns applied with the
cantingexisted in 13th-century Java or even earlier.
[11]
In Europe, the technique was described for the first time in the
History of Java, published in London in 1817 by
Stamford Raffles, who had been a British governor for the island. In 1873 the Dutch merchant
Van Rijckevorsel gave the pieces he collected during a trip to Indonesia to the ethnographic museum in Rotterdam. Today the
Tropenmuseum houses the biggest collection of Indonesian batik in the Netherlands. The Dutch and Chinese colonists were active in developing batik, particularly coastal batik, in the late colonial era. They introduced new patterns as well as the use of the
cap (copper block stamps) to mass-produce batiks. Displayed at the
Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1900, the Indonesian batik impressed the public and artists.
[6]
In the 1920s, Javanese batik makers migrating to Malaya (now Malaysia) introduced the use of wax and copper blocks to its east coast.
[12]
In
Subsaharan Africa, Javanese batik was introduced in the 19th century by Dutch and English traders. The local people there adapted the Javanese batik, making larger motifs with thicker lines and more colours. In the 1970s, batik was introduced to Australia, where aboriginal artists at Erna Bella have developed it as their own craft.