Batik : Culture of Indonesia

Indonesia Fabrics

Batik is a cloth that traditionally uses a manual wax-resist dyeing technique. Batik or fabrics with the traditional batik patterns are found in (particularly) Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore.

 

Javanese traditional batik, especially from Yogyakarta and Surakarta, has notable meanings rooted to the Javanese conceptualization of the universe. Traditional colours include indigo, dark brown, and white, which represent the three major Hindu Gods (Brahmā, Visnu, and Śiva). This is related to the fact that natural dyes are most commonly available in indigo and brown. Certain patterns can only be worn by nobility; traditionally, wider stripes or wavy lines of greater width indicated higher rank. Consequently, during Javanese ceremonies, one could determine the royal lineage of a person by the cloth he or she was wearing.

Other regions of Indonesia have their own unique patterns that normally take themes from everyday lives, incorporating patterns such as flowers, nature, animals, folklore or people. The colours of pesisir batik, from the coastal cities of northern Java, is especially vibrant, and it absorbs influence from the Javanese, Arab, Chinese and Dutch cultures. In the colonial times pesisir batik was a favourite of the Peranakan Chinese, Dutch and Eurasians.

UNESCO designated Indonesian batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on October 2, 2009. As part of the acknowledgment, UNESCO insisted that Indonesia preserve their heritage. 

Batik Javanese Kraton in life has a spiritual content, because it is considered as a medium of reflection and meditation

A variety of shades and colors of Batik is influenced by various foreign influences. Initially, batik has a variety of shades and colors are limited, and some patterns may only be used by certain circles. But batik coastal absorb various external influences, such as foreign traders, and also in the end, the invaders. Bright colors like red popularized by the Chinese, who also popularized the phoenix pattern. European colonial nations also took an interest in batik, and the result is a style unknown before flowers (like tulips) as well as objects brought by the colonizers (buildings or horse-drawn carriage), as well as their favorite colors such as blue. Retain traditional batik s type, and is still used in traditional ceremonies, because usually each style has a representation of each.