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Despite the replacement of bark-cloth, certain ancient forms of clothing originally made from the fabric are still being used. One example is the decorated loincloth which is still the main male garment of many largely isolated mountain cultures throughout both mainland and insular Southeast Asia. Most loincloths are made of plain, woven fabric with elaborately patterned ends that hang down front and back. The patterns on the end sections of loincloths produced during the last century often resemble those on some of the earliest stone statues found in the region.11
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Over time the functions of certain textile types may change. Nowadays, for example, heirloom Toraja loincloths (pio) are used mainly as ceremonial banners. Sacred woven cloths taking the name of loincloths (cawet) are also worn around the necks of male participants in certain sacred rites in Bali.12 The cotton tunics worn by Toraja women were also originally made from bark-cloth, and sometimes bark-cloth has been retained as a lining for cotton garments. In fact, the use of bark-cloth has survived in Borneo and south Sumatra mainly as a foundation or lining for other materials.13
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Elaborate matting skills probably existed in prehistoric times. Interlacing (or plaiting) usually requires only a simple instrument to strip the fibre and, as with textiles and the wooden apparatus used to make them, no ancient mats have survived thousands of years of hot, wet, tropical conditions. We are left with imprints on prehistoric pottery which was beaten with basketry or corded paddles.14 Matting and forms of twining, however, may have been the forerunners of more recent textile traditions, and like bark-cloth fabric, are still the basis for textile seats, mats, bags and some types of tunics decorated with shells and beads.
halili petondu woman's tunic To Kaili people, central Sulawesi, Indonesia bark-cloth, cotton, mica appliqué, embroidery 79.0 x 58.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.590
The major motif on this early twentieth-century tunic from the north-west region of central Sulawesi is the petondu, the buffalo motif depicted as a schematic star with eight curling embroidered points. Although the graceful curve of the buffalo horn is an ancient symbol in this area often appearing on painted bark-cloth and woodcarving, in this instance the appliqué is applied to commercial cotton cloth. Bark-cloth (nunu) is used, however, as a lining. The visual impact of the garment is increased by the addition of mica discs among the red and orange fabric diamonds.
The earliest types of clothing may have included plaited hats, baskets and carry-bags. Similar patterns can be achieved through interlacing and weaving and this suggests that the same visual aesthetics were retained with the change from one technology to the other. On the other hand, the designs on woven textiles, whatever the basic fibre, contrast markedly with those on painted bark-cloth, and appliqué textiles that follow bark-cloth styles. These techniques allow both angular and curving shapes and a greater freedom than can easily be achieved by weaving.15
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The motifs on basketry and mats are often similar to those on woven textiles. Across the island of Borneo, for example, decorative designs on both mats and textiles have been identified on Metal Age objects found there. Burial sites dating between 1600 and 400 BC in the Niah Caves of Sarawak have yielded shell discs,16 beads, bone needles, wooden coffins and pottery ornamented with bold, rectangular meanders and spirals in red, black and cream.17 The designs on mats and other plaited objects made by the Kenyah-Kayan and Ot Danum-Ngaju people exploit hooks and spirals using black and undyed fibres, while patterns in the same style can be found in the supplementary pilih designs on Iban women's skirts and jackets. While most body tension loom weaving uses a simple 'one-under-one-over' tabby weave, twill weaves which have created textures on cloth quite akin to plaiting or matting have also been produced in many parts of Southeast Asia, and discoveries of fragments of twill weave vegetable-fibre fabric in the Niah Caves in Sarawak are the oldest known woven fabric yet to be discovered in insular Southeast Asia. Twill fabrics in Borneo Gager Gerlings, 1952: Figs 18-21) have been made with leaf fibres such as lemba or doyo (Curculigo latifolia), although it seems that the Ifugao textiles of this genre were woven from twisted bark fibres.18
This rice barn in the Karo Batak region of north Sumatra is decorated with motifs similar to those found on textiles. The plaited bamboo under the roof forms geometric patterns while a long lizard shape is depicted along each side of the lower wall.
Hooked rhomb designs are evident in the painting on this grave structure of a rich Katieng woman from Ratanakiri province, Cambodia, and the finial displays a serpent-headed ship, an ancient transition symbol throughout Southeast Asia. Graves of similar appearance decorated with woven cloth over a bamboo frame are erected by the Jarai of southern Vietnam (Leuzinger, 1978: 235, Pl. 298).
(detail) uhu wai kalung (?) communal mat Punan Aput people, Long Sulé, central Kalimantan, Indonesia rattan fibre, natural black dyes interlacing 570.0 x 154.0 em Australian National Gallery 1986.1247
kain pilih woman's skirt Iban people, Layar River, Sarawak, Malaysia cotton, dyes supplementary weft weave 47.0 x 52.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1985.1 746
This black, red and white woman's skirt in the distinctive supplementary, floating weft weave known to the Iban as pilih, has the same dramatic visual impact as the two-coloured plaited mats of the non-textile weaving Punan of central Kalimantan. The reverse sides of both mat and textile reveal the same pattern in negative. While the meaning of the formal patterning on the cylindrical skirt is uncertain, the mat motifs include representations of the mighty hornbill in various schematic arrangements, depictions of the North Star and the eye of the blowpipe, and several vegetative patterns. Many of these designs closely follow Kenyah-Kayan motifs from the same region of Borneo. Like Iban textiles, such huge mats are stored as heirlooms and displayed by families on ritual occasions. Both black and white items demonstrate the continuation of ancient skills and patterns into the twentieth century.
pha biang ceremonial shawl Tai Phuan people, Xieng Khouang, Laos silk, cotton, natural dyes supplementary weft weave 236.0 x 42.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1986.1922
The asymmetrical design structure of Lao shawls, with an undecorated centre and unequal ends of different patterning that are sometimes stitched to the central section, is similar to that of men's loincloths elsewhere in the Southeast Asian region. So too are the intricate hooked lozenge patterns that form the basis of this design. On this early twentieth-century Tai Phuan cloth, rows of birds, paired dragons and long-nosed lions have been placed between the formal decorative bands. This cloth uses bright yellow, blue, white and green supplementary silk wefts against a deep lac-red foundation weave of mixed silk and cotton.
kelambi pilih jacket Iban people, Sarawak, Malaysia cotton, natural dyes supplementary weft weave 114.0 x 46.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1981.1148
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