kain sandang (?) shouldercloth; waistcloth Bengkulu-Pasemah region, Sumatra, Indonesia cotton, natural dyes, metallic thread, lead supplementary weft weave 64.0 x 163.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.571
pha sin woman's ceremonial skirt Tai Phuan people, Laplae, Uttaradit province, Thailand cotton, silk, natural dyes supplementary weft weave, supplementary warp weave 142.0 x 92.0 em Australian National Gallery 1986.1242
Textiles often combine design elements and decorative techniques derived from different stages of their culture's history. In both of these early twentieth-century cloths, the central field is filled with simple spots of supplementary thread, although the supplementary warp patterns (muk) of the Tai cloth are woven with a complex set of heddles (Prangwatthanakun and Cheesman, 1987: 38-9). The borders of each cloth, however, are spectacular examples of the supplementary weft tradition using silk and gold threads, although in the working out of the patterns ancient elements have been retained - zigzags, spirals, stars and hooks. The weavers have exploited this contrast between elaborate borders and simple centres to achieve dramatic cloths. On the Tai cloth, the lower decorative edge of the skirt (tin chok) is woven separately and then sewn to the main section of the cloth (dta muk). T he fine discontinuous supplementary work (chok) in yellow and green silk contains tiny birds and stylized ship images, which are also links with the earlier cultures of this part of Southeast Asia. The Sumatran cloth is deep indigo with red ends, and at each end a section of unwoven (or pulled) warp threads has been wrapped in lead to provide additional decoration.
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Although it is uncertain when the development of the warp ikat resist technique (the resist tying and dyeing into patterns of the loom threads, the warp, before inserting the weft) began in Southeast Asia, it is clearly of great antiquity. In parts of New Guinea, a proto-ikat technique is still used to pattern the free-floating bast fibres that make up skirts, although these differ from the warp ikat garments of Southeast Asia in that they are not woven.37 The harsh tropical climate of the region has prevented the discovery of archaeological textiles comparable to the important finds in the Middle East, China and South America. Consequently the earliest decorated textiles so far found in insular Southeast Asia apparently date from only the fourteenth or fifteenth century. While these warp ikat textile fragments found in caves on Banton Island near Mindoro are not of the same period as the earliest archaeological finds in Southeast Asia, they provide the earliest known examples of narrow warp fibre bands with simpleS spiral, square, rhomb and triangle shapes, patterns that are comparable to those of textiles still made in many parts of the region.38
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Although many of the oldest textile designs use warp decoration, the patterns of some supplementary weft textiles suggest that this technique also has a long history in Southeast Asia. These patterns are formed on the surface of the fabric from supplementary floating weft threads introduced between the foundation weave. In other instances, such as certain Shan,39 Iban and Timorese textiles, the extra weft threads are wrapped around the warp threads between the throws of the basic weft, resulting in a decorative effect very similar to embroidery. However, by choosing from a repertoire of designs and motifs also found on other types of weaving, such as warp ikat and supplementary warp patterning, the weaver, by using the weft-wrapping method, produces cloths that look very similar to the other textiles of that culture. In Timor, for example, reptilian motifs are produced by many decorative textile techniques including supplementary warp weaving and supplementary weft wrapping. In Sarawak, the Iban weave pua sungkit, a textile made with supplementary wefts wrapped around the undecorated warp. Many display similar designs and structural arrangement to the warp ikat pua kumbu and fulfil similar important ritual purposes.
A proto-ikat technique, in which fibres are tied and dyed, although not woven into fabric, is still practised in areas bordering on Southeast Asia (Larsen et al., 1976: 18-22). This Mundugumar woman in New Guinea wears a loose fibre skirt, resist-dyed with bright chemical dyes.
A woman in the Oelolok district of central Timor weaving a textile with supplementary weft wrapping known as buna. A number of weft-wrapping techniques are practised throughout Timor, each of them known by a particular term. The decorative effect of this technique, which is used in various parts of Southeast Asia, is often confused with embroidery.
Similarities evident in the layout and structure of cloths from many different parts of Southeast Asia woven from quite different fibres (such as lemba, abaca and cotton) suggest the sustained use of these structures over a long period. While the simple, continuous warp, body-tension loom is capable of producing most elaborately decorated textiles, the width of the fabric that can be consistently produced on this equipment is limited, whatever the fibre. As a result, garments and ritual objects made from these fabrics are constructed of parallel panels. The minimum of cutting and the maximum use of selvage produces durable garments composed of joined panels -rectangular cloths for men and cylindrical skirts for women.
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This technical limitation of the narrow loom has given rise to striking design structures. By combining odd numbers of fabric panels, decorative and highly formalized arrangements of warp bands became possible. For example, two identical panels are often separated by a different central panel. Symmetry is thus maintained while extra width is achieved. This central section sometimes continues a banded pattern found in the side sections, but in other examples a stark contrast is provided by either an elaborately decorated or quite plain panel. On certain cloths, such as the Kisar men's wrap, the use of different coloured grounds in the side bands and in the central section is an integral feature of the design. Even the stitches used to join panels may create additional ornamentation. These design features, and the colours in which they are worked, are one way of indicating a person's place of origin.
Throughout insular Southeast Asia this tripartite design feature has gradually become a major decorative device on warp-decorated textiles and may also have influenced the format of weft-patterned designs.40 Where the central panel contains the most important design elements it is sometimes described as the 'mother'. The Bagobo of Mindanao refer to this panel as the mother (ine) and the flanking side panels as the child (bata). The metaphor linking cloth structure with the human body is repeated in different ways in other cultures. The Ifugao, for example, identify the correct side of the textile as its back (odo'gna) while the reverse side is known as the cloth's stomach (putu 'na).41
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While the technical constraints of these decorative textile techniques affect the ways in which motifs and patterns are executed and explain some of the familiar and recurring variations, the underlying similarities of deep-rooted custom and belief in many Southeast Asian cultures help to explain the similarities evident in designs on cloth from quite different parts of the region. In these textile designs we frequently find ideas and symbols repeated again and again. The double or S spiral motif, sensuously curved or strongly cornered, is evident throughout Southeast Asia and out into the Pacific. Sometimes it provides the dominant patterning, while on other textiles it is confined to border meanders or filling. A diagonal orientation
