Angkola Batak textiles. The most northerly weaving districts of the neighbouring Minangkabau people also appear to have integrated comparable pairs of schematic shapes into a striking band at each end of certain cloths. Further south in the Bengkulu and Pasemah region of Sumatra, the arrangement of different designs and the structure of the pattern at each end of the shouldercloth suggest an interesting comparison with the overt and intentional sexual imagery of Batak textiles.
While Batak elders readily identify the male and female ends and the sexual images on their textiles, such explicit identification of sexual symbolism is no longer apparent in neighbouring Sumatran areas. Minangkabau weavers understand the lozenge motifs on their supplementary silk textiles to be ceremonial cakes or heaps of sirih (an ingredient for betel-nut chewing), and triangular shapes are believed to represent bamboo shoots or 'the tree of life' (Sanday and Kartiwa, 1984: 18-25). While these motifs are now reduced to geometric patterning, and are identified with familiar everyday objects from the world around them, the weavers' ancestors may have intended motifs such as these to represent human figures.
Certain textiles are specifically designed to communicate with spirits. When physical danger threatens, such as an unexplained ill ness or pregnancy, a shaman or seer may prescribe the weaving of a special cloth to protect the owner and dispel the evil. A Batak village priest might suggest the weaving of an ulos ragidup as a cure for personal difficulties. This striking cloth, woven by a complex series of procedures, was also used in the past as an aid to divination. Textiles are also used by shamans among the peoples of northern Luzon, where they appear in a variety of ceremonies designed to placate the spirits. But instead of being read to predict the future, in this part of Southeast Asia they appear to hold the key to past events, such as the performance of great ceremonies (Ellis, 1981: 224-30).
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At lban ceremonies performed to re-establish order after a tragic and unexpected occurrence, such as the death of a child, the shaman hangs an appropriately decorated pua at the entrance of the longhouse in his attempts to destroy the incubus believed to have caused the disaster. During the initiation of a manang bali (the transformed shaman with particular abilities to communicate with terrestrial shaman and draw upon their assistance to return a wandering or stolen soul and vanquish evil spirits69), a pua completely covers the initiate, as he attempts to climb over a symbolic wall of fire (pagar apz) constructed of timber and decorative textiles.
In such rites the pua themselves are believed to be transformed into objects of supernatural power. This notion is implicit in an alternative Iban term for these textiles, bali, meaning 'to change in form'.70 These textiles become avenues of communication and even the temporary dwelling place of supernatural beings. Particularly during the era when head-hunting activities held a central place in the life of the Iban, the longhouse communities constructed temporary shrines (ranyaz), in which the gods who were called to attend at ceremonies might dwell. These structures were walled with large and valuable pua depicting beings from lban mythology. Pua were also used as hangings to decorate the longhouse at every major celebration or ceremony invoking the gods' blessings. Amongst the Mien of mainland Southeast Asia, an initiate shaman is assisted by the head shaman, to climb a ladder of swords covered with a white cloth that is believed to represent a pathway to heaven (Campbell et al., 1978: 46). These rites make implicit demands on the qualities of sacred textiles, as protectors and as communication links with the benevolent beings of the Upper World.
Two Toba Batak elders discuss the meaning of the motifs on the man's ulos ni tondi (soul-cloth), a finely worked ulos ragidup ('design of life') from the Taratung district south of Lake Toba. The ulos ragidup and ulos pinunsaan can be read by experts as an oracle to predict the future and particular cloths or designs might be prescribed by a Batak shaman as a cure for misfortune (Gittinger, 1975: 13-15).
pua kumbu ceremonial cloth Kajut anak Ubu, Tiau River, Kapit district, Sarawak, Malaysia cotton, natural dyes warp ikat 240.0 x 117.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1981.1116
pua kumbu ceremonial cloth Iban people, Sarawak, Malaysia handspun cotton, natural dyes warp ikat, embroidered braid 232.0 x 136.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1980.1658
These two textiles provide an excellent example of the role of dreams and the transmission of cultural symbols in Iban weaving. The pua in Plate 172 was collected and carefully documented in the late 1940s by Emeritus Professor Derek Freeman and Monica Freeman. It was woven by Kajut anak Ubu, who deliberately followed a pattern said to have been created in the 1930s in the remote Ngemah River of the Kapit district by another weaver, Jiram anak Balit, after a dream revelation. (Monica Freeman saw and recorded Jiram's original design.) The design with Kajut anak Ubu's own embellishments is described as the teladan pattern with the flying-tiger or sea-tiger (remaung tasik) design. The Iban in the Balai River system at this stage were still working in natural dyes, although with diminished use of the many hooks (gelong) that are a feature of the finest Iban pua kumbu.
Of this design, the Freemans note: 'The remaung tiger spirit is one of the most powerful entities in Iban mythology being especially associated with warfare and head-hunting. The remaung is invoked on the occasion of head-hunting rituals, when offerings are put out for it on the top of the roof of the longhouse. The tiger spirit, it is believed, is able to fly and it is said to streak through the air, making a strange roaring noise, to carry off these offerings. Looked on as immensely powerful, and therefore potentially dangerous, the remaung is not invited actually to enter the longhouse' (Freeman and Freeman, 1980).
The same basic design, however, can also be found on much older Iban textiles. The remaung tasik pattern is also clearly recognizable in Plate 173 combining elements of stripes and wings with carefully articulated feet and hands. As well as the rich red and black over-dyed tones, this cloth displays brilliant highlights of bright indigo blue in both the central field and the side stripes. This textile appears to date from at least the early twentieth century, although it may well be even older. This suggests that patterns such as this were clearly part of the known repertoire of Iban weavers, and it is evident that many Iban women dream about and create new patterns that integrate many old established designs. In fact, in this way talented Iban woman are able to express their own creativity with some modesty since the dream pattern is considered to be a revelation received from an ancestor-deity.
ulos pinunsaan ritual cloth for clothing, wrapping and shroud Toba Batak people, Porsea district, north Sumatra, Indonesia cotton, natural dyes supplementary warp weave, supplementary weft weave, warp ikat, twining 125.0 x 225.0 em Australian National Gallery 1984.256
bulang woman's headcloth Simalungun Batak people, north Sumatra, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes supplementary weft weave, supplementary warp weave 187.0 x 35.0 em Australian National Gallery 1984.1247
On certain Toba Batak ritual textiles (ulos), such as the ulos ragidup and the seemingly identical ulos pinunsaan, (also known as pinussaan and nipussaan after the term sometimes used for the white inset panels, pussa), the widest band of supplementary weft patterns (pina halak) at each end are distinctly though schematically male and female. The male pina halak band is composed of elongated triangular shapes (baoa) while the dominant female motif in the other pina halak band is the rhomb (boru-boru). (The terms tulang baoa and boru are also used to refer to key elements in the Toba Batak kinship system.) When using the cloths to cover the dead or to envelop the living, Toba Bataks are careful to extend the end appropriate to the gender of the recipient.
