Balinese Textiles. Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff

      CHAPTER THREE

      Songkèt

      Golden Threads, Caste and Privilege

      WITH their shimmering splashes of gold and silver threads, songkèt cloths are intended for the grand gesture—for public theatrical performances and ceremonial displays of status and wealth. During the heyday of the highly centralized kingdom of Gèlgèl in the 16th century, dance and theater performances were held in the palace forecourt and the open square in front of it, where they could be observed by everyone present. Here the splendor and cultural ideals of the nobility were presented in stylized poses, the players grandly arrayed in sumptuous songkèt garments and finely carved masks. The same costumes can be seen today in theatrical performances, in temple and death ceremonies for the nobility, and particularly at tooth-filing and wedding ceremonies—all of which are conceived on a grand theatrical scale and celebrated by participants in splendid costumes (payas ageng) with garments of glittering songkèt and perada. It is easy to imagine on these occasions that one is witnessing reincarnations of Rama and Sita, or Arjuna and Suprabha—characters from the ancient Indian epics with whom the Balinese kings very much identified themselves (Figs. 3.5, 3.6).

      Not only in Bali, but throughout the whole of western Indonesia, songkèt is the term used to describe a technique in which additional patterns are woven into a material with supplementary weft threads, either running across the entire width or covering only individual parts of the cloth. The early aristocratic songkèt textiles (Figs. 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.14, 3.15) consisted entirely of silk. Less sumptuous products intended for theater and dance costumes (Fig. 3.8) were made of cotton, and during the past thirty years of rayon and artificial silk. Today, save for a few rare and prohibitively expensive examples made of pure silk, mixed cloths of silk with artificial silk or viscose are normally seen. Gimp golden and silver threads, colored silk and artificial silk are used as supplementary wefts. Virtually all these materials must be imported from Java, Japan, China, Singapore or India and may be purchased in the large city markets, sometimes also in smaller village stores and markets. The high cost of the raw materials accounts for about three-quarters of the value of a finished cloth.

      Figure 3.1: Songkèt shoulder cloth depicting heads of the demon Kalarau, who is thought to swallow the sun during eclipses. Silk and gold thread on silk. Bulèlèng, early 20th century. 169 x 50 cm. MEB IIc 20780.

      A GLIMPSE OF HISTORY

      The art of songkèt is closely associated with Bali's traditional kingdoms and royal families, and a brief historical overview will help us understand the present situation. The first sculptures and documents to throw some light on early Balinese history go back to the 8th and 9th centuries A.D.., though they cannot be dated exactly. In the 7th century, however, we understand that an international community of over a thousand Buddhist monks was studying in the center of the powerful kingdom of Sriwijaya, based in the vicinity of modern-day Palembang in southern Sumatra. Buddhist doctrines were spread from here by monks and priests and eventually reached Bali; traces of ancient monasteries and hermitages are still to be seen on the island today, and it is in this period that the earliest Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms arose.

      Figure 3.2: Songklthip cloth for worsen of the, nobility,, checkered with a star pattern (Polèng bebintangan). Gold threads on silk, Karangasem, c, 1900. 183 X 124 cm. MEB IIc 19970.

      The early rulers of Bali became acquainted by such means with Indian forms of state organization, and through the adoption of Indian beliefs in a divine god-king substantiated by a large body of epic literature—they clearly hoped to strengthen and consolidate their own power. The rulers of ancient Bali therefore summoned Hindu and Buddhist priests as counselors to their courts, and did their best to assimilate many aspects of Indian culture. It is reasonable to suppose that a knowledge of the lavish textile arts required for grand displays at court—such as silk weaving, red dyeing and songkèt also reached Bali during this period. Technical influences thus came directly from India as well as from Palembang (Sriwijaya) itself a stronghold of songkèt production ever since.