New YorkJonathan Hope, London
Mary Kahlenberg and Dr. Anne Summerfield, Los Angeles
Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Amsterdam
Museum of Mankind, London
Museum Nasional, Jakarta
Oey Soe Tjoen, Kedungwuni
Ardiyanto Pranata, Yogyakarta
Soelaeman Pringgodigdo, Jakarta
Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden
Hans W- Siegel, Ronco
Smend Gallery, Cologne
State Museum of Yogyakarta Sonobudoyo, Yogyakarta
Iwan Tirta, Jakarta
CONTENTS
I. TALES OF A TRADE ROUTE ISLAND
THE LURE OF JAVA
Three Religions
The Urban Chinese
Explorers from the West
Cotton for Sale—and to Wear
Raffles the Remarkable
Birth of an Industry
The Batik Process
MYSTERIES OF CENTRAL JAVA
NOBILITY OF CIREBON by Paramita Abdurachman
The Old Faith
The New Faith
Status Symbols for Aristocrats
An Old Court in a New Mold
THE FREEWHEELING NORTH COAST
PEKALONGAN—BATIK CITY
An Unusual Group of Women
The Chinese Heritage
Three Generations
The Finest Workmanship
DIVERSITY IN EASTERN JAVA
Islamic Kingdoms
Lasem—a Walled City
Village Batik
Strength in Numbers
TRAUMA AND A NEW SOCIETY
Cloth of War
Batik Indonesia
Modern Trends
Batik for Clothing—and Home
The Future of Batik
Spectacular prada sarong with red and blue (bang-biru) colors may have originated in Lasem. The head, or kepala, shown here has curvilinear geometries and the body (not shown) is covered with the phoenix, a symbol of longevity.
PROLOGUE
For much of my professional life I saw the world in black-and-white. Buddhists and Catholics killing each other in the streets of Saigon—black and white. Ulanova and Plisetskaya in performance at the Bolshoi ballet—black and white. Marlon Brando on a Mekong steamer—black and white. Lithuanian survivors of World War II—black and white. I was a photojournalist and those were my colors.
Then one day quite a few years ago, my black and white world exploded into glorious color. It happened in a tiny, nondescript shop in Hong Kong—that moment when the splendors of Java's north coast batik burst upon me. It was an epiphany of sorts: suddenly revealed was a wondrous textile cosmos, where lions roar ferociously, ducks paddle serenely, mythical animals defy gravity and surreal flowers unfold their brilliant petals. The batik artists of Java's north coast splash their colors with controlled and uncontrolled abandon.
Entranced by what I first glimpsed in that Hong Kong shop, I set out on a mission: to unravel the mystery of batik. Before long, I was traveling the length of Java's north coast, working with local Javanese, Chinese and Arab batik artists, helping them design new patterns and rearranging old ones; mixing colors never before used in batik and demonstrating that it was possible to produce batik in lengths of thirty-two yards, long enough to be used not just for clothing but for upholstery and drapery as well. Later, my company, China Seas, Inc., helped open new markets for batik in Europe and Asia, in North and South America.
All the time I was learning, watching and learning some more. At first timidly and then with a bit more confidence, I began buying batik that seemed unusual. I used my eyes. Did a particular batik resemble another in color, design, and technique? Chances were that they both came from the same region, the same town, the same period and quite likely the same artist.
During this long and sometimes arduous search, I traveled to four continents, crawled through cob webbed attics, slogged through slithering mud, battled flying cockroaches, and once was apprehended by gun-toting policemen when I arrived unannounced in some remote village. I pestered scholars and friends alike in the hope of collecting and showing what had never been seen before. I also drew on my earlier training as an aspiring historian. I was gradually able to put most of the textiles into what seemed to be an appropriate cultural, geographic, and historic context. But sleuthing
