The iket kepala, worn only by men, is a square headcloth, tied elegantly to form a turban. The pattern of the iket may be distributed evenly over the surface of the cloth, but in the middle there is usually an undecorated area called tengahan. Often the perimeter has finely drawn stripes, imitating a real fringe.
A kemben is a "breast cloth," which is a narrow batik wrapped around the upper part of the body used to secure a kain or sarong. It is worn instead of a kebaya (a long-sleeved blouse usually decorated with lace and embroidery) or sometimes under the kebaya.
Cotton for Sale—and to Wear
Cotton had been grown and spun in India for five thousand years, and by the middle of the fourteenth century it was probably the most important medium of exchange among Muslim, Hindu, and Arab traders. Within another three hundred years most merchants, except the Chinese—who traded mostly in porcelain—were carrying cotton throughout the East Indian archipelago. A single length of three or four yards was worth about forty pounds of nutmeg, and one ship might carry thirty or more different kinds of cloth, most likely including batik.
The export of batik from southeastern India to Java, Sumatra, Persia, and Siam reached its peak in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Early batik designs imitated woven textiles and were called djelemprang; they were popular because the simulated woven design took far less time to produce than actual woven cloth. The double ikat weave (patola) was often copied as a batik design, and this and other geometrically patterned djelemprangs were to find their way into the batik of both central Java and the north coast.
The Indian textiles suggested the possibility of multicolored patterns, as well as new designs. They probably also inspired a new organization of the textile surface—as a framed rectangle. That seemingly simple change brought about a profound revolution in perspective: now the cloth could be viewed as a picture-plane to be filled with something other than stripes or plaids. All these innovations may well have suggested to local craftsmen the idea of filling major design elements in batik with a network of finer designs. This would later lead to the development of isén—the fine "filling" or pattern within a motif.
In a 1662 book by the Dutch explorer Johan Nieu-hoff, numerous Javanese are shown dressed in what appear to be batiked garments. Shortly thereafter, a Dutch official visiting the central Javanese kingdom of Mataram reported four thousand women who were "painting" cloth. The numbers may have been inflated, but batik by then had become important enough to rival Dutch imported cloth. In fact, the ruler of Mataram encouraged his people to grow cotton in a vain attempt to free his people from the yoke of Holland.
By the end of the eighteenth century, the common people of Java were wearing plaid cloth (called lurik); others, more exalted, "preferred baték, or painted cloth," which came in a hundred different patterns. Not all these patterns were available to everyone, however. Certain designs, especially those used in the courts of central Java, were "forbidden" to commoners. But the freewheeling people of the north coast generally ignored such strictures.
Cotton, both locally grown and imported, was a key ingredient in the development of batik. Two types of cotton were grown in seventeenth-century Java. Je- rondo was "used instead of feathers to stuff cushions, bolsters, and quilts . . . but not long enough for combing or weaving." A second type called Kapas was spun by the Javanese: "As soon as the flowers are gone, there buds out a knot, containing the cotton wool, this cotton fit for weaving." The labor required to produce handspun cloth limited the production of locally woven goods. Seven hours of continuous labor were required to produce one meter of cloth on a traditional Javanese loom, and this work, as well as the spinning of yarn, was done by women.
The women of the family should provide the men with the cloths necessary for their apparel and from the first consort to the sovereign to the wife of the lowest peasant, the same rule is observed. In every cottage there is a spinning wheel and a loom, and in all ranks a man is accustomed to pride himself on [the] beauty of cloth woven by either his wife, mistress, or daughter.
For the women, only the planting and harvesting of crops took precedence over these homespun duties.
For the last four hundred years, however, cotton has not been a major commodity in Java's agricultural economy. As early as 1598, Jan H. Linschoten was persuaded that "if cloth of Holland were [in Java] to be found, it would be more esteemed than cotton linen out of India." Even under Dutch colonial rule, when a plantation system prevailed, coffee, rice, tobacco, and copra far outstripped cotton in importance. Batik makers have always relied on imported cotton, first from India and then from Holland and England. These imports were undoubtedly expanded in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, as Java's population tripled. The increased labor force, in turn, increased the production of batik.
Raffles the Remarkable
The leading witness to the development of batik was that extraordinary man, Thomas Stamford Raffles, who arrived in Java in 1811 as the English began a brief but important interregnum there. Some twelve thousand Englishmen landed in Java, capturing it from the Dutch. Raffles was appointed lieutenant governor of the island and forthwith set out to learn everything he could about his new surroundings. He abolished forced and "contingent" deliveries, upon which both the Dutch and Javanese had based their economy. Shocked that a country like Holland, which valued political liberty, would tolerate thirty thousand slaves in Java, Raffles set about eradicating slavery.
Not content with such far-reaching economic and social changes, Raffles steeped himself in the local culture. He studied the Javanese language; he uncovered the ancient monument at Borobudur, which by then was buried deep in the jungle; he encouraged restoration of other ancient temples. Raffles also wrote a monumental History of Java, which to this day stands as the most authoritative and exhaustive chronicle of the island and its folkways. He amassed one of the greatest collections of flora, fauna, textiles, and artifacts ever collected in the archipelago and packed it all up for shipment home. The boat and its contents burned fifty miles offshore. Undaunted, Raffles began a second collection, which he brought back safely to England.
Raffles may well have collected batik by the gross—he wrote that there were a hundred identifiable patterns—and his History of Java includes the first systematic study of the art. Only two of Raffles's Javanese pieces survive, and they seem to be the earliest in any collection. Illustrations in the Raffles History show numerous ways of wearing batik, along with many different patterns. He also wrote in detail about how batik is made.
During Raffles's time England began exporting its own printed cottons to Java, and local batik makers acquired a new perspective on their own work when they found the English prints were not colorfast. The English also exported a high-quality, tightly woven white cloth. This, along with European-made mori, as cambrics were called, began to replace Javanese hand-woven textiles. The smoother, mill-made textiles from Europe became the groundcloth of most nineteenth-century batik: it was possible for wax to be drawn in more detailed designs on these finer fabrics, and the motifs themselves began to change accordingly.
The subsequent hundred years witnessed a great flowering of batik, particularly on the north coast with its cosmopolitan exposure. Whereas Raffles had recognized a mere hundred designs, a century later the batik scholar G. P. Rouffaer described more than a thousand.
Sir Thomas Stamford