The geometrically patterned double-ikat weaves (patola) traded by Gujarati merchants from northwest India from as early as the thirteenth century had a profound influence on the designs of batik sarongs.
The repeat-patterned centrefields on patola, comprising interlocking stylized floral motifs or eight-rayed rosettes set in a modified circle, square or hexagon framed by borders and end panels—the latter often including the ubiquitous triangular bamboo shoot motif (pucuk rebung)—had a profound effect on the design register of woven and printed textiles of Southeast Asia and was undoubtedly patola ’s greatest legacy. In the course of the eighteenth century, block-printed and painted cotton Indonesian imitations of the expensive, prestigious Indian patola imports provided a cheap alternative for customers. Known locally as kain sembagi, the patterns on these cloths show a close relationship to those appearing on Indonesian and, later, Malaysian batik, especially floral rosettes and lattices and triangular end borders.
Traditional Attire
The earliest visual images we have of Malaysia, dating from the beginning of the nineteenth century, are romanticized, sometimes fanciful watercolours and sketches of panoramic views from hills, picturesque waterfalls, elegant mansions, ordered lawns and gardens, perhaps with a few tiny figures, and the occasional thatched Malay village set in a coconut grove. Human interest was minimal. After the arrival of photography in the Malay Peninsula in the early 1860s, Eurocentric images of street scenes, colonial buildings and Europeans predominated, usually for commercial reasons—they were bought by Europeans. The life of the average Malaysian was rarely captured in those days, apart from commercially driven touristic images taken by professional photographers of ‘posed natives in traditional dress’, among them rubber tappers, tin miners, rickshaw pullers, street hawkers and local beauties. This remained so until well into the twentieth century.
The floral rosettes, lattices and triangular end borders on eighteenth-century block-printed and painted cotton Indonesian imitations of India patola, known locally as kain sembagi, were to influence patterns on Indonesian and later Malaysian batik.
The exception was the Malay ruling class (the sultans and rajas and their families and followers) and well-to-do traders and towkays who could afford to engage a photographer or visit a studio, and the British colonial government who desired a photographic record of their periodic conferences with the local rulers. The photographs of the Malay rulers from the 1860s, whether taken with their families, retainers and followers or with British colonial officers, show how traditional Malay dress documented by early foreign travellers such as Ma Huan, Tomé Pires and Duarte Barbosa had survived with few alterations. The nobles are clad in a variety of loose and fitted tunics, loose trousers, long and short sarongs, shoulder cloths and headdresses fashioned from locally handwoven silk kain limar and kain songket and cotton plaids, as well as imported patola. Unlike in Indonesia, batik was never a central element in Malay court dress and so batik clothing is almost always absent in these photographs.
Up until the 1890s when the Sultan of Johor deemed such attire immodest, women would wear the full-length sarong with a separate cloth, called a kemban, tied around their breasts, leaving the shoulders exposed. With the spread of Islam and the influence of Arabic and Indian modes of dress, the sarong came to be worn with a loose knee-length tunic (baju kurung) or a neat-fitting jacket-type tunic, also knee-length (kebaya labuh), made of embroidered voile or organdie or lace yardage, secured down the front with ornamental brooches. For formal wear, the tailored tunics and sarongs of women of noble birth were generally made of handwoven kain songket, with a matching shawl or selendang. Commoner women who could afford it would wear a batik sarong with a baju kurung fashioned from a different and softer fabric.
Up until the 1890s, before it was deemed immodest, Malay women often wore a bodice wrapper (kemban) with their sarongs.
Studio portraits of ‘posed natives in traditional dress’ were common subjects for postcards in the early twentieth century.
Sultan Abdul Samad of Selangor (r. 1857–98) and his entourage in a variety of handwoven cotton and silk tunics and sarongs.
The Enduring Sarong
Azah Aziz, Malaysia’s doyenne of traditional costumes, believes that the sarong is by far the oldest costume in the Malay World and was worn by both men and women on formal and informal occasions long before trousers and baju or jackets and tunics came into being. The sarong is typically a large tube or length of fabric, most often wrapped around the waist and worn as an ankle-length skirt by women. Men would wear it down to the ankles on informal occasions and slightly shorter over loose trousers where formality was involved. The sarong is secured by folding and twisting the upper edge of the cloth so that it fits tightly around the wearer’s body. Women usually fold then twist their sarongs to one side while men fold theirs in front to secure them. As a costume, the sarong is ingenious because it demands no zippers, buttons or pins. In a tropical, humid climate, it is ideal because it is comfortable and airy, allowing air to circulate in the folds covering one’s legs. According to Azah, a family’s status and wealth or poverty were measured by the number of sarongs it possessed.
Locally woven cotton or silk plaid sarongs (kain tenunan) or imported Indian cotton plaids from Pulicat (kain pelekat) are primarily worn by Malay men at home and to the mosque.
The versatile batik and plaid sarong worn in a variety of formal and informal styles, c. 1910–20.
caption goes in here and Ilit prat nos esse minim il dolorper sustin hent acilisl enisl eniscilit nis nulla faccum venibh eraesed tat. Min vulput luptat la augiam quis nibh eugait autpa.
caption goes in here and Ilit prat nos esse minim il dolorper sustin hent acilisl enisl eniscilit nis nulla faccum.
A rattan processor in a stamped batik sarong teamed with a white singlet, his companions in kain pelekat.
The sarong is also a wonderfully versatile garment, whether the ends are sewn to form a tube or left free in the form of a long cloth. In addition to its function as a wrapped skirt, the sarong is used as a head covering, a bathing cloth when folded above the breasts, a baby cradle, a baby sling, a wrapping cloth, a carrying bag, even a makeshift prayer mat. Many Malaysian men and women sleep in a sarong and a blouse or T-shirt. On the east coast of Malaysia, the distinctive headdress of Malay fishermen is an unsewn sarong wrapped around the head in the form of a turban (kain semutar), on which they can carry heavy loads. Later, specially designed square head cloths were sometimes worn. Nowadays, unsewn sarongs are used as tablecloths or fashioned into Western-style skirts, trousers and blouses. In Malaysia, plaid sarongs are invariably associated with men and batik sarongs with women. The growing popularity