Malaysian Batik. Noor Azlina Yunus

is, in reality, less than a century old. The very fact that it is so recent frees it in many ways from stereotypical designs, allowing opportunity and freedom for innovation.

      At the same time, the designs on early stamps ensure a certain amount of continuity of traditional patterns and motifs and the cultural values that are embedded in them. In a carefully designed batik cap sarong, as Mohamed Najib Ahmad Dawa points out in the En Bloc catalogue, ‘the motif is from the same source although it is placed in different parts of the scheme.’ He gives the example of a schematic arrangement illustrating the several phases in the growth of a flower: the pre-bud (seed) and bud in the pucuk rebung or bamboo shoot motif on the kepala (head) of the sarong; opening buds and entwining tendrils on the narrow borders encasing the kepala; and fully opened blossoms, leaves and stems on the badan (body). These, in turn, he says may symbolically represent the metamorphoses of a child into an adult.

      Indonesian Influences

      It is widely known among batik enthusiasts that Indonesian batik has a vast repertoire of well-documented geometric, figurative and background designs—some researchers estimate over 3,000—derived from natural and mythical sources, local folklore and the waves of foreign culture that enveloped the archipelago; the latter include motifs inspired by Indian patola cloths, Chinese textiles, ceramics and carvings, and European floral patterns. Among the most distinctive geometric or ceplokan designs are forms of flora, fauna and bird life standardized into repetitive, symmetrical shapes, diagonally slanted designs, groups of ovals arranged in fours, and patchwork and spear designs. Figurative or non-geometric designs, generically termed semen, include some of the most imaginative and ornamented batik designs inspired by Hindu, Buddhist and indigenous Javanese designs as well as European, Chinese and Indian sources. Placed against a background of swirling foliage, semen motifs are most apparent on hand-drawn Indonesian batik and frequently feature the mythical winged Hindu-Javanese Garuda, Chinese-inspired butterflies, phoenixes and peacocks, lions, mythical dragons and naga serpents and natural phenomena such as rocks, clouds, mountains and landscapes. Isen or background designs are simple, repetitive motifs, such as the Chinese-derived swastika or the Javanese fish-scale motif, which usually cover the whole surface of the cloth.

      Because of the availability of imported Indonesian sarongs, it is understandable that Javanese styles, especially those from Lasem and Pekalongan on the north coast of Java, which were decorated with both a kepala and floral motifs, influenced the patterns and motifs on the first Malaysian sarongs, right up to the early 1950s. Indeed, Muslim traders on Java’s north coast encouraged the production of particular styles for Muslim consumers. Many Malay women favoured the Lasem style of sarong with its plain, cream-coloured background covered with a kepala featuring the pucuk rebung (bamboo shoot) motif, called tumpal in Indonesia, in which two rows of equilateral triangles containing blossoms and stems run down each side of the kepala with the points of the triangles facing each other. Applied on innumerable Malay art and craft objects, the pucuk rebung has been variously interpreted as a symbol of fertility because of its rapid growth or a modified form of the mythical tree of life. The pucuk rebung was also the most common decorative pattern on the kepala of the prestigious locally handwoven gold thread kain songket, and so it was an eminently familiar motif. The badan on either side of the kepala pucuk rebung was decorated with meandering vines and stylized plant forms.

      This early twentieth-century sarong from Lasem on the north coast of Java, made for Chinese use, illustrates wax-stamped Javanese-style diagonal stripes, geometric patterns and triangular end borders in combination with hand-drawn motifs of auspicious creatures from the Chinese pantheon, all rendered in typical Lasem reds on a cream background.

      The ‘lotus garden’ theme, featuring wading, swimming and flying birds on the badan of sarongs and a floral bouquet on a contrasting background on the kepala, was adapted by Indo-Chinese batik makers from Indo-European batik themes at the beginning of the twentieth century, specially for the Chinese communities in Java, Singapore and the Malay Peninsula.

      A studio portrait of two Straits Chinese Nyonya wearing simple scalloped kebaya blouses fastened with brooches, and boldly patterned central Javanese batik sarongs, c. 1930s.

      A Baba Nyonya couple, the man in Western dress, the woman in a floral front-opening tunic paired with a Pekalongan batik sarong and beaded slippers, c. 1930s.

      Other women preferred imitations of the more brightly hued Indo-European or Pekalongan-style sarong, with a large, showy, multicoloured floral bouquet on the kepala and intricate Javanese-style geometric motifs on the badan. Unlike in Pekalongan where the bouquet was invariably hand drawn with wax, on the Malay Peninsula it was created with a series of carefully positioned metal stamps of flowers, leaves and buds connected to stems, while the various colours were applied by hand. Much of the intricate background detail and patterning found on the original Pekalongan sarongs was eliminated. However, the demand by Straits Chinese Nyonyas and wealthy Malay women for high-quality hand-drawn sarongs featuring the Pekalongan bouquet continued to be met by imports from the north coast Javanese ateliers, especially from those in Pekalongan.