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Rens Heringa – Spiegels van ruimte en tijd, Textiel uit Tuban

Mirrors of space and time

Textiles from Tuban

This catalog is published on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Mirrors of space and
time’, an exhibition about the textiles of Tuban, a coastal region in the northeast of Java.

The catalog and the exhibition, which will be held in the Museon in The Hague from
June 24 to October 17, 1994, were made possible thanks to a financial contribution from the
Ministry of WVC.

'Mirrors of space and time’ is the sixth and, for the time being, the last installment in
a series about Indonesian textiles from the Museon's own collection. Previously published
publications on Batak fabrics, wickerwork from Halmahera, clothing from the Baduy, fabrics
from Sumba, and fabrics and batiks from Djambi and Palembang.

INDEX

1. Tuban – Past and Present 5

2. Mirrors of space and time – Cloths as a geographical and social map 11

3. Myth and reality - Cloths as a product of the community 20

4. Threads full of history - Textile technology as a sign of status 29

5. Catalog 36

Notes and sources 47

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1 Tuban – Past and Present
Tuban is a small coastal town in the north east of Java. The hinterland of the same
name is sandwiched between the sea in the north and the mountains in the south. City and
hinterland share a glorious past, but for the past two hundred years the Tuban district has
been an impoverished, inaccessible region over which government officials have little
control. The roads are paved and the children go to school, but much has remained the
same. The women, for example, still wear self-woven clothing in the colors and motifs that
were once characteristic of the entire north coast of Java.

The district of Tuban with the sub-district of Kerek that is central in this story. Kerek
covers an area of about 60 km. Groups of villages in the eight cardinal directions are located
around a group of central villages. Together they form a symbolic .production unit

Since the early nineteenth century, the mountainous and water-poor hinterland of
Tuban has invariably been described as a backward enclave, but that was different further
back in history. Initially there was a close connection between the interior and the coast.
The hinterland contributed with its products to the wealth of the trading empire on the
coast. At this spot, where sailing ships, carried along by favorable sea currents and trade
winds, landed as if by themselves, early a city, Kambang Putih. According to a stone relief
stamp, Prince Airlangga, ruler of the early East Javanese empire Kadiri, granted this city
harbor rights in the middle of the eleventh century. Within a close economic structure,
groups of villages jointly maintained a production system, in which each village made its
own contribution to the whole. In the markets, an exchange of products took place between
the local population and with outsiders. Officials collected the share that belonged to the
monarch.

Ritual communities, the so-called mandala communities, are also mentioned in the
ancient sources. In some of these, women kept those endang, sister, are called, engaged in
weaving. Certain activities, such as the dyeing and bleaching of textiles and the binding of
yarns, were the work of specialists. The same sources speak of fabrics in many colors and
patterns, which served as ceremonial gifts. The cloths functioned as a sign of status or
identity and as a gift from the monarch to validate an agreement. This old Javanese

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partnership between villages can be found in the later village federations, the moncapat, of
Central Java, in which a central village occurs together with the surrounding villages located
in four cardinal directions. Ritual enclaves with a special mission still exist in Java. The Baduy
in West Java and the Tenggerese in East Java are examples of this.

Rich coastal region

On the site of the old Kambang Putih, the coastal kingdom of Tuban flourished
between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. Ships from Persia. India and China found here
a choice of precious where Mace and nutmeg from the Moluccas and sandalwood from
Timor were brought in by the sailors of Tuban. The then fertile hinterland supplied an
abundance of rice and wood. Precious materials from India and porcelain from China were
the medium of exchange for these products. Descriptions by overseas visitors give picture of
the port city's heyday. In Chinese chronicles it is related how a fleet of 1000 junks, manned
with 20,000 soldiers, landed in Tuban in 1293 to carry out an unsuccessful punitive
expedition against the Prince of Java to undertake. The Portuguese Tomé Pires described in
1513 the fortified town which, as he reports, is located one arrow shot from the sea. Within
a stone wall two spans thick and fifteen spans high lives the prince with a crowd of
noblemen. At port. protected by a wooden palisade, foreign merchants have settled there.

Already during the first millennium, with the trade goods, the religious and cultural
ideas from Hindu India penetrated the region. In the first half of the fifteenth century, the
Muslim general Zheng He undertook several military campaigns to Java by order of the
Emperor of China. A large group of Muslim Chinese settled on the entire northeast coast
during that period. At about the sametime, theprince of Tuban converted to Islam, without
severing close ties to his relative, the Hindu prince of Madjapahit. Textile motifs and
techniques still reflect this entanglement of cultures.

In 1599, a Dutch source is the first to mention fabrics made in Tuban. In that year the
ships of the second city. The officers are received in royal style by the king of Tuban. The
report of the visit tells that in the town there is a lot of cooperation and the handling of all
kinds of goods, such as silk, linen and camelots' and also of her clothes who wear them

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around your body, and they are also sometimes used. Unfortunately, the story does not
mention what the canvases look like.

A ship’s log from 1599 describes and illustrates how the prince of Tuban, ‘one of the
most powerful kings of Java with syne Edelen and the other syne Dienaers and the Slavs
supplied us [the Dutch] int with (J. Keuning 1942, The second shipping of the Dutch to the
East Indies, 1598-1600).

Shortly after the arrival of the Dutch, the old glory is over. In the battle for the trade
monopoly between the sultanate of Mataram and the Dutch, Tuban is repeatedly burned to
the ground. The Dutch relocate the overseas trade to Batavia and take care of the supply of
spices themselves. Initially, Tuban’s rich hinterland will remain a supplier of rice for the
residents of Batavia and of djatihout (pohon jati) for their houses and ships, but that too will
come to an end after some time.

A century of unlimited felling completely changes the landscape of Tuban. Increasing

erosion leads to a lack of water and at the end of the eighteenth century the parched region
with its calcareous soil has become of minor economic importance to the colonial
authorities. The impoverished but proud population of the area for a long time tried to
influence the outside influence possible to limit. In the course of the nineteenth century and
also after Indonesia's independence, clashes with those in authority repeatedly occurred.

Present

The contemporary relationship between the villages around Kerek. the subdistrict of
Tuban that is central to this story is in many ways reminiscent of the description in the old
Javanese charters. Groups of villages, which are located in the eight cardinal directions,
maintain the link with a centrally located group of villages. However, a series of
administrative changes introduced externally has disrupted the traditional coherence. At the
end of the nineteenth century, disregarding the original center village, the colonial
government designated an inconsiderable hamlet as the capital of the new sub-district, to
which the villages have belonged ever since. The population calls this new center of
authority Kerek, literally taking prey between the teeth, a name that is indicative of the

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dissatisfaction with the new situation. Moreover, drastically is the institution of a regional
market in this same hamlet in 1907. The traditional village markets, the basis of the
cooperation system, must disappear. This influences not only the socio-economic but also
the cosmological cohesion of the area. The population tries to accommodate the imposed
changes as much as possible. In the new market, the exchange of goods takes place as
usual. A large part of the village groups still supply the traditional materials and fabrics for
the regional costume. The old center village may have been overshadowed by Kerek as a
center of authority, but it still plays a central role in the production of textiles. Here the
yarns and cloths are dyed in the colors that give the villagers the characteristic of their
origin.

Light and dark

At the local market of Kerek, in the cool of the early morning, buyers and
saleswomen swarm together. The price of maize, fruits and vegetables from their own land
is competitively negotiated. Baskets and cooking utensils made of bamboo, mats and
agricultural implements are on display. Crowded vans bring in fish and luxury items from the
neighboring town, the coastal town of Tuban. At first glance it looks like a village market like
there are thousands in Java. However, the clothing of the women of the region is striking.
They wear a sturdy cotton checkered fabric around the hips. The merchandise is wrapped in
a hand-woven batik shoulder cloth with long knotted fringes. The colors of the region, blue,
black and different shades of red, determine the image of the market Baskets with
homegrown cotton, long strands of handspun yarn and undyed cloths are found by many
buyers.

The origin of the women is clearly recognizable by the color of their hip wraps.
Bright, light hip cloths indicate that a woman comes from one of the eastern villages, where
the sun rises. In the west, the side facing the setting sun, preference is given to
combinations of darker shades. The hip-cloths from the south are, in brightness, midway
between east and west, and those from the north are very dark. The mourners from the
central villages wear hip cloths with motifs in all colours, blue, black and scarlet ona white
background. This indicates that the center is considered to be the sum of all parts.

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2 Mirrors of space and time – Cloths as a
geographical and social map
The wind rose in Indonesia is like a rainbow: east, south, west and north each have
their own color. The wind rose is also a map of the life cycle. Life begins where the sun rises,
in the east, and ends in darkness, in the north. This order can be recognized in the clothing
of the women of Kerek. With the color of her hip cloth a woman shows where she comes
from, her age lies in her shoulder cloth. The women's clothing is a mirror of space and time.

The world as the people of Kerek envision it is divided into four concentric circles.
The widest includes the Tuban within this is the sub-district of Kerek. Then follows the own
hamlet with the familiar villagers and finally the smallest unit, the residential area, the
domain of the family group. This own group is referred to as awake dewe, own flesh and
blood. The opposite is wong liya, the others. To the outside world, the inhabitants of Kerek
call themselves wong Kerek, people of Kerek. Within Kerek, one’s own hamlet serves as an
identifier, while within the small circle of fellow villagers, someone identifies as belonging to
the house of the oldest man in the yard. Outsiders are also referred to by the family group
in a yard with the term rung kluwarga, not yet a family. So there is a possibility that the
relationship with some others will turn into that of kinship.

The Women’s Yard

Three generations of women together with men and children form a living and
working community. It is the task of this group to contribute, each in its own way, to the
three main necessities of life of the inhabitants of the yard: sandang, pangan, and papan.
The oldest house and yard belong to the oldest woman. Each of her married daughters gets
a house within a bamboo fence. A married woman has at least her own cooking space.
When the grandmother dies, the family house belongs to one of the daughters. The women
are jointly responsible for making the clothes and preparing the food. The daily meal usually
consists of masher and steamed maize with a rich choice of tubers, vegetables, and fruits.
Rice is primarily a feast and sometimes it is mixed into the corn in small quantities.

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The Land of the Men

In the yard, the women determine the course of events. Beyond that, the men are in
charge. The arable land is owned by the man. It is passed from father to son. The oldest man
in the yard acts as head of the group in contacts with outsiders. Upon his death, a son takes
over his task and settles within the yard with his wife. Most of the sons move in with their
wife’s heirloom group. Each farm group is involved in the cultivation of the fields and all
share in the proceeds. In addition to the foodstuffs, the necessities for textiles, cotton and
indigo, are sown as a second crop.

The man's work is primarily the care of cows and goats, which are largely destined
for trade. Just as making fabrics and clothes is typically women's work, so building and
decorating the house with carvings is men's work; weaving women, building men. Due to a
lack of land, a large proportion of the men are often away from home for weeks to look for
work elsewhere.

Although making the clothes is largely the task of the woman, the man also has an
input. He makes the equipment from bamboo and special types of wood: the spinning
wheels, the warp device, the yarn mill, the loom, and the batik rack. The tools are often
decorated with beautiful carvings. In the past, the men from the region were also known for
forging the red copper boat, the canting, with which the batik drawing is applied to the
fabrics. A part of the loom is made together by man and woman: the weaving comb or suri.
A newlywed man cuts the fine bamboo slats and the framework, which his wife the ties
together with a double strand of yarn spun in his own yard. The weaving comb is therefore a
symbol of marriage. The fabric, in which warp and weft threads are woven by the woman on
the man-made loom, is regarded as the fruit of this union.

From Mother to Daughter

The three generations of women in the yard each contribute to the textile process in
their own way. Weaving is reserved for adult women who are in their reproductive period,
because weaving and applying motives is associated with the passing of life. The youngest
and oldest generations in the yard are only indirectly involved in this regeneration process.

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Grandmother, who has accomplished her task as a mother, plays a supporting role.
Together with her granddaughters she first fluffs the cotton from the kernels, the she forms
the push, the phallus-shaped slivers of purified cotton from which she spins the yarn. Long
practice is required to make a nice even thread. Also, only the grandmother knows how to
tie the yarn for iket fabrics, how to measure the warp, and how to insert the sticks for the
fine patterns on the warp into the loom. In the background she directs the weaving process
and gradually she will initiate her married daughters into the secrets of the art.

Only after her marriage a woman will make a patterned canvas, when, once wife and
mother, she functions as a full, live-giving member of the community. She brings a canvas to
life with colorful patterns, just like she brings the generation into the world. More than fifty
years ago, seven to nine years was to still consider as the marriageable age. As a sign of
maturity, a girl is now allowed to try to weave or batik a piece of cloth around her tenth
birthday. According to the law, a marriage can only be entered into at the age of sixteen. So
there would be more time to master all the tricks of the textile knowledge, but now many of
the girls are going to the school, they usually no longer have the time or interest to spend
long hours learning the old weaving and batik art.

A newlywed woman first focuses on making simple fabrics. These include so-called
lurik cloths, fabrics with stripes or checks (see P. 41), cloths with ikat motifs, the kain
talenan (see p. 45), and batik lurik, checkered fabrics with dotted patterns in batik (see p.
38). All these fabric types are intended for everyday use and are made in all villages with
minor variations in the motifs and colors. Gradually, a young woman practicing batiking
shawls. Not until years lates, when the elaborate wedding preparations for her children lie
ahead, a mother makes the cloths that in time will serve as a wedding gift or ceremonial
dress for her children. It can take a long time to complete all the necessary cloths, as only
the dry time after harvest shouls be devoted to this activity. Delicate tie-dyed floral tendrils
and bird motifs (see p. 38) or small woven flowers (see p. 43) cover the festive attire. This
active creation of livestock is compared to having grandchildren. It therefore corresponds to
the stage of life of the woman herself who hopes to have a small child in a few years.

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The Measure of Things

The ratio between the length and the width of a cloth is determined by its future
function. Setting up fabric that does not meet the right proportions is unheard of, just as
changing plans during weaving is not acceptable. To become cloths considered as living
beings whose forms are fixed from the very beginning. In addition to hip and shoulder
cloths, the women also weave long narrow strips of fabric from which they sew jackets and
trousers for their husbands. However, the latter is happening less and less, nowadays men’s
clothing is mostly bought.

The basic measurement for all weaves is the kilan, the hand span or distance
between the spread thumb and little finger of the grandmother who puts on the warp. The
use of the human size means that no two canvases are the same in size. The width varies
from three to five hand spans, at least 45 to about 90 cm. More would be beyond the reach
of weaver’s arms. The length of the warp is a multiple of the width, depending on the
function of the cloth that one intends to weave. Thus the length, so the warp, of a hip cloth
to be sewn into a tube, a sarong, is twice the width, while for the open hip cloth, the jarit,
three times the width is measured. Only when the width of the weft has been determined
can the length of the warp be determined. This sequence of actions is based on a deeper
meaning.

The women call the warp direction of the cloths the masculine path, while the weft
represents the path of the woman. Although the eye it looks like the man, the warp, the
lead, it is the woman, the woof, that silently directs the measure of things.

The Compass Rose

In addition to the circles that divide the world into people of their own flesh and
blood and others, the inhabitants of Kerek use another map. This is a division of the area
according to the lines of the compass rose. All relations between the living, as well as those
with the wong biyen, the people of old to whom ancestors, celestial beings and demons
belong, can only be understood without this blueprint in mind. In the east comes at six
o’clock in the morning the sun rises, at six o’clock in the evening it tends to the west

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towards the bilge. It is therefore not surprising that the east and west are associated with
distant sliding of time and thus of life. The start and end of all kinds of activities are also
adapted to this course. A village is always entered via the eastern gate, while if necessary a
detour is made to leave it via the western side. The latter is required even when a deceased
person is carried to his final resting place. The measurement of the threads for the warp of a
fabric starts on the east side of the warp device, which set up facing east-west. The first
impact of a fabric should also be inserted from east to west.

The south and the north are associated with differences in height, both spatially and
socially. The mountains stand out against the southern horizon, as well as the gigantic tree
that forms the sacred tomb of the furrow, most important male ancestor of the area,
Dampo Awang, marked. To the north is the sea, the domain of demons and ghosts. The
land, the world of the ‘People of Kerek’, lies in the middle. In the villages, the house of the
village leaders, the people of high status, face the mountain, while the houses of the
common people face the sea.

Life Cycle

The different phases of the life cycle lie in line with this quartet beginning-end-high-
low. The people in the eastern villages are at the beginning of this cycle; they are, as it were,
the children. The pinnacle of the stages of life, the beginning of marriage, is in the south.
This is the realm of the ‘brides’. Then in the southwest follows the area of the ‘mothers’. In
the west, the reproductive phase ends and the ‘grandmothers’ area begins. Finally, the
north is associated with death. Here lies the end of the life cycle. Between north and east is
the otherworldly and perilous phase between death and beginning of a new life cycle. Three
of the parts need run to three generations of people of their own world. The fourth is out
there.

The colors of the rainbow are also recorded on this symbolic map of Kerek. Each
wind direction has its own color. The spaces between the dots indicate a gradually changing
color gradient. The indeterminate white of the east passes through pink to bright red in the
south. This changed to the west to orange and deep yellow. Yellow turns to green and blue

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to end up in the north as blue-black. Between north and east, black changes over blue and
gray to white again. The colors of east and south are also described as light and bright, those
of west and north as dark and deep. A combination of all colors symbolizes the totality of
things, the perpetual course of life and death.

Color and Position

The color as anchored in the wind rose can be found in the clothing. The women in
particular can therefore be placed in their own village group and generation, in accordance
with their position on the symbolic map. The main colors of everyday clothing are different
shades of red and blue. Black is created by painting blue on red. White is not considered as a
color, but as a background or base. The colors yellow and green are reserved for special
occasions related to fertility, such as a wedding or the harvest festival. Examples of this are
the green-yellow vest a girl wears when she first first menstruates, and the red and yellow
shawl of a young bride (see p. 40).

A woman place of origin is indicated by the color of her hip cloth, the jarit; bright
red in the east, brown-red with blue in the south, dark red in the west, and dark blue or
black with small red motifs in the north.

A woman’s age is indicated by the colors of her shoulder cloth, the sayut. Young
women wear white with bright red motifs (see p. 37). As a woman aged, only a single detail
of the bright colors remains and gradually dark colors take its place. Blue with black and
small red accents is the middle-aged color. Blue-black in which the red is invisibly present is
worn by the oldest generation (see p. 44). The last cloth that will cover a woman at the end
of her life is the deep black, death cloth in which tiny white and red flowers light up (see p.
33). A special feature is the shoulder cloth from the northeast with blue motifs on a white
background (see cover). This serves to protect a sick child from evil influences. A precious
burden also calls for the blue and white shoulder cloth.

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Men’s Clothes

Men also stick to the colors that suit their age, even though their clothes are usually
bought ready-made. Young farmers prefer to dress in fawn brown knee-length trousers and
a brown jacket. Original kain usik, produced in their yard, was used for this, natural brown
cotton that, twisted with a white thread, was woven into an almost indestructible fabric.
Now this traditional dress is worn once more in the annual ritual for the first plowing of the
land. The kebayan, the mediator between the people and the village leader, used to wear a
service coat of the same fabric in which three colors were incorporated; brown, blue, and
white, as a sign that he represented the whole community. Older males wear dark brown
and finally black.

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3 Myth and Reality – Cloths as a Product of the
Community
The division of labor in the yard between daughters, mothers, and grandmothers is
also the division of labor as it ideally exists in the village of Kerek. The women from the east,
symbolized as children, produce raw cotton. The grandmothers in the north spin and weave
white, undecorated cloths. The women in the south and west and in the center, the brides
and the mothers, add motifs. The painter gives the canvases their color. In reality, the
women usually make all their clothes themselves. Only ceremonial cloths are the product of
this ideal textile cycle.

The beginning of all things, according to the people of Kerek, lies in the northeast.
Here, in the area outside the world of living, at the beginning of a new life cycle, lives a
mythical primordial mother. Her first name is Nyi Diwut, Grandmother Shaggy. This name
characterizes her as a demonic being who lived on earth in a distant past. In a children’s
song, it is told how the earth pushed her far because she was too ‘hot’. Screaming loudly,
she flew on a bolt of lightning high into the sky, to the moon, from where she now as Nyi
Towong, the invisible grandmother that provides the raw materials for the clothing. The
stars of the firm are the glistening while bursting fruits of her cotton plantation. In the
human world, it is the men of the villages in the east who are instructed, when sowing the
cotton, to express the wish that their harvest too will be abyor kaya lintang rembulan, or
twinkling like the stars and the moon.

Nyi Towong also sets an example when spinning. Her spinning shadow in the full
moon lets the yarn fall like moonlight from the clear night sky on the northern villages,
where the grandmothers of the human would collect it and make it into yarn and plain
fabrics. It only befits the grandmothers of the north and the children of the east to produce
undyed parts, yarns, and textiles, that do not yet express an identity.

At the central exchange point, the market, the raw cotton from the east and the fine
undyed yarn and the plain white cloths from the north are traded to the women from the
south, the west, and the center, who will apply the motifs and colors to the canvases.

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The Southeast

To the southeast of Kerek there is the holy tomb of Mbak Semigit, the hapless
beautiful damsel whose marriage was never consummated due to her premature and in the
struggle between a mob of worshippers. In the guise of slender pinang palm, Mbak Semigit
now contributes to the success of the rituals of the others. From her trunk comes the welira,
the saber for the loom, which first holds the warp apart to let the weft through, and then
binds both tightly together. The fruit of the pinang palm is the betel nut, part of the sirih
plum which is exchanged at the start of each ritual.

The woman from the southeast like Mbak Semigit, mainly contribute to the rituals of
others. The young girls, known to be particularly attractive, are the best sindir, animators, in
the area. They step with daring song and dance at feasts, but they themselves seldom
marry. The only traditional dresser of brides also comes from the southeast.

These women have never dealt with weaving or batik. Their specialty in the textile
cycle consists of weaving green-yellow dried palm leaf strips into ritual objects such as the
box for the sirih present, the tiny entik kinang. The giant version of this is the koper, the
basket for the cloths that a bride is offered at her wedding.

The South

The women of the southern villages, within the symbolic system the ‘brides’, are
especially adept at making batik shoulder cloths. They don’t do batik hip scarves. They wear
hip cloths from outside the area, with which they indicate that they do not yet fulfill the
functions of an adult woman in the community. Their hip cloth is a so-called kain tukon, a
cloth from the market, a piece of machine-woven cotton, which is batik-patterned near the
town of Tuban (see p. 42).

The myth of the southern village tells the story of the wedding ritual in disguise. Just
as the hip cloths of the women of the south are bought outside Kerek, so in this myth are
also objects that are not made in Kerek. At first glance, they even have nothing to do with
textiles. The story goes that once here in the south a pikulan, a merchant’s pole, with

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baskets full of earthenware pots from a neighbor area broke in half. The pots are a symbol
of the womb. The breaking represents the initiation of the bride. Like the pots, the shoulder
cloth, which the women make themselves here, is also the symbol of the womb. The cloth
represents the body of the bride. The midfield is called pelemahan, arable land. The arable
land is the woman which the man shall sow the now plantings. The upper edge of the short
sides is called bathuk, or vulva. This border shows a row of strongly stylized human figures
with two legs. The women call these creatures as the offspring. The long fringes of the cloth
depict pubic hair (see p. 39).

The West

Only the grandmother-to-be in the west and in the center of the area make
ceremonial hip cloths. These cloths, like the shoulder cloths from the south, are compared
to arable land. The floral fabrics of the west represent the dry fields of the tegal. The batik
cloths made in the center represent the fields irrigated by rain, the sawah. The abundance
of flowers on the cloths implies the wish that, like the flowers on the cloths, the relations of
the people among themselves may also flourish and that the progeny, like the crop, may be
abundant.

The women of the west are accomplished weavers of kain kembangan, floral cloths
(see p. 43). The additional weft motif of small flowers in fine cotton, silk or gold thread on
the striped background symbolizes a field full of flowering young plants. The terms for the
plane division of the weave are the same as those for the tegal, the dry arable land. There,
too, the plants grow in straighten on the pelemahan, the land surrounded by earthen walls,
galengan. The short sides of the cloth are called tumpal edge with a different pattern. The
pattern rown are some distance apart. Shrubs and palm trees grow on the edges of the field.

The myth associated with this part of the area is that of Roro Gedhangan, the
unintentionally pregnant weaving star sitting high on her weaving platform. She diligently
threw her bobbin from side to side and back again. Suddenly, the smooth bamboo object
shot from her hand and, annoyed by the delay, she cried, ‘whoever returns my spool will
become my husband’. Then a dog helps her. Nevertheless, she keeps her word and a son is

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born, who is given the name Sunyono, son of a dog. A chain of fateful events is the result of
the unnatural union. The son kills, without realizing it, the hunting dog, which is his father.
Later, the unfortunate, also unintentionally, marries his own mother. The main characters of
the story are considered the ancestor of the common people of Kerek. Their adventures are
brought to life every year in the graves of the ancestors throughout the region during the
thanksgiving rituals for the harvest.

The Center

Higher in status than the floral fabric from the west is the second type of party wear,
the batik hip scarf, which is made by the women from the center. Only a steady hand and
years of practice enable a woman to place the traditional motifs in smooth lines on the plain
cloth without prior drawing. It is also important that the batik woman does not have small
children to take care of, that would be too distracting. A cloth intended for a wedding is
preferably made in the privacy of the house. An evenly woven piece of lawon, the uncolored
material that will serve as the basis, has been provided long in advance. In meditative
reflection, the woman first lets the birds and flowering plants come to life in her mind. Only
then does she try to draw it all on the dock with hot wax. Not the dry arable land, but the
sawah, the wet field that supplies the ritual food, the rice, is an example of the batik cloth
(see p. 25).

The mud field, pelemahan, is surrounded by a wide pinggir, the ram part, and a
narrow galengan, the dike. The rectangles on the end are surrounded by the glontor, the
drainage ditch. The ganggeng floats in the midfield, the waterweed that appears on every
submerged sawah. A motif that winds continuously over the dock in many spurs, depicting a
widely branched family group. Fine dots, coblosan or young resting plants shimmer between
the runners. Birds peck at the seeds that have landed on higher ground in the rectangles on
the short sides. A row of triangles stands proudly at the ends, which represent trees at the
end of the field, or the mountains bordering Kerek on the south side. The dock is, as it were,
the map of the area.

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 The women from the center have a reputation for making the finest batik cloths. In
the past, such fine cloths could only be acquired in exchange for a precious Chinese
porcelain dish or bowl, except as a dowry. The women of the center village are exempt from
labor on the land. This way they can sit undisturbed at the batik rack for hours on end.

Their high status is equal to that of the mythical tripe Mother Sri Ayu, who is their
example. Sri Ayu, celestial nymph and rice goddess, had never ending supply of rice at her
disposal and was therefore exempt from labor on the land. Long ago she descended to earth
to bathe in a spring in the forest. Jaka Tarub, a young man of the land, was spying on her. He
was so impressed, that he quietly took away many-flowered flight suit, so that she was
forced to marry him. After a short time, the couple has a daughter. With a single spike of
rice given to her heavenly father’s nymph, she feeds her family for a long time. But one day
her husband can’t control his curiosity and, despite his wife’s prohibition, looks into the rice
steamer that is steaming on the fire. Not long then the stock of rice in the barn is exhausted
and the young woman finds her buried under the missing flowered dress. She decides to
leave her untrustworthy husband. Since then, people have been forced to work up a sweat
in the fields. Only the women of the center village, the representatives of the heavenly
nymph, are exempt from this.

The Painters

Dyeing the batik cloths, combining the colors, is the preserve of the family of the
dyers in the center village. The painter’s house faces the sea so she can better communicate
with her special demon companion. Rondo Ireng, the black widow, lives in the indigo, the
natural blue-black paint.

For more than four generations, the women of this family have been dyeing the
batik cloths for the entire region. The oldest woman is in charge of the blue dyeing the
youngest with the different shades of red. Only when she has grown daughters of her own
will she also be allowed to handle the indigo. Continuous monitoring of the blue liquid in the
mother vessel is reserved for the oldest woman.

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 The indigo is cut every year from the plantings on their own property. The natural
dye with its deep blue color is irreplaceable for the batik cloths for ritual use. Dyeing skeins
of yarn for common fabrics can be done by a blue-dye in any village and is less regulated.
The barks for red and red-brown dyes traditionally come from the coast or from overseas.
The modern substitute, a chemical dye, is bought at the market in Surabaya.

Blue painting is a sacred activity and the oldest painter is highly regarded. This is
reinforced by her marriage to the man in charge of sacred activities in the village, the modin,
an Islamic pastor. The paint star symbolically acts as the mother of the whole region, as
evidenced by the term tunggal wedel, means ‘painted blue in one vessel’ and figuratively
‘children from the same womb’. The blue cloths make, as it were, everyone who wears
them into their own flesh and blood, awake dewe. The color red, on the other hand, comes
from outside and is manipulating the combination of colors, the wearer can accurately
indicate her origin.

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4 Threads Full of History - Textile technology as a
sign of status

Clothing is the calling card of the women of Kerek. Just as their origin and age lie in
the color of their hip and shoulder wraps, the motifs of their hip wraps give an indication of
their status. But not only the place in one’s own community, relationships with outsiders
also take stage and color in the clothing.

The village population of Kerek is, as elsewhere in Indonesia, divided into different
classes. The position of the man is decisive; women belong to the status group of their
husband. There are two criteria for status. The first has to do with rights to agricultural land,
the second with a leading position in the village government. Sometimes the two criteria
coincide.

The descendants of the founders of a village, the bakalan, are the first landowners to
be the highest in the hierarchy of the group classified according to fundamental rights.
Many of the families from which the village head has emerged for generations, however,
only own land to which they are officially entitled and rely mainly on the ancestry of
influential or noble families from outside the area. Apparently outsiders have also gained a
place in Kerek in ancient times, either through marriage or through less peaceful means.

The second class consists of newcomers who have acquired land in the village. The
lowest class consists of landless workers. Many of them earn meager wages working on the
land of others or, often for weeks at a time, are active outside Kerek as cattle dealers,
carpenters, or charioteers, or in the modern version of the profession, such as chauffeurs.

Clothes from Outside

The clothing of these men working outside of Kerek has been long adapted to the
prevailing conditions outside the area norm: long or short trousers, a jacket or shirt with
large pockets and a wide leather belt with pocket in the front for money and tobacco. With
a plaid sarong worn over the shoulder or around the hips, this makes the general Islamic
coastal wear. None of the parts comes from our own (Kerek) yard, everything is bought
ready-made on the market. The headgear is also of foreign origin. They are generally an
indication of the wearer’s activity. When a man trades cattle, he wears a capil sheet, a felt
hat. When he works in the land then he wears a capil abang, a braided brown-red hat with a
wide brim against the sun. If he performs his religious duties, he wears a kupish, a velvet
kupi, the typical Islamic dress. The batik head scarf that the village wears on official

19
occasions is made in a village near the Town of Tuban. The main dock thus indicates the
function of the village leadership as a representative of the authorities of the Tuban district.

Certain parts of women’s clothing are also not part of the original costume. The
kebayu, the long-sleeved blouse, has been part of the outdoor costume since the advent of
Islam. In recent years, a devout Muslim also covers her head with a veil.

Strange elements in the clothing can also strongly indicates relationships outside the
area. Anyone who gives the hip cloth batik on fine cotton as a wedding gift in the typical
style of Chinese town of Lasem, west of Tuban, claims to have a distant Chinese ancestor in
the family. A jarit mataraman, a Central Javanese-style hip scarf, will be worn by women
whose husbands boast of having a relationship with an aristocratic family from Central Java.
The temptation is sometimes great to assume a status by means of clothing, but in the local
gossip circle it is closely monitored whether a cloth covers the load.

Textile Technology and Status

The different positions can be recognized by the weaving and decoration techniques
with which the hip cloths are made. Just like the community, the canvases show a certain
layering. The series of actions that take place before, during or after weaving expresses, as it
were, the hierarchical structure of the community. The more elaborate a canvas, the higher
the position of the group for which it is intended.

The difference between the embellishment techniques in which the motifs are
applied to the yarn before weaving and those in which the patterns are created during or
after weaving is also related to the order in which the different groups settled in the area
and the extent to which they maintained contact with the outside world.

Most villagers have forgotten these special features of their textiles. The traditional
clothing where the men used to express their position has been in disuse for decades.
Nevertheless, important information about different status groups can be gleaned from
their wife’s hip wraps. The techniques and motifs of the canvases provide a possible clue to
their original function and to the relationships the wearer maintained with people outside
the area.

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Snakes, Tigers, and Warriors

The wives of the men of the ‘oldest’ group, the descendant of the founders of the
village, wear the kain talenan, tied cloths, dark cloths with vague, mottled white and bright
blue ikat motifs (see p. 45). In this, presumably the oldest weave type, the motifs are tied
onto the yarn before weaving. Many men from this particularly traditional group still wear
jackets made from such fabrics. In that case, the ikat motifs are applied to the warp threads,
as is usual for a man. The hip wraps that women wear, and that were formerly also worn by
the men, have ikat in warp and weft, which creates a diamond effect. The women’s path t of
the weft is combined with their husband’s warp path. Various motifs are made, but the
colors are mainly dark. Technique and color used here indicate that it concerns to the
‘oldest’ group. The light ikat spots on the dark background are reminiscent of the skin of a
tiger or snake, according to the women which are spoken with great awe. Both occur in the
original myth of some villages. The elder can remember from their grandfather’s stories that
the tiger lived in the forests of Tuban. The meter-long sawah’s snake appears regularly,
especially in the rainy season.

Many of the check and stripes weaves show the same weaves as the kain talenan,
but without the ikat accents. These canvases are less highly regarded and are intended for
the newcomers who acquired land. There are exceptionally many variations within this
category of fabrics. Several motives were probably once intended to indicate specific
activity. An example of this case is ksatriyan, a black and red checkered ribbed weave (see p.
42). Ksatriyan means for warriors, which might indicate that the motif was once intended
for the men who went to war with the prince of Tuban. It is known that the men of Kerek
acted as charioteers during the campaigns. The combination of black with red indicates the
position of the warrior; half within their own community, half outside the community.

Batik-lurik (Batik-striped)

The ksatriyan motif also appears on batik-lurik cloths (see p. 38). Batik lurik are fine
checkered fabrics, lurik, in black and white or red and white, on which dotted batik motifs
are applied between the checks. The meanings of the motifs on these batik lurik cloths,
which are also worn by the lower classes, are not common among the villagers. According to
the people of Kerek, the blue-black batik lurik are not the oldest than red and white dotted
flowers. These are the death cloths which covered the deceased.

The red batik-lurik cloths are said to be less old. Nevertheless, they found in large
number among the earliest known samples of batik in 1845 – 1870. The various triangular,
dotted batik-lurik motifs can be recognized as line motifs in the carvings on the houses in
tribal societies throughout the world. Indonesia motifs also appear on the clothing of the
four servants of the heroes from the wayang game, who according to a myth are the
ancestors of the ordinary people of Java.

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 A relation between the group of batik-lurik wearers and an authority figure outside
their own area does not seem imaginary. The predominance of red in the cloths could
indicate that the wearer regularly stayed in the world of ‘the others’, possibly the circles of
the court of Tuban. The addition of highly regarded batik to a simple checkered weave is in
keeping with the position of those of humble origin who maintain a close relationship with
the elite.

Floral Weaves and Batiks

The most elaborate techniques, in some cases the highest, are reserved for the
group that occupies the highest position in the current system. Only these elite, the village
leaders and their wives, are allowed to use wear the ceremonial floral fabrics and tie-dyed
hips. The rest of the population wears this only on the wedding day, when they are regarded
as rulers for a day.

Both of the kain kembangan, the floral woven hip dock, and the loral batik hip cloth,
it has been discussed before, compared to fertilized soil. Therefore, it is surprising that these
are the cloths are worn with the group of village leaders and identify them as tuan tanah,
owner of the land. Yet it is precisely in the techniques and motifs of these status cloths that
external influences can be recognized. Stylized floral motifs with an extra weft of silk or gold
thread probably came into vogue around the fifteenth century under the influence of Islam.
That these floral cloths are actually associated with Islam as apparent from one of the ritual
functions of the cloths. During Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, a kain kembangan
covers the kentongan, a large slit drum in the village chief’s house. For example,
homegrown ancestors are temporarily silenced by the Islamic ancestors.

The most common type of motif on the batik cloths of Kerek is called laseman, in the
style of Lasem, an almost Chinatown just west of the Tuban city (see p. 37). The flower vines
and birds motifs are reminiscent of the motifs on Chinese porcelain. All these strange
influences in the cloths are probably a result of the strange descent of some village chiefs.

The fact that Kerek’s status cloths show both Chinese and Islamic influences can be
traced back to an old story that tells how a Muslim Chinese was included in Kerek as the
most important ancestor of the area. In this myth of the mountain village, all the threads
come together. In the holy tomb in the mountain, south of Kerek, there is Dampo Awang.
Dampo Awang is a Javanese name for Zheng He, the Chinese general who besieged Tuban in
the early fifteenth century. When he arrived in his junk, the myth goes, the land opened into
a wide channel that ended on top of the mountain. Remains of the ship are carefully
preserved in the wooden prayer house on the mountain. Every year after the harvest, the
people of Kerek and the fishermen of the coast gather under the tree next to the grave to
honor the former conqueror and seal their bond with a feast. In the ceremonial cloths and
the status cloths of the highest order, the threads of past and present and the colors and
motifs of one’s own group and ‘the others’ group have become a weave.

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5 Catalog – A Selection from the Collection
In this catalog, 19 fabrics and batik cloths are described from their use and the
meaning of color and motifs are also explained. The Museum has 102 pieces of Tuban
textile; headgear, sewn garments, fabrics, and batik cloths, which together form a series of
costumes. In addition, the museum owns agricultural implements, baskets, weaving, and
batik equipment. The collection was collected between 1979 and 1990 by the
anthropologist Rens Heringa. All cloths are, unless expressly stated otherwise, hand woven
from hand spun cotton and hand batik.

No. 109708 - Sayut bangrod (women’s shoulder cloth)

Desa Simbatan, South Kerek, Tuban, 1990
Width 56 cm, length 310 cm
Synthetic dye

The lush plants and birds of the laseman motif surround the sun and moon on this shoulder
wrap. The celestial bodies, which determine the course of the agricultural cycle, and the
bright red color indicate that the shoulder cloth is intended for the women of the southern
villages. The tahi lalat, the tie-dyed white dots on fringes, indicate that the cloth is intended
for a bride (cf. no. 109705)

No. 109760 – Batik pati (ceremonial cloth)

Pati, Central Java, purchased in 1979
Width 50 cm, length 300 cm

Hand-batiked on silk imported from China, fine fringes of the same fabric, natural dyes
Elsewhere in Java, this type of shoulder cloth is called lok can, or silk cloth. It was probably
made around 1900 in a Chinese batik factory and kept as an heirloom in a family of the
village chefs. The Laseman motfs shows the same floral and bird motifs as those on the
canvases produced within the area. The cloth acts as a death cloth – pati also means death –
for the coffin in which the rice goddess is carried to the annual sacrificial meal on the graves
of the ancestors.

No. 109751 – Sayut galaran (ceremonial shoulder cloth)

Desa Gaji, West Kerek, Tuban, 1989
Width 58 cm, length 292 cm
Batik lurik, linen weaving, batik, synthetic dye

On a fabric with a black weft stripe as a guideline, horizontal stripes are batik, galaran,
bamboo mat, with a layer of stylized flowers and tendrils on top. Due to the black and white
color combination, the cloth has an ominous function and serves as a shoulder cloth during
rituals. It is also worn as a breast cloth when a woman finishes a shoulder cloth.

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No. 109753 – Klontongan (left; base cloth)
No. 109756 – Jarit grompol enambelas (right; hip scarf for women and partly for men)
Desa gaji, West Kerek, Tuban, 1989
Left: Width 92 cm, length 296 cm
Natural background with black diamond weave, linen binding
Right: Width 90 cm, length 180 cm
Batik lurik, linen weaving, batik, synthetic dye

The Klontongan is the rattle of the paddler but also means hollow body, the purchased cloth
without motifs has no identity yet. The motif, Grompol enambelas, groups of sixteen dots, is
batik on the white parts of the black and white windows that shimmer through the dark red
painted background. The motif is a representation of the area, with hamlets surrounding a
center. This motif was once reserved for the common people.

No. 109752 – Klontongan (left; base cloth)

No. 109754 – Jarit sisihan (right; hip scarf for women and men)
Desa gaji, West Kerek, Tuban, 1989
Left: Width 90 cm, length 292 cm
Black and white diamond weaving, linen binding
Right: Width 89 cm, length 272 cm
Batik lurik, linen weave, batik, natural dye

The two halves of the black-and-white checkered base fabric are batik with a different
dotted pattern. The black and white motif, ksatriyan, was probably once intended for
warriors. Diagonal lines (not visible) woth rows of triangles, kejing miring, fallen
tombstones, refer to the ancestor’s graves. The descendants of warrior often refer to a
written family tree. The dark color of the cloth indicates that it is intended for older men
and their women.

No. 109710 – Sayut pipitan (shoulder wrap for women)

Desa Margorejo, Central Kerek, Tuban, 1990
Width 56 cm, length 312 cm
Wide knotted perforated edge in the fringes, indigo and synthetic red dye

The rather dark color combination, pipitan, deep red with blue and black, indicates that the
cloth is intended for a married woman with children from the center village. The laseman
motif, in the style of the coastal town of Lasem, shows flowers and birds in Chinese style.
The fringes are finished with wide knotted edges, krawangan, and tie-dyed flecks, tahi lalat.

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