Balinese produce and sell textiles to satisfy tourist demand as well
as to dress pleasingly before the gods in temple ceremonies and rites of
passage. Textiles are an integral part of every ritual or ceremony, from
a toothfiling to a cremation, and incorporate powerful motifs and symbols.
Color also plays a big role; it enables the Balinese to communicate with
deities within the context of a religious event. A priest dresses in white,
the color of purity and shunye (the Cosmic Void), which allows him
to communicate directly with sacred beings. Shiva's color, yellow, is worn
by worshippers at almost any ceremony.
Dressing stylishly in sumptuous clothes is
also a mark of social standing. You can often tell an aristocrat by the
silk brocade she wears or the gold thread lining the sarung of a
Brahman man.
Two of Bali's largest textile factories lie
along the main tourist artery between Denpasar and Batubulan, Gianyar,
and Mas. PATAL is one km east of the Tohpati junction of the Nusa
Dua Bypass road, and BALITEX is one km west of the Tohpati junction
between Tohpati and Denpasar. BALITEX operates a shop on the premises selling
both wholesale and retail. Several other, smaller textile factories are
in Gianyar, a favorite tourist stop, where also exist a number of textile
showrooms. Visit one of the garment factories to watch aisles of prepubescent
teenagers dribbling wax designs over cloth, then dipping the shirts into
cisterns filled with hot, bubbling, frothing dye. It takes an average of
six hours to weave a sarung.
Ikat
Bali is a major outlet for ikat-woven blankets, kain,
sarongs, and scarves from Nusatenggara. In this unique Indonesian craft,
the threads are dyed prior to the material being woven. With their
primitive designs and subdued blue, white, red, brown, and black colors,
these striking cloths have always held a fascination for tourists.
You find ikat in almost all of Bali's
textile shops, which stock both handwoven ikat in silk and cotton,
as well as ready-to-wear ikat clothing. Many shops also offer custom
tailoring—they'll make anything you want out of ikat! Because of
the small supply and large demand, ikat on Bali costs Rp150,000
and up for small blankets.
A chain specializing in ikat is Nogo
with shops at Jl. D. Tamblingan 98 (tel. 0361-288765), Jl. D. Tamblingan
208 (tel. 0361-288832) in Sanur, and Jl. Legian, Kuta (tel. 0361-754335).
The owner, Lily Coskuner, who studied design in Germany, uses handwoven
fabrics in her clothing which includes quilted kimono-style jackets (Rp150,000
and up), slacks (Rp75,000), and shirtwaist dresses (Rp150,000). Very fine
ethnic cloths are also available at Polos, Jl. Legian; Arts of
Asia, Jl. Raya Tuban (tel. 0361-752860); Andung Art, Jl. Legian
Kaja 494A (tel. 0361-757710); and Ikat Art, Jl. Bakung Sari 12 (tel.
0361-752684).
In the Klungkung area, you might be able
to still find traditional gold-embroidered songket and amazingly
elaborate ikat for which Klungkung was once famous (now rare). Some
villagers on Nusa Penida Island, in Klungkung Regency, weave a red, brown,
or yellow-patterned ikat cloth which may be seen in a few shops
in Sampalan, Toyapekeh (on Nusa Penida), and in Klungkung's souvenir shops.
Endek
The very distinctive tie-dyed woven cloth called endek is
more popular with the native Balinese than with tourists. Worn all over
the island for any occasion, endek is perhaps Bali's most visible
craft. Scores of factories all around Gianyar and Denpasar, as well as
Singaraja, manufacture this unique fabric.
Using only wooden, hand-operated looms, endek
is woven by the usual weft-ikat method; i.e., portions of the cloth
are tied and wrapped before immersion in a dye bath. The overall effect
ranges from an irregular, wavy, diffused look to the most primitive patterns.
You also see triangular, zigzagging, and diamond designs, or unusual outlines
of animals or masks. The fuzzy irregularities of this native cloth are
hypnotic. The mottled patterns even appear to change color and shape in
different angles of light. Factories, which number from six to 100 employees,
can produce endek with up to six colors. It takes a weaver one day
to complete approximately one meter.
The Balinese adore endek, wearing
it on both formal and informal occasions. Men like sarung made of
endek cloth, women wrap kain made of endek tightly
around the hips (with no drapes). Colors range from dark blue and brown
to vibrant greens, oranges, and reds. The cost is about Rp4000 per meter
for printed endek, depending on the amount of colors used and intricacy
of design. Colors do not bleed, and the weave is durable. The price for
true endek is Rp12,000-15,000 per meter. Pay a call at Pertenunan
AAA in Denpasar (Jl. Veteran 9), and Pertenunan Setia Cap Cili
(Jl. Ciungwanara 7) and Cap Togog (Jl. Astina Utara 11, two km before
town) in Gianyar. A small endek factory is also located in Sideman
(Karangasem Regency). All factories have showrooms, and photography is
allowed in the workshops.
Batik
Beautiful handmade batik textiles are among the most popular
craft products sold on Bali for tourists. Every batik pattern imaginable
is available. You even see Balinese-made batik clothing on Java
now because it has gained popularity with the great number of Javanese
tourists who visit Bali.
The batik available on Bali includes
block prints and hand-painted batik. Intricate hand-drawn designs
(batik tulis) are more expensive than simpler designs created with
stamp blocks (batik cap). The colors on block-printed batik
are soft and only printed on one side, while the colors on batik tulis
(true batik) are much richer and equally vibrant on both sides of
the cloth. Each of these styles can be printed on any quality of cotton.
Usually batik is displayed in three or four rows with the finest
quality items on the top row. One can definitely feel the difference between
the fineness of a top row piece and a bottom row piece. Prices vary from
Rp8000 for a simple block- or machine-printed batik sarung,
up to Rp450,000 for silk batik.
Although every Balinese wears batik,
few produce batik cloth on a large scale. Each day women wrap a
length of batik around their waist like a skirt, and men wear batik
with a plaited tail that almost touches the ground in front (usually only
to religious events).
Batik Shops and Factories
Batik cloth can be bought in the markets, especially Denpasar's
main market and in nearby fabric shops on Jl. Sulawesi, dealing in both
batik tulis and batik cap. Expect to bargain; they'll start
off asking Rp20,000 for a printed batik sarong but you should end
up paying no more than Rp8000-10,000.
Phalam, Jl. W.R. Supratman in Tohpati,
tel. (0361) 225215, has a fine batik collection and ready-made clothing.
One of the few shops in Bali specializing in batik made on Bali.
Items are not cheap: Rp300,000 for fine batik tulis; there are also
cap batik varieties. Try for at least a 30% discount.
In addition, all the big Javanese textile
chains are represented in or around Denpasar: Batik Keris, Galleria
Nusa Dua, tel. (0361) 771303 or 771304 (also branches at both the international
and domestic terminals at the airport); Batik Semar, Jl. Thamrin
33-35, tel. (0361) 435937; Danar Hadi, Jl. Legin Raya 133, Kuta,
tel. (0361) 752164 or 754368; Batik Shanti, Galleria Nusa Dua B
6/2, tel. (0361) 71308. Pekalongan Perus Batik Shop, Jl. Gianyar,
tel. (0361) 225833 and Jl. Bypass, tel. 224364; Batik Surya Kencana,
Banjar Sasih, Batubulan, tel. (0361) 298361. All have showrooms and accept
traveler's checks and credit cards.
Kain Prada
These are lustrous fabrics woven of cotton or sometimes silk decorated
with silver, gold thread, or paint. Pure gold leaf or gold dust, and increasingly
more affordable bronze dust, can also be used, adhered by a unique process
onto the fabric by using a natural glue (ancur) obtained from bones.
These dazzling, boldly patterned textiles, that almost blind you with their
shine, are worn only during festivals or by dancers in theatrical performances.
A gilded ceremonial cloth two meters long could take three weeks to a month
to weave, depending on the intricacy of the design.
Since kain prada was initially brought
to Java by Indian traders, then later carried to Bali, stylized Hindu motifs
like sacred lotus blossoms and Indianized swastikas, as well as temple
relief designs and ancient woodwork patterns, still decorate the borders.
The old courts of Klungkung and Karangasem were the most important centers
of prada production. Prada fabrics used for wall decorations
feature entire scenes from the Mahabarata or Ramayana painstakingly painted
on, giving them a mural-like appearance. Both kinds of prada are
not washable, so clean by dusting, then let them air in the sun.
Gringsing
Certainly one of the rarest weaving techniques in the world is
practiced in Tenganan, a traditional native Balinese village in eastern
Bali, about five hours by bus from Denpasar. Here the amazingly difficult
gringsing (flaming cloth) cloths are made by an elaborate process
of dyeing. Both the warp and weft threads are carefully bound and then
dyed in predetermined places, creating patterns which are made to fit harmoniously
together into a finished design once the piece is completely woven on a
backstrap loom.
The geometric, repetitive patterns must interlock
in exactly the same place in order for the fabric to have any aesthetic
value or meaning. Stars, flowers, and crosses fill the body while rhombuses
and chains of keys run lengthwise through the long, narrow cloth. The colors
used are muted earth tones derived from vegetable dyes like indigo and
turmeric bark. Gringsing are worn as sashes in everyday wear but
on festival days women dress from head to toe in gringsing. The
cloth protects and preserves the wearer from harm. No rite of passage may
be carried out without the obligatory wearing of a kain gringsing.
Though other forms of ikat were probably
imported from India, gringsing weaving is thought to have originated
only in Tenganan. To support this theory, nowhere else in Indonesia is
this intensely time-consuming and jealously guarded "double-ikat"
process practiced, and less than 15 women still know how to weave it. A
woman may labor for three years on a single piece of gringsing.
A large kain may easily cost a million rupiah. Strictly for collectors.
Songket
Silk brocades with interweaving patterns of gold and silver thread,
songket is the ceremonial dress of the Balinese, to be worn on religious
occasions or to one's wedding. Tapestry-like, with motifs of lotus flowers,
leaves, birds, butterflies, and wayang figures, songket fabrics
are woven on small backstrap looms. Usually only the wealthy can afford
a real songket, woven with pure gold thread—gorgeous works of art.
Songket can't be washed, so when wet from sweat, it's hung up to
dry in the sun.
The whole kain songket is purchased
in two pieces which are then sewn together. Men wear the songket saput,
a narrow length of cloth worn over the sarung, and the songket
udeng, a head band, on formal occasions and religious ceremonies. Beware
of shiny ersatz songket from Singapore, with the gold painted on,
which looks like the real thing from a distance.
Northern-style songket is made in
Banjar Bratan, a southern suburb of Singaraja, and the Klungkung-style
is made at Banjar Jero Agung in Gelgel, two km south of Klungkung; other
songket cottage industries are found in Batuan (northeast of Sukawati),
in Sideman (Karangasem Regency), and particularly Blayu in southwestern
Bali (between Mengwi and Marga). Balinese songket is also sold in
art shops of Kuta, Sanur, Denpasar, and Ubud.
Other Textiles
Plangi ("rainbow") is a multicolored tie-and-dye process
of decorating cotton and silk pieces, an art practiced on Bali and Lombok.
Each fabric is knotted in certain places very tightly with string, then
dipped into dyes. When the knots are untied a picturesque pattern appears,
leaving uncolored patches where the dye did not penetrate.
Black and white checkered poleng
cloths appear everywhere on Bali, especially as a covering for guardian
statues in temples. The checkered pattern symbolizes the changeable world,
which is made up of pairs of opposites—night and day, good and evil, man
and woman, positive and negative, yin and yang—the duality of earthly existence.
Their use is to sanctify a tree, a weird-shaped stone, or a statue so it
becomes an object of worship. The cloth is restricted to the lower deities
and never would be wrapped around Shiva's shrine as high gods are considered
to dwell beyond the temporal realm.
Chinese kebaya (women's blouses)
have rich hand-embroidered edges and a swooping décolletage. It's
difficult to find the real fine oldies anymore for under Rp100,000 (in
Kuta, Rp200,000 and up). Kamben are scarves worn around the
breast by women on grand occasions and holidays. Some kamben are
thought to possess magic protective qualities to stave off evil; others
are worn only for certain dances.