Indonesian Batik, the Masterpiece of Human Heritage

Indonesia should be proud of its cultural heritage as some of them have been recognized by UNESCO as the masterpiece of human heritage. Among those intangible heritages are traditional puppets (2003), "Kris" ceremonial knives (2005), traditional "batiks" (2009) and "angklung" bamboo musical instrument (2010). Now Indonesia has registered another three of its cultural heritage, namely Balinese traditional dance, Noken  Papuan handicraft and Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII).

The foreigners who come for the first time to visit Jakarta may see the unusual sight of people wearing a colorful shirt. What they are wondering of is batik, a piece of cloth painted with various kinds of the composition of pictures or diagrams. It is a creative art design on a piece of cloth hand-drawn using a liquid candle as the media, to colorize the cloth surface area which is not covered by the liquid candle. The drawings with the liquid candle are done several times until you get the color combination as you wish.  UNESCO has recognized batik as the masterpiece of intangible heritage of humanity on October 2, 2009, following its far and wide fame.

In olden days, batik was worn by people living in Java. The people wore batik as early as the beginning of the 13^th century.  Up to the 18^th century, batik designs and productions were centered inside the kings’ palaces. At those days, before the liquid candle from oil product was available, people used the bee candle to draw the design. The colors were extracted from various plants and minerals.

At those days, both men and women wore batik as a sarong. The men used to wear batik sarong with a traditional dagger (kris) put at the waist. Batik was produced in such a way that its products were due to certain groups in social classes. There were batiks sarongs designed and produced for high class only. For a kind of batik with certain motifs, only the king and his families were allowed to wear it. Nowadays, we can still see the way of such wearing in the wedding ceremony where the bride and their parents wear such clothes imitating old style high-class wedding ceremony. 

In all, there are around 600 kinds of batik motifs in Indonesia. The cloth can undergo its sales in the form of a piece of clothes, trousers, or a sarong usually worn by women. The picture stands for good fate, high rankings of certain classes in the society or story in the past. Sometimes it resembles abstract paintings which need analysis to reveal its meaning.  The philosophy behind the drawing of a particular batik motif is related to the more subtle social background which needs insight and comprehensive explanation. 

Large scale batik production began only in 1920 when batik centers introduced textile printing machines. Most of its products were then uniforms and their artistic beauty faded away. As such the price became cheaper and common people could easily afford to buy batik products. 

Up to 1960s, batik was used only for sarongs and never for shirts. We are indebted to Ali Sadikin, the then governor of Jakarta, who encouraged the Jakarta citizens to proudly wear batik shirts as national identity. The campaign also accelerated the “swasembada” (national self-supporting) movement through the preference of using national products. 

The areas of batik groceries in Jakarta are mainly in Tanah Abang, from which all batik products are distributed to all over the country. As raw materials for batik are also sold there, some traders from Central Java moved to Jakarta producing their own batik. They brought workers from their home town causing in certain degree urbanization to Jakarta. 

With the aim to collect all kinds of batik designs from all over Indonesia, the Indonesian Batik Foundation (YBI) constructed a batik gallery inside the Indonesian Textile Museum. However, since the show-room allocated for batik is too small, not all batik designs are displayed at one moment. On every three-month period, the content of the gallery is replaced with the new ones. 

We expect that the city government is serious about their plan to construct a new Batik Museum by 2014 and allocate enough budgets for it. The realization of this museum would become a gesture of our appreciation toward batik’s international recognition not only as national heritage but also as the masterpiece of the whole humanity as it has been recognized by  UNESCO in 2009.

Kris, the Heritage of Humanity

If you go to Jatinegara, in the district of East Jakarta, you will discover Pasar Rawa Bening, a market selling products which reflect the historical background of Indonesia. There are about 1000 stalls. Visitors usually come mostly on Saturday and Sunday. You will find keris, which has a strong influence among the Javanese, various gemstones, black bracelets made from tree roots and the Arab oil for the purpose of superstition. The overall market is a place to accommodate the purchasers who believe in something that can bring fame and fortune to them. In Javanese culture, a kris is not just a martial weapon but more as a status symbol of the owner.  The better the quality of the kris, the higher the status of the owner is. But owning a kris means having an obligation to follow the special ritual to maintain it such as to clean it annually and dry it under the sun.  Anybody who wants to buy it has to make sure that he will fit for a certain kris, and that the kris “likes to stay with him”. In such a case the purchasing power is not the most important thing. Rumors said that if a kris “doesn’t like to stay with him” bad thing might occur and will trouble the owner. Museum Pusaka If you have an interest and are more serious about a kris, you can visit Museum Pusaka, literally meaning sacred heritance museum, containing various kinds of krisses from all over regions in Indonesia. Located at Mini Indonesia Park Jakarta (TMII) on a site of 3,800 square meters, the museum is getting important today because the Indonesian kris has been recognized by UNESCO as the heritage of humanity. You can easily recognize the museum as it has a specific characteristic of a kris-like-model attached to the roof with its tip pointing out to the sky. The museum has special rooms for exhibition and sales, special information, management, conservations, and library. The museum, whose construction was initiated by the then First Lady, Ibu Tien Soeharto, in the 1980s, now collects some of the legendary krisses from the olden times, among others, Nagasasra Sabuk Inten from the Mataram Kingdom, Kujang from Pajajaran era or Singa Barong from Central Java ornamented with gold in-lay at its blade. The collections coming into the museum are from the donations of the haves and the purchase from locals in any provinces where the kris is well known and available.  To make the kris become more popular, the officials working here regularly hold exhibitions, sometimes under the cooperation with foreign partners. Heritage of Humanity Through the constant exhibition and reports in details as done by Kris experts like Haryono Guritno and Sungkowwo Harumbrodjo to UN officials, UNESCO finally in 2005 recognized it as the heritage of humanity. UNESCO pays attention to this Indonesian traditional dagger because of its various features. The unique form of the kris, the metallurgical process during the forging, the metaphysical feature as found in certain krisses have even attracted the interest of foreign people to know more about it. The process of carving, ornaments on the kris sheath the spiritual meditation prior to the forging all full of philosophy and mystical belief making this artistic weapon become an obscure mystery.

There are differences of opinion about the origin of the word "Kris". In the Encyclopedia of Kris sold in the museum, the first-word “keris” was written on a brass plate found around the year 825, in Karang Tengah village. 

Kris is an Indonesian traditional hand-held weapon with a length of about 30 to 40 cm (excluding handles) which has become popular and widely developed in Java and Southeast Asia since the 10th century. This weapon forged in such a way that both the blade sharp and asymmetric shape.

The curved shapes (“luk”) of kris generally were odd in number namely 3, 5, 7, 11, or 13. But there is also kris which is straight without “luk”. In the process of forging, the steel materials are mixed with titanium element or any material from the meteorite. A kris with such mixtures increases its prestige and obviously its price.  When it is still hot the sheets of iron and meteorite mixture are forged and folded into 2, 4, 8, 16, and so on until they reach 4.000 for a very good quality kris. 

To make a good kris one requires material of 20 kg iron, half kg of steel, and around a one-eighth kg of meteorite. In the end, we get only around a half kg of dagger blade, the remaining materials have been reduced into gas, ash and metal fragments. Such a kris ornamented with a plate of gold could be worth up to Rp 100 million (US$ 10,000).


But if you buy kris in a market like Jatinegara, you may get only a dagger blade made of ordinary iron tempered and formed in shape of kris. And you can bring home such a kris for around Rp 2 million (US$ 200) and even less if you are a good bargainer.

 

According to the tradition, especially Javanese one, to bear a kris is not simple and sometimes very complicated depending on what purpose one wears it. Some people believe that some rituals must be done in order to avoid disharmony between the kris and the owner, otherwise, disasters and tribulations could happen.

Having informed this do you want to possess one?