What is Tenun?

Tenun (traditional textiles) represent perhaps the pre-eminent example of Indonesia’s cherished cultural heritage. Each region across Indonesia’s vast archipelago proudly boasts its own motifs and designs, and these highly creative cultural artefacts play an important part in everyday life, as well as in ritual ceremonies. Indonesia’s scattered isles hold the world’s greatest treasure trove of traditional textiles, produced in almost unlimited regional and island variations, each unique specimen with its own patterns, designs and colors. Over the past 20 years Indonesian textile designs have been given a high profile in galleries, museums and catalogs, their rightful place among the world’s great indigenous arts recognized by art historians the world over.The brilliant flaming ikat of the Torajans of south-central Sulawesi; the ancient appliqué technique of the Dayaks of Borneo; Bali’s double ikat gringsing cloths; the sophisticated ikat designs of the Lesser Sundas; the color-rich lurik of Central Java; the dazzling songket scarves and sarung of Sumatra where gold threads seem to float atop the material are just a few examples of the country’s rich textile traditions. From as far back as 3000 B.C. when warp ikat techniques were widely practiced, weaving continues to be an important part of the life for millions of people in modern Indonesia. Yet in spite of the variety of weaving techniques and literally thousands of different designs, certain commonalities are found in all Indonesian textile cultures: the same manner of wearing textiles is found throughout the archipelago; the same methods of weaving of warp and weft threads and ikat dyeing; the most common fibers are plant, cotton, silk and synthetic materials; similar natural dyes like blue indigo, red from Sappanwood and brown from the morinda tree are used to color threads.

Pic: Kompas Travel Text: Garuda Indonesia, Bali Advertiser

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