Legacy in Cloth Batak textiles of Indonesia

Sandra Niessen Legacy in cloth Batak textiles of Indonesia

kitlv press leiden 2009 © 2009 Sandra A. Niessen

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owner. isbn 978 90 6718 351 2

First published in 2009 by kitlv Press P.O. Box 9515 2300 ra Leiden The Netherlands www.kitlv.nl kitlv (Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies) is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (knaw)

Design Marie-Cécile Noordzij-Pulles, Hurwenen Printed by Thoben Offset Nijmegen Bound by Van Waarden, Zaandam Publishing assistance: Bergoord Publishing

This publication was realized with the support of: – Netherlands organization for scientific research (nwo) – the Barbas-van der Klaauw Fund, managed by the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation

Printed in the Netherlands

Half title page Toba Batak pinunsaan Cat 7.2f; Detail. Early 20th century, ikat and supplementary warp patterning, natural blue and red dyes. Frontispiece Toba Batak simpar Cat 5.4b; Detail. Early 20th century, chevron ikat, natural red dye. Table of contents

Acknowledgements 7 Part iii Catalogue Introduction Cataloguing the Indonesian Catalogue Introduction 169 Textile Arts: a Batak Contribution 13 Catalogue Table of Contents 173 Acronyms of Public Collections Consulted 23 Catalogue 1 The Blue Textiles 175 Catalogue 2 Warp Stripes without Ikat Embellishment 219 Part i Design Catalogue 3 Stripes in Warp and Weft: The Batak Plaids 249 Design Introduction 25 Catalogue 4 Stipple Ikat 263 Design 1 Design Foundations 27 Catalogue 5 Chevron Ikat 291 Design 2 Early Design History 45 Catalogue 6 Lozenge-and-Cross Ikat 311 Design 3 Modern Design History 65 Catalogue 7 Weft Patterning 355 Design 4 Nomenclature 89 Catalogue 8 Foreign Textiles in the Batak Repertory 389 Catalogue 9 Selected Apparel and Accessory Items 397 Part ii Style Regions Style Regions Introduction 105 Part iv Technique Style Region 1 Samosir 107 Technique Introduction 413 Style Region 2 Simalungun 115 Technique Table of Contents 415 Style Region 3 Karo 123 Technique 1 Fibre and Yarn 417 Style Region 4 Si Tolu Huta 135 Technique 2 Fibre and Yarn Preparation 421 Style Region 5 Holbung/Uluan 143 Technique 3 Dyes and Dyeing 433 Style Region 6 Silindung 155 Technique 4 Warping and Warp Ikat 447 Technique 5 The Loom and Weaving 461 Technique 6 Decorative Warp 477 Technique 7 Decorative Weft 499 Technique 8 Finishing Techniques 519

Appendices Appendix 1 Research Methods 535 Appendix 2 Technical Vocabulary 545

Maps 547 Bibliography 551 Index 559 fig. Acknowledgements 1 Loom used to weave the tumtuman Cat 7.3. Toba Uluan. 1986. 7 Acknowledgements

This book has been a long time in the making. Over the years, During a six-month tenure at the National Museum of many people and institutions have generously loaned their Ethnology, Osaka, Japan, in 1992, I had undisturbed time to assistance. work on the text of this book, as well as logistical support of The Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical every kind. Research (zwo-wotro) funded the project (1985–87) with a I was delighted to be able to complete a draft of this volume in post-doctoral research grant. The late Professor P.E. de Josselin 2001 at the Banff Centre in Alberta, under the auspices of their de Jong, then still at the State University of Leiden, gave it his Self-directed Writing Program. unstinting support. On this grant, I was able to conduct the Rudolph Zwamborn of Lotus Studio, Edmonton, Canada, and museum research and the first stage of field research. It took Irene de Groot in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, took the bulk of place in 1986 under the auspices of lipi, the Indonesian the studio photographs. Ben Bekooy and Koichi Nishimura Institute of Sciences, and with the sponsorship of Universitas provided others. Thomas Murray, Mary Jane Leland, Pamela hkbp Nommensen in Medan, North Sumatra. Rector F. Amudi Cross, Lesley Pullen, Georges Breguet and Mary Hunt- Pasaribu, was more than generous in fulfilling his side of the Kahlenberg, loaned me studio photographs of textiles in their agreement. own collections. Herman Bloem of Thoben Offset, Nijmegen, From 1988 until 1990, I was the grateful recipient of an Isaak applied the innovative strategy of scanning textiles to yield Walton Killam Post-doctoral Research Fellowship in the high-quality detail images for the book. Bob Gale, Beatriz Department of Clothing and Textiles at the University of Premselaar, Bill Rice, Ria Lumbantobing, Erna Lohuis, Ingrid Alberta. During the period of tenure of this second grant, I was Mathew, Robert Visser and Martha and Bunga Sirait helped by able to visit North American museums and also to sift through sharing photographs and textiles in their collections. Archival and collate the data I had collected. A third research grant from photographs were obtained from many of the museums listed the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada below. The diagrams were done by Marie-Cécile Noordzij- (sshrc) (1988–90) allowed me to make another short trip to Pulles. Leia Gillespie, Linda Turner, Heide Leigh-Theisen, Maria Indonesia in 1990 to fill in gaps in the data. A small Central Christou loaned assistance. Research Fund Operating Grant from the University of Alberta My debt to Rita Bolland is enormous for her guidance while I in 1988–89 supplied the resources to put together a publisher’s collected, and later analyzed the technical weaving information proposal. Two grants from the Small Faculties Fund at the in North Sumatra, and to Sandra Fearon for her expert review of University of Alberta paid for some of the studio photography, Part iv. Rita died suddenly in 2006; my regret is deep that I was computer drawings, map production and incidentals. never able to show her the finished book. Sander Adelaar, Tim In The Netherlands, the staff of the Royal Institute of Babcock, Susan Berry, Nancy Kerr, Edward Edwards-McKinnon, Linguistics and Anthropology (kitlv) in Leiden was always Lynne Milgram and Loan Oei assisted with other parts of the helpful; the library and archives of that same institution were text. I received editing assistance from Deborah Tout-Smith, unsurpassed for my needs. I also profited from being able to George Pitcher, Pamela A. Cross, Meg Taylor, Grace Fairley and consult the library of the Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam Ruth Chernia. Peer reviewers offered valuable suggestions for and the National Archives (Rijksarchief) in The Hague. improving the text. At the University of Alberta, ongoing research was feasible Museum research has been a major component of this because of the excellent interlibrary loan facility. I am grateful publication and the assistance that I have received from to Linda Turner, Dick Woolner, and Susan Hunter for their museum personnel has been indispensable to my project. I assistance with illustrations and maps. would like to extend my thanks to: Tropenmuseum, 8 acknowledgements

Amsterdam, especially Rita Bolland, Koos van Brakel, and Irene Tupang, Ny. Hutagalung; boru Panggabean, Ny. Hutagalung; de Groot; Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland; Staatliche boru Hutagalung, Ny. Simorangkir; Nai Bulang, boru Museen Prüssischer Kulturbesit, Museum für Völkerkunde, Hutabarat, Ny. Tobing; boru Simanungkalit, Ny. Hutabarat; Berlin, Germany; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, usa; Museum boru Tobing, Ny. Nainggolan; boru Hutabarat, Ny. Nusantara, Delft, The Netherlands; especially Rita Wassing- Lumbantobing, boru Pasaribu of Sait ni Huta; Nai Arta, boru Visser; Museon, The Hague, The Netherlands; Museo di Storia Simatupang, Ny. M. Sihombing; Henry Hutabarat; Ny. Naturale, sezione di Antropologia, Florence, Italy; Museum der Simanungkalit of Pea Raja; boru Nambela, Ny. Tobing; Ompu Weltkulturen, Frankfurt, Germany; Volkenkundig Museum Tohap Lumbantobing of Parbubu; Ompu ni Pesta, boru Tobing ‘Gerardus van der Leeuw,’ Groningen, The Netherlands, of Sitompul; Nai Gindo, boru Hutabarat of Lumban Pinasa; Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg, Ompu Harold, boru Silitonga, Ny. Hutagalung; boru Nambela, Germany; Musium Nasional, Jakarta, Indonesia; Rauten- Ny. Hutagalung; boru Tobing, Ny. Simunjuntak; Toba strauch-Joest Museum für Völkerkunde, Cologne, Germany, Tampubolon; Ompu Simangihut, boru Marpaung, Ny. especially Brigitte Kahn Majlis; Deutsches Textile Museum, Tampubolon; Elly Siagian of Tarutung; Zilla Monna Siagian; and Krefeld, Germany; Gemeentelijk Museum het Princessehof, Nery Siagian. A special thanks is due to all of my fellow villagers Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; Rijksmuseum voor Volken- in Hutagalung where I resided for several weeks. kunde, Leiden, The Netherlands, especially Jan Avé and Pieter In Toba: Ompu Mangihut, Ny. Tampubolon; Ompu Pahala, ter Keurs; Museum of Mankind, London, England; Staatliches boru Tobing, Ny. Simbolon; Raja Gomal Sinambela; A. Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich, Germany; Museum voor Butarbutar of Porsea; W. Tambun of Porsea; Nai Basa, boru Land- en Volkenkunde, now Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, The Siagian, Ny. Simatupang; boru Sitorus, Ny. Sirait (Ompu Si Netherlands; Museum of Anthropology, University of British Masta) textile seller from Laguboti; boru Manurung, Ny. Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Museum für Völkerkunde, Napitupulu; S. O. Sibarani of Laguboti; Ompu Risma, boru Vienna, Austria, especially Heide Leigh-Theisen; American Sianipar, Ny. Pardede; boru Panjaitan of Lumban Sitorang; Museum of Natural History in New York; Textile Museum, ‘Ompung Tampubolon’ of Tampubolon; Ompu Simangihut, Washington; Vereinte Evangelische Mission in Wuppertal- boru Marpaung of Tampubolon; W. Tambun of Lumban Julu; Barmen, Germany; and Bronbeek Museum, Arnhem, The the twiners of Pintu Bosi in Kec. Laguboti; boru Panjaitan of Netherlands. It is my hope that the information contained in Huta Lumban Saba, Lumban Julu; the family of Ama ni Paung this book will in some measure repay the confidence, many Pardede, Balige; Mutiara boru Napitupulu, Ny. Oscar favours, support and kindness I received at these museums. Hutabarat, and her son Sebastian, of Balige; Ompu Senti boru It is also my hope that this book will be able to return to the Sirait, Ny Manurung of Jangga Dolok, boru Tambunan who Batak homelands — albeit in published form — some of the brings textiles from Pematang Siantar to sell in Balige, Porsea textiles collected during the twentieth century. During my and Tebing Tinggi. Figure Acknowledgements.2 depicts sojourn in Indonesia, every day was filled with meetings and weavers in Muara with whom I spent some time. discussions with weavers, textile sellers, yarn suppliers, dyers In Pakpak, Raja Salomo Ujung and Fatimah, boru Lembong, and people knowledgeable in the area of ritual. The following resident in Sidikalang were generous hosts. list acknowledges with gratitude just some of the people who In Si Tolu Huta, I relied on J.D. Munthe and boru Munthe, in graciously extended to me their time, patience, hospitality and Tongging and in Silalahi: Ina and Ama ni Hormat Silalahi; boru knowledge. Munthe, Ny. Silalahi; Ompu Si Olo, boru Munthe, Ny. Silalahi; In the Silindung Valley: boru Marpaung Ny Siahaan; Ina and and Nai Iwan, boru Silalahi, Ny. Simarmata. Ama ni Ganda Hutagalung; Ina and Ama ni Risma Hutagalung; In Samosir: boru Situmorang, Ny. Nai Baho from Lumban Nai Maria boru Hutabarat, Ny. Panggabean; Ompu ni Ester Suhisuhi; boru Nainggolan from Pangururan; boru Tanggang, Hutagalung; Linda boru Hutagalung, Ny. Situmeang; Rose boru boru Sinaga, and boru Situmorang all from Nainggolan; boru Hutagalung; Jon Hutagalung of Linda’s Ulos Fashion; Nai Ratna Hite from Mogang; Pak Simbolon from Simbolon; boru Purba, Siagian; boru Hutabarat, Ny. Tobing of Sait ni Huta; boru Ny. Sitohang; Ompu Horas, boru Hutabarat from Tomok; Tobing, Ny Hutabarat; boru Pardede, Ny. Tobing; Nai Ompu Togi, boru Mandalahi, Ny. Sitanggang and Raja Rumintang, boru Hutagalung, Ny. Manurung; boru Sitanggang from Polma Enterprises, Panompangan; boru Situmorang, Ny. Hutagalung; boru Manik, Ny. Naibaho; boru Silalahi, Ny. Sidauruk and Amang Adir from Simanindo; Nai acknowledgements 9

Mangantar, boru Manik from Janji Maria; boru Saragih from Scientific Research (nwo) and the Prins Bernhard Mogang; R.G. Sinambela from Lumban Raja, Bangkara; and Cultuurfonds made it all possible. boru Giro, Ompu ni Kristen from Panompangan. The last years of intensive work were only possible because In Karo, from Kaban Jahe: three indigo dyers, Nande Indra, of the boundless support and patience of Jan Hofstede who Nande Pulung and Nande Peringitten; Haji Sibayak, Raja was determined that I bring this lengthy undertaking to a Sungkunan Ginting Suka; Si Ukur boru Simbiring, Kembrahan conclusion. I hope that he will now enjoy his well-earned Suka, Lena boru Tanggang. In Desa Kuala: boru Sebayang, Ny. respite from what I took to calling ‘The Endless Tome’. Ginting. In Simalungun: Nai Hotlin, Roslina Purba, her husband and Sandra Niessen six children from Talasari, K.N. boru Sinaga, Ny Purba from Oosterbeek 2009 Sipanggu, Tiga Runggu; Ned and Johanna Purba from Sondi Raya; boru Saragih-Geringging from Sondi Raya; Esteria, boru Purba and Lertiana boru Purba from Negori Tongah; Mamak Si Sirita, boru Lalahi from Simpang Naga Panei; Dr. and Ny. Sarmedi Purba, and boru Manik from Pematang Siantar. In Medan: Vera Aminuddin, boru Tobing; Nai Bob, Ny. Hutabarat, boru Situmorang; Ny. Sidabutar, boru Situmorang; Ny. Sinaga, boru Hombing; Ny. A. Situmorang, boru Sihotang; Masna, boru Tambunan, Ny. Siregar; and the weavers from Sampali, Jl. Pancing, especially Dina boru Lumbangaol, Ny Sinabariba. In Jakarta: boru Siahaan, Ny. Sigalingging; Dr. Poltak Hutagalung; Martha Sirait of Martha Ulos. In Minangkabau: Ny. Ida Fauzi from Payakumbuh, and Pak Aliuner Singkuang from Kubang. With pleasure I acknowledge the following friends and colleagues who have helped in the production of this book in other ways: Professor T.O. Ihromi, Didi Karni, Jaap Erkelens, Margaretha Dirkzwager, Daniel van der Meulen, Mrs. Waldemar Stöhr, the late Grietje Wolff, Sitor Situmorang, the late Petrus Voorhoeve and Pater H. Promés — both of whom were always generous with their Batak archives, Ron and Han Swart, Dolorosa Sinaga, Toeti, Fritz and Ari Kakiailatu, Zr. Nuria Gultom, Zr. Sitiawan Hutahaean and Zr. Bonaria Hutabarat from Balige, the late Roswitha Pamoentjak, Dr. Reinhart Tampubolon, Luckman Sinar, Judith Hofenk-de Graaf, Melissa Rinne, Keiko Kawashima, Ken Kuwahara, Jan van Bremen, the late Paulina Hutabarat, Vera Tiodara, boru Situmorang, and Robert Voskuil. The publishing process was a joy due to the professionalism and skill of the book’s designer, Marie-Cécile Noordzij-Pulles, and the co-operation and support of Thoben Offset Printers and the Director of kitlv Press, Harry Poeze. Guus de Vries and Pamela Cross gave their considered and welcome advice at points when the process threatened to overwhelm me. Publishing grants from The Netherlands Organization for 10 acknowledgements acknowledgements 11

fig. Acknowledgements 2 Weavers in Muara. 1986. fig. Introduction 1 Motif in the end field of the Toba simpar Cat 5.4. 13 Introduction

Cataloguing the Indonesian Textile Arts: A Batak Contribution

Taking stock

Indonesian textiles constitute a spectacular diversity of design, technique and material. They are distributed over an archipelago comprising approximately 15,000 islands and hundreds of social, cultural and linguistic groups. The challenge in writing about Indonesian textiles is the familiar one of approaching the ethnographic Other, of translating and interpreting accurately and responsibly across cultural boundaries. To write about Indonesian textiles is inevitably, whether implicitly or explicitly, to impose some kind of order on the body of material. Texts about Indonesian textiles can be read both for what they reveal about the unknown and what they reveal about the interests of the person/culture conducting the inquiry Clifford 1988. The descriptions need to fall within the intellectual frameworks of the inquiring culture(s) if they are to be of any use at all. However, to convey as much as possible about the artefacts, they also need to respect and somehow convey the intellectual frame- works of the culture(s) hosting the inquiry. The museum professional who catalogues the objects meets the same challenge. Joseph Fischer pointed out in 1979 that knowledge contemporary research that would focus on field studies of about Indonesian artisanship was ‘still at an inchoate artisans in relation to their cultures and on systematic stage’ 1979b:339. He was writing at the onset of an surveys of museum and private collections throughout the important new phase in Indonesian textile studies. world. Some of this has already begun, but it is often the His catalogue entitled Threads of Tradition 1979a nature of such efforts that they are too piecemeal, too appeared in the same year as Gittinger’s Splendid infrequently a result of scholarly collaboration, and too Symbols: Textiles and Tradition in Indonesia 1979a.1 seldom a reflection of needed and careful research Gittinger organized a symposium for researchers of practices Fisher 1979b:339. Indonesian textiles to coincide with the publication and exhibition. The events brought Indonesian I agree with Fischer’s assessment. However, it is textiles into the public eye, and researchers and important to recognize the progress that had already aficionados/collectors into contact with each other. been made by the time Fischer put pen to paper. The The symposium proceedings Gittinger 1979b included English-language literature was building on a the first review of North American museum century of inquiry by European scholars. holdings of Indonesian textile collections. The The Dutch avidly documented the wealth of their occasion was one of taking stock of what had been Asian colony. At first indigenous textile production accomplished, and constructing a vision of what still interested them because they wished to corner the needed to be done. Fischer pleaded for same markets. When it became clear that

1 Fischer’s catalogue accompanied an exhibition in the Lowie Museum of Anthropology and the University Art Museum in Berkeley, California; Gittinger’s catalogue accompanied an exhibition at The Textile Museum in Washington, DC. 14 cataloguing the indonesian textile arts

indigenous production could no longer compete with external description blurs. While consisting for the most part of specific industrial production, more scholarly interest was sparked for studies, the published proceedings in themselves constitute the now vulnerable Indonesian textile arts. Some were studied surveys of a particular kind. They take stock not just of the by colonial officials, missionaries and others stationed in far- textiles, but also of the scholarship used to acquire knowledge flung corners of the Netherlands East Indies. Other work was about them. done by researchers in Europe who had access to Indonesian Roy Hamilton observed that the Indonesian textile literature textile collections. At the beginning of the twentieth century, has tended to be either detailed ethnographic, single-culture these collections were still growing rapidly Niessen 1991b. Such a description or broader in scope and more general in nature wealth of early writings exists that it is impossible to review all 1994:12. It is clear that the two approaches are complementary, of it in an introductory chapter. each gaining from, and contributing to, the other. Hamilton, Notable, however, is the early focus on the physical aspects of however, wished to emphasize the merits of regional enquiry. the textiles and how they were made. J.A. Loebèr Jr. was one of Regional studies, he claimed, would allow for ‘more detailed the first to take stock of that literature, and of the textiles in the investigation, while at the same time, especially in ethnically archipelago. He worked with the collections of the Colonial diverse areas such as Flores, promoting productive Museum (Koloniaal Museum) in Haarlem (now housed in the comparisons among the textiles of neighboring ethnic groups’ Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam) and also consulted a vast number 1994:12. The popularity of studies of this scope has increased e.g. of documents about the textiles of the Netherlands East Indies. Hauser-Schäublin et al., 1991; Yeager and Jacobson, 1996; 2002. They are He surveyed the processes of Indonesian textile production also indicative of the growing number of researchers of beginning with the fibre used, and ending with the finishing Indonesian textiles, and the availability of in-depth studies that touches put to the cloth Loebèr 1901, 1902, 1903, 1914. The looms and make comparisons within a more limited geographic region techniques were so different from those familiar to Europeans worthwhile. that certain basic terms and their meanings had to be agreed Hamilton’s stated preference for surveys of greater scholarly upon. De Lorm 1938:87, for example, noted that the Malay word depth may have been, in part, a reaction to the methods of ikat was first applied in Dutch in 1901. Similarly, the Malay approach used in some of the extensive surveys. (The terms batik and plangi were borrowed. Excellent, detailed and preference of publishers for more general works to appeal to a groundbreaking, Loebèr’s surveys belong in the same class as general audience is a factor not to be discounted.) Ruth Barnes J.E. Jasper’s publication on the Indonesian weaving arts has also been critical of ‘studies in Indonesian textiles [that] illustrated by Mas Pirngadie 1912. Jasper, a civil administrator have focused too exclusively on the spectacular cloths’ 1989:1. who occupied various posts in the colonial regime, collected Nevertheless, the success of some enquiries of very broad scope and collated detailed information from the entire archipelago. supports a counter-argument that breadth of geographic scope His systematic enquiry has become a foundational classic in the and depth of scholarship are not necessarily inversely related. Indonesian textile literature. In a work that has become an important classic, Alfred Bühler These foundations have engendered specific, deeper traced the origin and distribution of the ikat technique 1942, enquiries. B.M. Goslings, for example, could look at ‘the 1972. His subsequent research on the design and technique of implications of the insertion of the comb in the Indonesian double ikat patola from Gujarat, India, and their influence loom’ 1922. Rita Bolland was able to explore cultural-historical throughout Southeast Asia 1959, 1979 is a highlight of both reasons why two different kinds of looms were used on Bali and description and comparison. Robin Maxwell’s Textiles of Lombok 1971b. Nettleship 1970 had sufficient data to trace Southeast Asia 1990 is another accomplishment of tremendous antecedents of the Indonesian loom to China. Based on reach. The book constitutes a review of how the tides of culture linguistic analysis, Robert Blust could argue ‘that the original influence that swept through the archipelago over the course of Austronesian speakers (c.4000 bce) were sedentary villagers thousands of years left their mark in cloth design and who possessed … probably the loom’ 1976: 43. production techniques. Both surveys are supported by extensive Since 1979, Indonesian textile scholars have met several more specific scholarship. Both works advance Indonesian textile times, each meeting resulting in published proceedings Gittinger scholarship considerably. Their significance is due, in part, to 1979b; Völger and von Welck 1991; Nabholz-Kartaschoff et al. 1993. In these the appropriateness of the scope of the research to the topics compendia, the boundary between survey and single-culture treated. cataloguing the indonesian textile arts 15

Hamilton’s preference for smaller regional comparisons invites 1980. In a wider comparative reach, the conceptual ‘femaleness’ further reflection. What he calls a regional approach is not new. of cloth that has been noted in various places around the world In Sprekende Weefsels (Telling Textiles) 1952, Johannes Jager can be compared and contrasted with the Indonesian variant Gerlings explored some of the advantages of regional Niessen 1984. comparison in Indonesian textile scholarship. His study was While Indonesian textile scholars have not explicitly adopted unique in that he did not focus on a ‘coherent weaving region,’ the strategies and goals of Leiden anthropologists, we grapple but rather pulled together information and collections from the with parallel challenges in comparing textile traditions. Dayak, Toraja, Sangihe and Talaud. Defining regional levels and fruitful themes of comparative …in the area treated here, such a variety is found as to include almost textile analysis are two such challenges. In many ways, however, all weaving and decorative techniques that are applied in Indonesia … our challenges are distinct. As cultural artefacts, textiles have I hope then also, that despite, and maybe because of, its regional unique characteristics. Their physical features (design, material restrictions my study shall be of use for the analysis of weaving and and production techniques) are cases in point. As I have noted textiles of other Indonesian ethnic groups 1952:7. above, these features, the primary focus of the present volume, have been a most rewarding as well as universally accessible Clearly, how ‘region’ is defined is critical to evaluating entry to explore this cultural phenomenon. Nevertheless, Hamilton’s recommendation for regional studies. material qualities are too often ignored in the logocentric With no ultimate criteria or discriminating terminology to domain of Western knowledge production Niessen 1994, distinguish a region from a sub-region, a sub-sub-region, or a although their study has much to contribute to the broader super-regional composite, it is possible to make the claim that enquiry into cultural phenomena. pan-Indonesian surveys are also regional studies. This claim A standard approach to describing and comparing textile was made by Dutch scholars in the 1930s. Ethnographers within traditions of the entire archipelago has never been developed. what has become known to the English-speaking world as the The material is varied, and regions and traditions appear to Leiden School2 of anthropology Fox 1980:1 proposed that the inspire tailor-made approaches. I have already pointed to the Netherlands East Indies be considered a Field of Ethnological success of a broad regional study of ikat, and an analysis of (later Anthropological) Study (fes/fas). They considered the Indonesian textile design and technique as exhibiting foreign archipelago to be one of the ‘areas of the earth’s surface with a culture influences. Other studies, which have a narrower region population whose culture appears to be sufficiently of focus, demonstrate the value of alternative approaches. homogeneous and unique to form a separate object of Brigitte Hauser-Schäublin et al. 1991 found it useful to organize ethnological study, and which at the same time apparently the study of Balinese cloth by design type. Rens Heringa and reveals sufficient local shades of differences to make internal Harmen Veldhuisen developed ‘batik formats’ as an organizing comparative research worth while’ J.P.B.Josselin de Jong 1983:167–8. principle to facilitate ‘the ’reading‘ of batiks, which at first The Dutch ethnographers first highlighted themes of glance may seem to comprise a welter of motifs and colors’ indigenous social organization which, as they discovered, were 1997:84. Traude Gavin 1996; 2003 found pattern to be the most found in variation throughout the archipelago. Later useful point of entry for understanding the diversity of Iban ethnographers expanded the number of themes that could be fabrics in Borneo. Textile themes, depending on their nature, fruitfully compared P.E. de Josselin de Jong 1984. may be conducive to intercultural comparison of broader or I proposed that Indonesian textiles be considered a candidate narrower scope. Clearly, however, it is time to take stock not just theme for comparative study Niessen 1984, 1985a. At the time, I of the findings that our approaches have yielded, but of the was interested in the correspondence between beliefs about approaches themselves and their potential for application to textiles and social organization as described by Leiden scholars. projects of vaster comparative scope. It is evident, for example, that by and large textiles throughout the archipelago are classified indigenously as ‘female’, a classification rooted in the Indonesian type of social structure based on asymmetric marriage exchange and double unilineal descent. This insight has engendered scholarly enquiry into the way the ritual giving of cloth demarcates social structure e.g. Fox

2 P.E. de Josselin de Jong has argued against the characterization of Leiden anthopology as a ‘school’ 1983 [1977]:9, 15, pointing out that the ethnographic facts have always been more informative of the anthropological findings than a common training program or a grand theory. The latter did not exist. 16 Introduction cataloguing the indonesian textile arts

neighbouring regions with which there have been centuries of About the present project trade contact. Reviewing Sumatran textiles, one perceives The Batak are an agricultural people inhabiting the northern graduations in design themes whereby the only obvious part of Sumatra, the westernmost island of the vast Indonesian conclusion is that any assignation of style region boundaries archipelago. Their territory is located between Aceh to the north must be a heuristic and thematic choice. The diversity within and northwest, Minangkabau to the south, and Malay the Lake Toba region itself is considerable. On what grounds, settlements along the east and west coasts. The Bukit Barisan then, have I drawn the boundaries around the Lake Toba region mountain range runs the length of the territory and the relative as the site of textile analysis for this study? This geo-cultural isolation of the Batak people from Europeans – until the end of entity has no precedent in the succession of political divisions the nineteenth century – has been attributed to the ruggedness that have been recognized since the colonial era, and it is also of the terrain. On the east side of the island, the mountains absent from the ethnographic literature. I have not made the descend to a vast alluvial plain; on the west side, the plain is selection of a Lake Toba textile region a priori, however, but on considerably narrower. The highlands are broken by grassy the evidence of textile design, technique and history. plains, volcanic peaks and mountain valleys, but most notably Granted, the focus on Batak textiles constitutes an a priori by a large and deep lake, an ancient volcanic crater. Samosir choice. This choice made the decision to exclude the regions of Island in the middle of Lake Toba is the uplifted floor of the Aceh and Minangkabau an obvious one. Despite some shared caldera. The variety of terrain and climate has fostered features, the textiles from these regions are qualitatively regionally specific cultural adaptations. The Batak comprise six different in material, design and technique. The more tribes: Karo, Dairi/Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, Angkola and challenging decisions have related to the Batak boundary Mandailing Map 1, with much regional variation in each. While regions. The textiles in Gayo and Alas – sometimes considered distinguished by language and tradition, the groups are also Batak, sometimes Acehnese – show strong similarities with united by profound and fundamental social and historical Batak textiles and the regions share many textiles through commonalities, forming as it were, a nested field of trade. Furthermore, the Karo, with respect to some language anthropological study with patterns of unity and diversity and culture features, have more in common with their northern comparable to what is found throughout the entire archipelago. neighbours than with the other Batak groups. It would make This volume takes into account only the textiles that originate sense to explore the textiles from this northern region as a from the regions around Lake Toba, including Karo, distinct tradition. Circumstances are comparable at the Simalungun and Toba Batak, and a small segment of Dairi (Si southern end of the Batak territory. Mandailing and Angkola Tolu Huta) Map 1. I refer to the corpus of textiles from this region Batak textiles exhibit many features of transition and cross- as the ‘Lake Toba tradition’. It comprises a significant repertory fertilization between Batak and Minangkabau. Here, too, of more than 100 textile design types (Toba ulos; Karo uwis; linguists have grouped the Toba together with these southern Simalungun hiou) according to the classification system groups, as distinct from the northern Batak languages Voorhoeve developed for this volume. 1955:9. Indonesian textile traditions are not mutually exclusive, For as long as there have been historical records, it appears but overlapping. The validity of including these boundary that the Toba Batak have had pre-eminence over the other regions in the present study is logical, and in future groups in the weaving arts Joustra 1910, and also that the Toba arts comparative research is likely to be rewarding, but practical and predominate in the Lake Toba territory. If linguistic and cultural circumstantial factors have also informed the selection of the analyses are accurate, both the Simalungun and the Si Tolu Huta present research focus. The Lake Toba region has been well Batak have branched off from the Toba and the foundations of studied, and the textile data from this area are relatively their craft are Toba. Furthermore, the earliest phase of weaving extensive and accessible. For the purposes of the present study, development in the region appears to be common to both the the inclusion of the peripheral regions, while valid, would have Toba and the Karo. In other words, an ancient cultural unity been unwieldy. binds the region. I settled on the boundaries of the Lake Toba textile tradition The repertory of textiles made in the region has both when it became clear, from historical analysis, that the considerable coherence and considerable diversity. Some of the enormous flat surface of the lake situated in rough elements of that coherence are found in the textile traditions of mountainous terrain had facilitated connections among the cataloguing the indonesian textile artsIntroduction 17 peoples around its shores for millennia in such a way as to serve Some of the challenges will be met again when comparing the as a crucible for the sharing of design and technique. The textiles from neighbouring ethnic groups or even farther afield. repertory provides evidence of an ancient core of design and The present analysis presents possible themes for future technical features. On these grounds, the design themes typical comparative study. of this region have been given research precedence and the outlying northern and southern Batak areas have peripheral A complete inventory status in the present analysis. In vast Batak areas, such as Pakpak/Dairi and Habinsaran, This catalogue raisonné has been assembled on the conviction populations use the fruits of Batak looms, but do not weave. that Indonesian textile scholarship is still limited by the scarcity This posed another challenge to establishing the research of detailed information on the full range of indigenous textiles boundaries. Furthermore, changes in the distribution of within the various traditions of the archipelago. Were detailed weaving have taken place. Weaving appears to have been more inventories of each tradition available, this would enable deeper widespread in the past than it was during the period of enquiry into the distribution, diffusion and invention of fieldwork for this volume. The final selection of design corpus design, technique, nomenclature and social function of the and research site reflects the central goal of this volume to cloths, and of weaver responses to social change and culture examine design and technique relative to each other. This, too, contact. This is one reason, therefore, why the present catalogue was not an a priori decision, but based on a significant feature has been constructed to include all Batak textiles, from the of Batak textile culture. Only those areas where the techniques fanciest and most elite to the everyday, and even those locally are still practised, or for which there are good records of considered by the Batak to be too insignificant to ritual process weaving, are included in the present analysis. The regions to deserve a name. It incorporates a wide temporal range from where weaving has ceased, or has never been practised, fall the earliest known (collected and written about) to those cut outside its scope. from the loom and sold on the market while the research for Establishing the internal boundaries of style divisions this volume was being conducted. presents challenges comparable to those faced when Semiotically, this makes good sense. The value of each textile establishing the external boundaries of the Lake Toba textile in the Batak repertory is relative to the value of all of the other regions. The distribution of textile design types has changed members of the set. Knowledge of the full repertory is requisite through time; new types have emerged and others have been to understanding the significance of each of its components. phased out. In addition to what I refer to as the centrifugal pull Pending the completed documentation of numerous full of the lake that has given coherence to the region’s textiles, the repertories of textiles, future Indonesian textile scholarship will centripetal pull from regions further afield has encouraged surely involve comparison of the organizing principles of differentiation within the territory. In addition, the sheer repertories. distance from one end of the lake to the other has encouraged The goal of documenting the full repertory of Batak textiles is local developments and specializations in textile design and not unprecedented. While most museum collections are technique. If the external boundaries of the Lake Toba textile haphazard assemblages from the legacies of many casual tradition reflect the centrifugal forces, the six style divisions collectors, a handful of serious early collectors tried to gather that I have identified within the territory on the basis of one of every design type available in their time (e.g. H. N. van der repertories of design and technique see Part ii reflect the Tuuk, J. E. Jasper and Tassilo Adam whose collections are housed centripetal forces. in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam; and Dr. Johannes While this study concerns Batak textiles exclusively, and Winkler, the post-war remains of whose collection are still represents a whole of some coherence, as a regional study it found in the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg). This incorporates variety as found in numerous Batak sub-regions theme emerges more prominently in North Sumatra where and sub-sub-regions. The challenges experienced in developing there have been numerous small inventories published locally a way to present the diversity of Batak cloth in this published in the Batak region, many by museums and exhibitors of the form have meant that this volume is simultaneously an textiles e.g. Aneka Ragam Ulos Adat… 1981, Aneka Ragam Ulos Adat… 1985, exploration of textile classification and an experiment in laying Laporan Penyelenggaraan Pameran, n.d., Marbun u.p., Siahaan 1983/84. The out a strategy for future comparison of classification systems. present volume has a broader scope than these works, and a 18 Introduction cataloguing the indonesian textile arts

longer temporal framework including the modern period, but heritage to North Sumatra. As Fischer noted, ‘True preservation my scholarly debt to these earlier endeavours is considerable, surely has something to do with maintaining and promoting and I have consulted them extensively. the art in its context’ 1979:347. It is not just about museum In 1979, during my first period of fieldwork in North Sumatra, storage of textiles and written documentation. The prohibitive I was concerned about the loss of old Batak textile types. My cost of this publication is a challenge to be faced to ensure its concerns had been informed by writings dating from early in distribution in North Sumatra. the twentieth century mourning the decline of the dignified, From the outset, this project has been conceived as an aid to ancient Indonesian textile heritage e.g. Visser 1918/1919. To be museums and to scholars of museum collections. A complete sure, I did learn in North Sumatra that several textile types were documented repertory would enable museums, researchers and no longer being made and that many had even faded from the interested public to evaluate their own Batak textile memory. But I also learned that a formidable store of holdings in terms of completeness of the collection, textile sophisticated skill and knowledge about Batak textiles was still variety and quality, and accuracy of their documentation. It vibrantly alive, and that there was also textile invention. I would also assist collectors to develop collection priorities. This discerned that the greatest inhibitors to the vitality of Batak volume is a compendium of documented textile types that also textiles were an economic climate that often discouraged explains the logic of their indigenous classification. Collection weavers from making the best textiles of which they were scholars, all of whom are faced with the challenge of fitting capable, and the profound loss of old textile types (often sold to indigenous objects into an exogenous, standard system of meet a need for cash) which could serve as sources of design classification, may use this volume to develop an under- inspiration and technical guidance Niessen 1992a, 1993b. standing of individual cloth types, as well as the tradition as a A persistent Western bias against modern Batak textiles is a systemic whole. Because it represents a composite of many factor in this neglect. The bias is a function of a false historicism collections, both public and private, it should have value for all that honours a past era of presumed authentic production museums with Batak textile holdings. above production that betrays any sign of modern Western influence. In addition to playing out in museums and galleries, Limitations of the research this bias has served the pocketbooks of North Sumatran weavers exceedingly poorly because their work is considered Having just argued for the importance of documenting the second-rate and cannot command the prices of the ‘authentic’ complete repertory of Batak textiles, it is time to point out the old pieces. Nevertheless, the Batak textile tradition is alive and challenges, some of them insurmountable for circumstantial still shaping itself today precisely because it is able to and practical reasons, to executing the task. accommodate external social and economic influences. This has In the first place, the data are inevitably and inexorably always been the key to the survival of the art form Niessen 2003. incomplete. Collection has a flawed and haphazard history. It is Modern textiles are therefore integral to the compendium certain that not all Batak textile types known in the past are documented in this study. either represented in museums or available in North Sumatra. During the course of the research for the present publication, I In North Sumatra it is unlikely that all textile types would have began to perceive a salvage function for the catalogue that could survived: the humid climate is hard on textiles; they wear out; meet the needs of Batak weavers. Many weavers were excited by the hardship of the war years meant that many Batak used up the photographs of old museum cloths that I had brought with their textile heritage for clothing; many textiles have me from Europe. They asked for copies so that they could have a disappeared into the hands of private collectors (although some record of the designs depicted. During photoelicitation of these may yet find their way into public collections); and interviews Appendix 1, I learned which photographs were the many textiles leave the region when Batak migrate. While most helpful to weavers. They needed to see the layout of the excellent and detailed Batak textile collections were made in whole cloth, as well as fine details such as the colour sequencing some regions, there were also relatively unexplored regions on of the warp and weft yarns. This awareness subsequently the colonial Batak textile map where collecting did not occur. informed the way I assembled illustrations for the present Some of these dark spots on the map remain. Many are not well catalogue. It had become a priority for this book to be useful in connected to markets and, if at any time in the past textile returning, in photographic form, some of the Batak textile production was popular there, it is no longer economically cataloguing the indonesian textile artsIntroduction 19 viable, thus ensuring that the dark spots remain dark spots. even if it were possible to collect all the extant variations. As Many of these regions could only be accessed with great many variations as possible are depicted in the catalogue, but difficulty, and sometimes I found the difficulties written documentation is used to convey the dynamic facets of insurmountable. Furthermore, it is simply impossible to gain the tradition. It explains how this compendium constitutes a access to all extant textiles. I was able to visit many museums, textile system, rather than just a series of depicted textiles. but not all. I met and interviewed many Batak, but not all, and The typologist is forced by circumstances to draw lines of not all of them would or could share the contents of their closets distinction between types and sub-types even while the data are and chests with a stranger. I watched many weavers at work, changing and incomplete. Moreover, the compiler of the but not all. Finally, the nature of the textile tradition is such that catalogue is also confronted with choices about cloth quality. the compilation of a complete data set, although strived after, is The selection may represent the most typical, the most an unattainable goal. The appearance of textile types changes sophisticated or the oldest cloth. It may illustrate a particularly inevitably through time, sometimes subtly, sometimes more creative rendition, or a pattern embellishment typical of a radically. The relentlessness of social change lays claim to some particular region. Selections always shape the reader’s textile types. Some of them make comebacks and some do not. perception or understanding of a type category. While this may Weavers may give different apparel expressions to relatively or may not have consequences as profound as those stable textile designs, for example, by making a shouldercloth experienced on the northwest coast of North America, where from a motif that was always used in a hipcloth, or by making a Bill Holm’s classification of indigenous design influenced the setelan (sarong-shouldercloth set Cat 9.3) from a design once direction taken by the revival of indigenous art McLennan and used in a different way. Frequently they derive inspiration from Duffek 2000, here too it is important that the reader be aware of other textiles, Batak or foreign, brought in by trade or other the gap between a dynamic reality, and the limited ability of the circumstances. Textile design undergoes transformation published medium to represent that reality. A goal of the through the gradual accretion of small, individual, creative, written portions of the catalogue is to bring to the attention of weaverly acts that inevitably also have a regional tint. the reader the many factors that must be considered when The limits of my knowledge of the Batak languages and looking at a textile, and when trying to place it within a system. cultural diversity are reflected on the pages of this volume, as The on-line catalogues that museums are developing will allow are the comparable limits of my scholarly predecessors whose for more flexibility in the dissemination of visual information. legacies have informed this work. Given the predominance of This compendium will not be superseded by such on-line the Toba in the weaving culture around Lake Toba, my scholarly presentations of data, however. Its value will remain in the concentration on Toba Batak culture is a boon, but the framework which it offers for ordering and understanding the disadvantage for the study of the Karo and Simalungun is also data and in having taken stock of the extant information. The obvious. present catalogue is a tool through which principles of Furthermore, the limitations of disseminating the findings indigenous classification can be accessed, changes in the Batak through the printed medium are profound. Because Batak textile repertory can be evaluated and collections of Batak textile types are clearly defined and named, a printed catalogue, textiles can be assessed. by its nature static, is suited to depicting the static qualities of The use of the ethnographic present in the catalogue would the Batak textile tradition. However, the complementary have heightened the risk of typological reification that inheres principle of dynamism that equally characterizes the Batak in a compilation of static images. I have chosen, therefore, to textile tradition is more difficult to convey using this medium. describe my observations as specifically as possible. Weavers Each textile-type category has distinctive features, but also are mentioned not just because they deserve recognition for includes a rich range of variations because no two textiles are their skills, but also because their styles and techniques are local the same. Every design type implies all the variations that pairs and have been developed within their own particular of hands have woven through time. By understanding how circumstances. Technical processes are presented as having these variations are ‘read’ locally, it is possible to discern the taken place at that moment in time when I watched them, and essential and non-essential features of a cloth design. But even not as general processes used by all Batak weavers at all times. these are subject to change. It is not feasible to depict all In this way, this publication is located within temporal variations of a cloth type using the printed, published medium, boundaries, even while incorporating historical information. 20 Introduction cataloguing the indonesian textile arts

Appendix ii is a list of weaving vocabulary. Weaving is not a How to use the book common household activity as it once was in the past, and as a The book has four parts, an extensive index and an appendix. consequence, weaving terms are no longer as familiar as they The catalogue portion Part iii forms the core of the volume. Each might have been. Moreover, the techniques deployed are always of the textile types in the Lake Toba repertory is numbered, relative to a specific tradition. This poses challenges when named, described and depicted in a standardized describing a weaving tradition in another language to other documentation format. These documentations are arranged in cultures. Weaving terminology has been deployed very nine chapters according to prominent design themes. The other consciously and carefully in this volume to serve rather than parts of the volume explain, complement and augment the encumber communication of cross-cultural uniqueness. contents of the catalogue. The composite index serves a variety of functions. It Design, technique and nomenclature are central themes of incorporates themes and non-English words found in the text, the study. In Part i (Des), I introduce these themes. Design has names of authors and collectors and technical terminology, in been chosen as the point of access to the catalogue. I explain English and other languages. The reader can use it to look up how the themes of technique and nomenclature are interlaced textile types using indigenous textile names. I chose to make a with Batak textile design in the Lake Toba tradition. In addition, single, though complex, index, in response to the need for a the design features of the textiles, according to which they are comprehensive referencing system that – because this project is described and compared in the catalogue, are explored in this multicultural by nature — incorporates different languages. A part of the book, relative to indigenous thought and history. The reader may need to look up words the meaning or status of book begins broadly, in other words, with an overview of the which he or she is unsure. For example, by looking up visual themes that are found in all of the textiles and angkatangkat, the reader will be referred to the design and the throughout the book. technical meaning of the word as well as the cloth type name A closer focus is used in Part ii (sr) of the volume. In the six derived from that feature. The reader will not be required to chapters, one devoted to each style region, I explain how the look up the word in a textile-name index, and/or index of design themes, already generally introduced, are expressed indigenous words and/or a weave-technical index. A single regionally. This part of the book constitutes a complement to combined index, while complex, better meets the reader’s the catalogue (Part iii, Cat). It is here that the reader can gain a needs. sense of the regional repertories and highlights. Furthermore, the catalogue depicts the textiles two-dimensionally so as to show their design features optimally, even while these textiles are, in the first instance, apparel items. In Sumatra, they are most commonly seen as living materials, draped, folded and moving with the body of the wearer. This is captured in the ethnographic photographs presented in this section of the volume. Part iv (Tech) constitutes a technical resource for all of the other parts of the book: the specific details of how technique is linked with indigenous design and design nomenclature, how techniques are emphasized regionally and detailed explanations of the technical features referred to in the catalogue. In addition, it is a stand-alone resource documenting Batak weaving practices. Appendix i describes the research methods used to carry out this project. I have tried to make the research process as transparent as possible, so that the reader can evaluate the reliability of the data and, if desired, adapt the strategies to document other Indonesian textile traditions. cataloguing the indonesian textile artsIntroduction 21

Combination Pronunciation Orthographic choices Conventions of letters in in Batak speech Batak script Illustrations ngh/ngk kk jungkit rather than jukkit The illustrations in the book are numbered consecutively for Bangkara rather than Bakkara singkam rather than sikkam each chapter. The system references the chapter and the ngt tt nangtulang rather than nattulang sequence in the chapter (e.g. fig. Des 3.4, the fourth illustration ns ts pansur rather than patsur in the third Design chapter and fig. Cat 3.7, the seventh nt tt pantis rather than pattis bontar rather than bottar illustration in the third Catalogue chapter). Tables are similarly mp pp gompul rather than goppul numbered (e.g. Table Des 4.1, the first table in the fourth Design mg ngg gomgom rather than gonggom chapter). Detail illustrations reference text on the page on rl ll simarlasiak rather than simallasiak nl ll sanlapis rather than sallapis which they are found. Unless otherwise indicated, the illustrations are by the author.

documents were often written by people unfamiliar with Language and Orthography Indonesian and Batak languages, so errors have crept into the Batak and Indonesian are more or less mutually unintelligible records. These are not always easy to distinguish from Malay languages. Indonesian is the lingua franca of the country, legitimate variations used in the past. and the Batak languages are indigenous to North Sumatra. The Indonesian and Batak ways of referring to people have Most, but not all, of the textile names and technical weaving been blended to some extent. That blend is reflected in this vocabulary used by the Batak are in the Batak language. volume. Martha Sirait boru Napitupulu, for example, reveals Recording the relevant indigenous terminology in this that Martha is married into the Sirait clan and was born into the volume has been a complex undertaking. A variety of Napitupulu clan. Use of the Indonesian Ny. to indicate a orthographic conventions has been used since ethnography married woman is common in the Batak region. Both began in the area. To begin, Batak has its own script, derived conventions are used in this volume. The Toba prefixes Nai, Ama from Sanskrit. When Batak words have been written using (ni) and Ompu (ni) before a name refer respectively to the Latin characters, the conventions of transcription have varied. mother of, father of and grandparent of the person Most of this variation occurs where the spelling of a word subsequently named. All of these forms are found in this differs from the pronunciation of the word see Van der Tuuk volume. 1864:9–13. Batak pronunciation has clearly informed the spelling Indigenous languages often incorporate exogenous terms found in some archival and published sources (e.g. simallasiak associated with borrowed textile techniques and designs. For (for simarlasiak), djinoekit (for jinungkit), pinoetsaan (for example, kristik, derived from the Dutch kruissteek (English: pinunsaan) Fischer 1914a:48, 49). In the present publication, a cross-stitch), is used in both Batak and Indonesian, and pita, spelling based on Batak script (the original combination of Indonesian for ‘ribbon’, is used by the Batak to refer to the letters) rather than Batak speech is used Table Introduction. ribbon that sometimes was used as a replacement for the Furthermore, Batak script employs no spaces between words. twined edging of the cloth, so it becomes accurate to refer to the Consistent conventions for word spacings and capital letters word as Batak. Batak migration has interwoven linguistic as have not been established. SiBisa may also be written si Bisa and well as textile traditions. Since the latter half of the twentieth Si Bisa. All of these forms are found in the present publication. century, it is primarily Toba Batak who weave and sell textiles in Foreigners have applied orthographic conventions influenced the Karo Batak region, for example, and their textile vocabulary by their own linguistic backgrounds. Some Dutch orthographic has become a mixture of Toba and Karo. To complicate matters conventions differ from those developed and applied later in further, the language I used to conduct interviews about Karo independent Indonesia (e.g. ‘oe’ for ‘u’ and ‘dj’ for ‘j’). The matter textiles was usually Indonesian, with a combination of Toba and is further complicated by regional variations in the Batak Karo technical terms. It has been a higher priority to document languages (e.g. bintang maratur and bintang marotur are extant linguistic variation see Appendix 2 than to impose a false equally correct). Furthermore, archival materials and museum consistency.

Table Introduction Orthographic conventions followed in this volume. fig. Introduction 2 ragi panei Cat 1.1.6. Detail. Collection kit a5157. 23 Acronyms of Public Collections Consulted

aedta Association pour l’Étude et la Documentation des mvb Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Textiles d’Asie Ethnologisches Museum, Abteilung Südasien Association for the Study and Documentation of Textiles South Asian Department, Ethnological Museum, Berlin, of Asia, Paris, France Germany dtk Deutsches Textilmuseum, Krefeld mvh Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg German Textile Museum, Krefeld, Germany Ethnological Museum, Hamburg, Germany em Museon, Den Haag mvw Museum für Völkerkunde, Wien Education Museum, The Hague, Netherlands Museum of Ethnology, Vienna, Austria kit Tropenmuseum, Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, mwf Museum der Weltkulturen, Frankfurt Amsterdam Museum of World Cultures, Frankfurt, Germany Tropenmuseum, Royal Tropical Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands rjm Rautenstrauch Joest Museum für Völkerkunde, Köln Rautenstrauch Joest Ethnographic Museum, Cologne, kitlv Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde, Germany Leiden Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and rmv Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden Caribbean Studies, Leiden, Netherlands National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden, Netherlands lma Logan Museum of Anthropology, Beloit, Wisconsin smv Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, München State Museum of Ethnology, Munich/Munich’s mdk Museum der Kulturen, Basel Anthropology Museum, Germany Museum of Ethnology, Basel, Switzerland vem Archiv- und Museumsstiftung, Vereinte Evangelische mqb* Musée du quai Branly. Mission, Wuppertal Quai Branly Museum, Paris. Archive and Museum Foundation, United Evangelical Mission, Wuppertal, Germany mnd Museum Nusantara, Delft Nusantara Museum, Delft, Netherlands vhm Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, Germany mnh American Museum of Natural History, New York wmr Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam, msn Museo di Storia Naturale, Sezione di Antropologia, World Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands Università di Firenze, Italy Museum of Natural History, Anthropology Department, University of Florence, Italy

* The Tropenmuseum incorporates the Batak textiles formerly held by the Gemeentelijk Museum Princessehof (now National Ceramic Museum) in Leeuwarden. ** The Quai Branly Museum incorporates the collections formerly held by the Musée de l’Homme, Paris. fig. Des Introduction Textile buyer in the market. Tarutung. 1986. In the early morning the weavers try to sell their textiles to textile stall proprietors at the market. Here, a stall proprietor inspects a sadum Cat 7.5 textile to decide whether she wants to purchase it. The transaction occurs very quickly. 25 Design

Introduction

A compendium of foreign textiles can only be a relatively meaningless, more or less compelling array of colours and motifs. A central goal of this volume is to render the repertory of textiles from Lake Toba meaningful to the reader beyond the level of individual taste. The textiles can be approached from a variety of perspectives, the most obvious being design, technique and social function. I have selected design as the initial and primary entry because the visual qualities of the textiles are universally accessible while Batak textile production techniques and social oranization are less familiar to most readers. Nevertheless, design is a tricky entry. Seeing is always through culturally tinted lenses. It is essential, therefore, that readers learn to see the textiles, to the extent possible, through Batak eyes, and from the perspective of Indonesian textile history. Part i of this publication presents the distinctive and characteristic design features of the textiles Des 1, how design may have developed over time to become the repertory as we know it today Des 2; Des 3 and how the textiles are named locally on the basis of appearance Des 4. The theme of technique is present throughout these explorations. By bringing this to light, the integral importance of the final part of the volume Part iv is made clear in these opening chapters. fig. Des 1.1 Bindu matoga, the Toba Batak symbol of totality, carved and painted on a Batak house. 1980. According to the esoteric Batak thought, the bindu matoga is the origin of all design and a depiction of the essence of time and space. 27 Design 1

Design Foundations

During an early stage of fieldwork for this volume, I showed fanciful tie-dyed fabric from Ecuador to Batak weavers. I wanted to see how they would react to a very different aesthetic. First, they examined it to try to figure out how it had been made. Then, frustrated by not being able to detect a regular order in the patterning, they lost interest in it, claiming that it was arbitrarily constructed and could not be replicated. Their reaction was telling. Regularity characterizes Batak textile composition. The design of a Batak cloth is fully planned by weavers before they even buy the yarn. Because the Ecuadorian cloth did not meet their expectations of regularity and order, they did not value it. To a great extent, learning to see Batak textiles through the eyes of their makers means learning to see the design components of the textiles and how they are arranged. Batak textiles are readily recognized by those familiar with Indonesian textiles. My task in this chapter is to translate that kind of intuitive recognition into a typology of typically Batak textile design features.

fig. Des 1.2 Karo women weaving together on the village plain. c. 1870. Photograph K. Feilberg. Photoarchives kit 6002 5557. 28 Design 1 design foundations

Putting visual and material features of material objects into periods in the evolution of Batak textile design. Design words is complicated, however. In a seminal article on material conventions pertain to the features of the textiles, how they are culture, Jules Prown 1982 pointed out that material culture is made and their placement on the two-dimensional cloth two-sided. It is the physical object, and it is the values, ideas, surface. The unit elements of design are the visible building attitudes and assumptions invested in them by their makers blocks, as it were, of which the design is composed. They and users. Consequently, according to him, analysis of an object include the component parts of the cloth as a whole and the must take both into account. This seems straight forward, but patterning. The weaver arranges these design elements in her the challenge is to put it into practice. Batak textiles are a good cloth according to the image that she has in her mind and the case in point. There is no clear division between them as rules that make her cloth recognizable, and desirable. These physical objects and as cultural objects. Furthermore, the rules are the invisible or abstract elements of design that inform material, the textile production techniques and the resulting textile appearance. I refer to them as the principles of Batak textiles, are all invested with meaning, so that Prown’s two- textile design.1 sided program becomes multi-layered, and applies as much to A focus on the visible unit elements of design inspires an the finished object as a whole, as to its components and how image of a stable, if not unchanging, design tradition. A focus they are made. The analytical process is complicated by the fact on the abstract principles by which the visible elements are that different cultures are involved. Even when the views of the situated and combined, however, invites an image of Batak cultural participants are taken into account, they are under- textile production as a creative process. Change and develop- stood through the lens of the researcher. On top of all of that, to ment are also integral to the tradition. These contrasting succeed in making a single-culture analysis useful for future but co-existing images illustrate the tension between the cross-cultural comparison, the vocabulary has to be carefully conservative and dynamic dimensions of Batak textile design. selected, and wielded transparently and precisely. Design development appears to have traditionally taken the form of progressive elaboration of the visible design elements, and also the invisible principles by which they are combined. Design conventions, Weavers have progressively elaborated visible design elements: conservative and dynamic by expressing the same motif in different techniques (e.g. the Batak textiles are readily recognizable because their design lozenge in supplementary warp, supplementary weft, ikat features are organized according to clearly defined rules. When and twining); by developing variations on a single motif a Batak weaver sits down in her loom, her goal is to make a cloth (e.g. the lozenge as narrow, wide, multi-layered and variously that meets social expectations. The Lake Toba repertory is made juxtaposed with other lozenges); by combining or juxtaposing a up of what I refer to in this study as established ‘design types’. single motif with various other pattern options (e.g. the chevron Each of these so-called design types (see the divisions of the in the design types in Cat 3)2; by combining motifs and/or catalogue Part iii) has a specific set of required features arranged techniques typical of other textile design types to make a new in a characteristic way. The cloths may also include optional design type (Cat 6.12.3 combines design elements of Cat 6.12 features. When they learn to make textile design types, the and Cat 6.10)3; and by choosing to use a pattern in a textile weavers learn not only the design characteristics to which their layout typically found in association with a different pattern cloths must conform, but also their creative latitude. All of this (the bintang maratur ikat in a textile of ‘Indian’ layout Cat 7.2). is laid down by convention: informal, but clear, social Elaboration of invisible design elements is expressed in the agreement that is generally known and unquestioned. ever more complex application of the principles of dualism and In this regard, Batak textiles are, in a very important way, tripartition as I go on to describe. Elaboration in Batak textile social and not individual creations. I have seen some (but very design may not always be immediately striking to an outsider, few) textiles that have been made to ‘use up’ leftover yarn and but it is evident from careful examination of the cloth. The do not conform to design conventions. Such individual Batak particularly appreciate cloth that exhibits this kind of creations are locally considered to be just ‘pieces of cloth’ design coherence and complication. without any social merit or significance. In 1963, the anthropologist Clifford Geertz used the term However, while some design conventions are common to the ‘involution’ to describe progressive elaboration in the social entire repertory, others are specific to particular regions or organization of an agrarian community in Java. He was following Alexander Goldenweizer, who had used the term to

1 I am modelling the distinction between 3 Traude Gavin’s terms ‘fission’ and the visible design elements and the ‘fusion’ to describe ikat pattern invisible, abstract principles of the design development among the Iban 2003:234 after the distinction between parole and appear to apply here. langue as this was developed by the ‘father’ of modern linguistics, Ferdinand de Saussure 1993 [1916]. 2 I have adopted Yeager’s and Jacobson’s distinction between patterns and motifs: ‘Motifs are combined to form a pattern’ 2002:88. design foundationsDesign 1 29 describe how complexity in design can be ‘brought about they were unlikely to be familiar with: ikat, batik, the parts of through a multiplicity of spatial arrangements of one and the the backstrap loom and how they were manipulated and so on. same unit … The inevitable result is progressive complication, Later, anthropologists began to emphasize symbolic aspects of a variety within uniformity …’ in Geertz 1963 : 81. This description textile production above purely technical details, a rich vein of fits the most complex and highly valued Batak traditional exploration. Brinkely Messick 1987, for example, pointed out the textiles. The dictionary definition of ‘involution’ suggests a verbal/conceptual conflation in North Africa of certain weaving negative progression, an evolution that turns inward upon actions and the process of a mother giving birth and bringing itself. up a son. Roy Dilley described weaving in Senegal as male ritual In the case of Batak textiles, however, the progressive space into which the weaver is inducted 1987. Barbara and complexity of design that has resulted from weavers working Dennis Tedlock 1985:127, 128 showed how the conceptual with a finite set of elements using a strictly laid out set of practice of weaving in Mayan culture, just as planting corn, principles, has yielded a specific, characteristic and generally philosophically collapses time and space. Marie Jeanne Adams appreciated Batak aesthetic. The dichotomy between static 1971 demonstrated how Sumbanese textile techniques are traditional textiles and modern innovative textiles crumbles conceptualized in terms of relations between individuals and when these strategies of the weavers are taken into account. social groups and in terms of natural processes. In a previous It is possible to imagine that the traditional repertory of Batak publication 1985a, I explored the symbolic connections between cloth was constructed through ‘progressive complication’ of Batak weaving practices and indigenous conceptions of time, the finite set of available design elements. The reactions of the space and fertility. Notably, these symbolic analyses require Batak weavers to the spontaneous tie-dye Ecuadorian designs more knowledge of language, myth and indigenous texts than then becomes completely understandable. Even the creative of weaving techniques. and dynamic features of the Batak art are guided by strict rules. Batak textile history is Batak women’s history. Batak textiles Extant forms of Batak design exhibit, therefore, the balance are woven by women and are conceived of locally as belonging that has been struck between the conservative and dynamic to the female part of the cosmos. The frequent association of elements of Batak textile design see Part iii. weaving and women has sparked some excitement in the anthropological search for women’s social and cultural expressions. However, the claim that verbal expressions The importance of technique associated with weaving might offer access to a women’s world- Batak do not see textile technique as something separate from view e.g. Messick 1987 is not fully convincing because the design; design and technique are inextricably interconnected. associated vocabulary may equally serve the male image of This observation extends far beyond the platitude that design is women’s social role Wiegle 1982 : vii. This appears to be the case in a manifestation of technical process Niessen 1999a. Some Batak mythology Niessen 1994. Batak associations between cloth indigenous technical terms equally denote design categories, and women are strong, but verbal descriptions of women’s and some technical processes appear to be informed by the domain are an ambiguous key to female contributions to same mental images or thought structures that inform design, culture. The cloth itself, on the other hand, given that it is as I explain below. It is because the present analysis of Lake Toba woven exclusively by women, could hardly be a less textile classification is based on design, that textile-production ambiguously female contribution to culture fig. Des 1.2. Women’s techniques are an integral component of it. In the present weaving labour and skill produces tangible, visible forms. The chapter, I cull from the detailed technical descriptions responsibility of transcribing social meaning into aesthetic presented in Part iv of this volume to make this point. The study form in textiles is a cognitive and technical matter borne solely of Indonesian textile design does not commonly include the by weavers. However, the agency of the weavers and the study of technique. I therefore take this opportunity to argue at production techniques as skills of the producer were commonly greater length for an approach that integrates the two. overlooked because the artefact rather than the artist was the The early phase of data collection on Indonesian textile centre of attention, because students of material culture were production techniques took place in the nineteenth and early more familiar with the pen than the loom and because there has twentieth centuries. These yielded descriptive accounts been a regrettable tendency to ignore the factor of women’s particularly aimed at introducing the reader to techniques that work. 30 Design 1 design foundations

I include descriptions and analyses of technical procedure in technical procedures Bolland 1979b, I was clumsy like a child the present study to better explain Batak textile design. Most of when I tried to do the things that my teacher, Ompu Sihol, that is descriptive: how the yarn is prepared, how the loom is set made look so simple. I had not built up most of the skills that up, the different manipulations of the loom that yield the she had, and the skills that I did have were ‘strange’ to her. I patterning on the textiles, and so on. The inclusion of such remember her shaking her head, and her neighbours pointing technical description in textile studies is familiar and accepted. in amazement, when I wound a ball of yarn the ‘wrong way.’ To There are also other levels of technical process to which stop myself from cutting a ridiculous figure, I learned to do it researchers should be attending, however. The great scientist the way they did, by moving just the right hand, keeping the left and philosopher of science, Michael Polanyi 1969 used the term hand stable, rather than moving both hands while winding see ‘tacit knowing’ to refer to a form of knowledge that is fig. Tech 2.13. ‘indeterminate, in the sense that its content cannot be explicitly Another example is the regular, rhythmic act of weaving Tech stated.’ He explained it in terms of skill. 5.4. A Batak weaver lays in the weft from the right or from the If I know how to ride a bicycle or how to swim, this does not mean that left depending on which shed (opening in the warp yarns) she I can tell how I manage to keep my balance on a bicycle or keep afloat has. Ompu Sihol did not tell me which way to do this (Because it when swimming. I may not have the slightest idea of how I do this or was too obvious to her? Because she taught by example, and even an entirely wrong or grossly imperfect idea of it, and yet go on such lessons were not verbalized?), but when I threw the weft in cycling or swimming merrily… I both know how to carry out these the ‘wrong’ direction, she was uncompromising. She cut my performances as a whole and also know how to carry out the weft yarn immediately and had me start again. Perhaps this is elementary acts which constitute them, though I cannot tell what these comparable to giving the instruction, ‘Peel the potato toward acts are… Polanyi in Merrill 1968 : 585. you, not away from you!’ Skills knowledge, as a form of women’s knowledge, has been Tacit knowledge related to skill has been neglected as a facet of largely neglected, as has the stock of historical information that textile production inquiry. Because it cannot be put into words, can be found in weavers’ skills.5 The work of the French it is difficult to broach. Luckily, not all knowledge related to skill anthropologist Marie-Noëlle Chamoux is a notable exception is tacit. However, it is fundamentally present in textile produc- 1982 : 99. She studied textile-production techniques in Mexico, tion. It is comparable to the knowledge one has ‘in one’s hands’ paying attention to the kind of knowledge that appeared to when one peels a potato, ties shoelaces or knits yarn. One takes reside in the hands, and observed that such practices were one’s own method for granted to such an extent that when one related to class and ethnicity. She advocated using the term happens upon another doing it differently, it ‘feels’ wrong. One savoir-faire for what I refer to here as tacit skills knowledge. Her is incredulous that someone else might prefer that ‘other’ term connects the pure ‘how to’ with cultural and social method to one’s own, or find it at all efficient. Tacit knowledge is processes and frameworks. passed down through the generations, and it is conservative to The Andean archaeologist, Junius Bird, pointed out that change. If one knows a little about different knitting because technical procedures such as ‘spinning, twist direction, procedures, therefore, one may be able to discern from a warping procedure, and construction details’ are conservative knitter’s technique whether she or he hails from Holland, to change, they may provide clues about past cultural relations Germany, Peru, Afghanistan Bolland 1971a or a particular social and diffusion. His examples involve both conscious and tacit class in Mexico Chamoux 1982.4 The knitter does it the way she or skills knowledge. Twist direction in spinning certainly resides he was taught. Cultural identity is deeply grounded in such in a weaver’s hands, but the twist selected by the weaver also social behaviours, and they are unquestioned by their may depend on the kind of fibre being spun or the ritual value performers. Similarly, tacit knowledge in textile production of the textile the spinner plans to weave Bird 1960 : 2, and there- procedures may carry useful cultural information. fore may be the result of a deliberate choice. Similarly, the That textile-production practices are infused with specific, passage of the first weft laid in the warp can be explained in identifiable and recognizable skills became evident to me while terms of a weaver’s understanding of the order of weaving, but I was conducting fieldwork. Influenced by Rita Bolland, expert it is also a skill, a kind of cultural inheritance that is transmitted in textile production techniques, who had impressed upon me through apprenticeship. Although Bird does not make explicit the importance of ‘doing it myself’ in order to truly understand reference to tacit knowledge involved in skill, he seems to design foundationsDesign 1 31 suggest that conservatism is inherent in these technical this kind of technical information so that it is available for performances. His guide to textile research 1960 : 4–9 invites future comparative analysis, whether of cultural or regional researchers to collect a broad spectrum of data about raw style, technical process as such, women’s knowledge or the link materials, equipment and strategies employed by the weaver, as between technique and culture. The detail provided in the well as social and conceptual systems associated with those technical descriptions in Part iv may not be sufficient to sustain strategies. I perceive that the spectrum of tacit knowledge the kind of minute analysis that may be needed for a related to the skills of weaving is much broader than just what comparative study of technical skills, but it points to how this is involved in spinning and twisting yarn or setting up the warp kind of data holds potential for future data collection and textile in the loom, which he points to as containing ‘significant clues analysis. It is also because the technical procedures of the in tracing cultural diffusion and relationships’ 1960 :1. It is there- weavers appear to be informed by the same principles that fore not entirely clear where Bird believed the conservatism in inform textile design that I include them here. textile production resides. For present purposes, it is his recognition of the link between technique and cultural and Design and the loom historical process that is important. A group of researchers has developed the concept of ‘style’ in In Part iv, detailed information about Batak textile production technology Lechtman 1977; Lechtman and Merrill 1977. This is another techniques provides a thorough understanding of how Batak way of framing the connection between skills and culture. textile design and technique are related. At this introductory Struck by the fact that the same patterns can be expressed in a stage, my goal is just to illustrate degrees of enmeshment parallel way in different cultural phenomena, for example in between design and technique, by introducing the Batak loom, the verbal, the visual, the kinesic and the technological, Heather the most fundamental determinant of design coherence in the Lechtman referred to these patterns as cultural style. For region fig. Des 1.3. Scholars have typified the Batak textile Lechtman, this kind of style is culturally relative and is to be tradition as ancient, having features in common with those of found in every level of activity by which culture (re-)produces other ‘isolated’ peoples in the archipelago such as in the itself. It is a culture’s defining, and characteristic, way of being. interiors of Sulawesi (Toraja), Borneo (Dayak) and Eastern She advocated that this kind of cultural insistence become a Indonesia, for whom trade contact came relatively late e.g. focus of study. Applying that concept to an analysis of the way Gittinger 1977 : 25. These features include use of a backstrap loom ikat bundles are tied and indigo dye is fermented in far-flung with a circular, continuous warp, and warp-faced textiles with corners of Southeast Asia, Adams 1977 suggested that an emphasis on warp-related patterning such as warp stripes, connections between cultural style and technology may also warp ikat and supplementary warp. The closeness of technique have regional expression. She pointed to a ‘culture’ of binding – and design is already evident in this characterization. I will with rope, or with yarn, in different dimensions of social and show how the design features are related to the capacities of the material life – relative to ritual throughout Southeast Asia. loom. The Batak loom varies regionally in only small details I believe that this direction of research into technique holds related to form (e.g. length and width of components) and there promise for exploring that nexus between the conservative are only slight regional differences in the way it is manipulated embodied aspects of textile production and other cultural Tech 5. phenomena, the research direction in which Junius Bird First, the loom accommodates a circular and continuous warp, seemed to be headed. The approach requires detailed the lengthwise yarns in a Batak textile. Only one textile is knowledge of technique, including the skills involved. woven from a warp, and therefore no two textiles are ever Researchers will need to become familiar with the loom, exactly the same. and will find the video camera as indispen sab le as the pen Second, the size of warp that a weaver can handle determines for recording this kind of information.6 the outer limits of the size of her cloth. Because the loom is In the technical descriptions in Part iv, I have included the body-tensioned (also known as a backstrap loom), the weaver physical stances of the weaver, the position of her body while needs to work very hard while she weaves, leaning backwards she works, the actions of her hands and the divisions of labour and forwards to apply and release the tension on the thousands between them. These can be consciously recognized, verbalized of warp yarns that compose the warp. The physical capacities of and therefore described with some degree of success. I include the weavers are finite — although the length of ancient Batak

4 I am grateful to Rita Bolland for They can be held on nails pounded into a sharing her broad knowledge of different stable wooden frame, and so on. ways of knitting. Many aspects of 5 Minnich1990 has claimed that knitting vary. The tension of the yarn can ‘science’ is rooted in particular ways of be maintained by looping it over the baby knowing such that accepted modes of finger of the left or right hand, hanging investigation may preclude other ways in the yarn around the neck, or pulling it which the investigated can be known. from a spool resting on the hip or from a 6 Film footage shot by Urs Ramseyer ball neatly tucked under the arm. The and N. Ramseyer-Gygi on double ikat in method of holding the loops is just as Bali1979 is a superb example of the detail varied. They can be held on a needle that that may be captured. may or may not have a hook, and that may or may not be anchored in a pouch. 32 Design 1 design foundations

fig. Des 1.3 Batak weaver manipulating a simple loom. Early twentieth century. Photograph C.H. Japing. Photoarchives kit 6002 3658. The photograph clearly shows the circular warp in the loom. Beyond the heddling device, and the sword, there are no additional sticks in the loom. By bracing her feet against a horizontal bar under the loom, the weaver can use her body weight to increase and decrease tension on the warp yarns. design foundationsDesign 1 33 textiles attests to the remarkable strength of their back, leg and the same on the two sides of the cloth, like a plaited mat or stomach muscles, as well as their patience and endurance. basket, in positive and negative image, with two good sides, and Similarly, the span of the weaver’s arms, and the strength in her no ‘wrong’ side figs Des 1.4a and 1.4b. Two-sided design is the result arm and chest muscles required to make the insertions of the of the way Batak weavers manipulate the loom. This decorative loom parts and the weft, limit how wide the warp can be. It option is available, given the nature of the loom, but it is not makes sense that the textiles are longer than they are wide. determined by the loom. Third, because the warp in the ancient Batak loom is circular, The yarn selections made by Batak weavers and the way they the place where the weaver begins to weave is essentially also are deployed also influence the appearance of their textiles. The where she stops weaving because the warp is then filled with loom offers some limitations, but many options. The absence of weft – with the exception of a handspan of warp where the a comb is a limiting factor, for example, because it makes it heddling device is located. She uses this mechanism to create difficult to weave silk yarn. The Batak loom is an indication that the spaces in the warp through which she shoots the weft. the associated textile tradition relies on cotton – although other When weaving is finished, normally the warp in that unwoven plant fibres were also used in the past, and synthetic yarns are section is cut to release it from the loom and to extract the warp used today see Tech 1. On the other hand, the weaver is at her own yarns from the heddling device. The dangling warp yarns are discretion to select the weight of yarn that she will use. She can then, usually, twisted into a fringe Tech 8.1. Fringes are therefore vary the thickness of her yarns in order to make a textile feature, a normal feature of textiles woven on this kind of loom. To keep such as a colour or a pattern, stand out. the fringe edges of the textile tidy, weavers commonly twine weft yarns into them along the edges of the textile. The twining technique, also ancient, is an off-loom weaving process Tech 8.3. The edging that the weaver makes can be narrow or wide, plain or patterned. Fourth, the Batak loom does not have a mechanism (reed or comb) to space the warp threads. As a result, the warp yarns are so densely juxtaposed that when the weft is inserted, it is scarcely visible. Such a textile is called ‘warp-faced’. If a weaver using such a loom wishes to decorate her cloth, she is largely restricted to making embellishments in the warp threads. Changes of colour are the simplest option. Changes of colour in the warp yarns result in stripes in the finished textile Tech 6.1. Ikat patterning (a decorative technique achieved by binding segments of the yarn so that it resists the dye and results in colour variations in the same strand of yarn Tech 4.2) is a more complicated decorative option. Ikat patterning is executed only in the warp yarns. It makes no sense to ikat-dye the weft because it is hidden by the warp in the woven cloth. Weft-related techniques characteristic of ‘ancient’ textile traditions that scholars have signalled, include weft wrapping (the weft yarns are literally wrapped around warp yarns by hand) Tech 7.9 and twill weave patterning Tech 7.6; Tech 7.7, in addition to the twining technique already mentioned. These are strategies that make the weft visible despite the textiles being warp-faced. In this regard, it makes sense that these weft features are found in association with the kinds of textiles just described. Because of the way these techniques are deployed in the oldest of Batak textiles, the resulting decorative features are

figs Des 1.4a and b A supplementary-weft motif in positive and negative image, on the front and the back of the textile. The patterning is constructed in such a way that the textile is two-sided. This motif is taken from the end field of the pinunsaan Cat 7.2. 34 Design 1 design foundations

Sides: two identical components of the textile flanking the Textile layout middle section. When the sides are woven separately and sewn Each textile design type represents a unique set of design onto the middle section, they are referred to as ‘panels’ Yeager and features. Conventions of vocabulary are emerging in the Jacobson 2002:86. The sides include the warp border and selvedge Indonesian textile literature, but a standard design vocabulary edge and the warp stripes marking the border between the has not yet been settled on. I use the right-angled grid of inter- sides and centre of the textile. With few exceptions e.g. Cat 2.3, laced warp and weft in the textile web as a framework to refer to they are otherwise plain or unpatterned. design features. All patterning is oriented in columns (in the Centre: the component of the textile between the two sides. warp direction) or bands and rows (in the weft direction). I have The diagnostic patterning of the textile is usually found in this selected the design terms that follow as a standard idiom for component. Dominant patterning is in the form of ikat, stripes, describing Batak textiles.7 In the catalogue, these terms are used supplementary weft and, although rarely, supplementary warp. in the documentation protocol see Cat: Introduction. This component of the textile is also referred to as the body, after the indigenous term, badan. When this centre component is divided into three sections, as in textiles having what I call Summary of design components of Lake Toba textiles ‘Indian’ layout fig. Des 1.6, I refer to the sections as fields: two end Warp border: a term for ‘those edges parallel to the warp, usually fields and one centre field. Almost all traditional Batak textiles ending in selvage’ Yeager and Jacobson 2002:86. In Batak textiles, this include at least a little white, black and red; the colours are border may be undifferentiated, or indicated by a stripe. The deployed by convention. Several design types have more than stripe may be simple, compound, and/or embellished with ikat one standard colour format, for example, a red version (na bara) patterning, supplementary warp or warp technique see Tech 6. and a blue-black version (na birong). The design of this border is often an indication of provenance, Border between sides and centre: this commonly consists of a status and/or age of the textile. warp stripe of varying complexity, or it is signalled just by the difference in patterning and/or colour between sides and centre. Supplementary warp, ikat and warp technique may be used to embellish these stripes. The stripes are commonly executed in the sides of the textile. Weft border: ‘edges parallel to the weft, which end in fringe or raw edges’ Yeager and Jacobson 2002:86. The Batak decorate this border using a variety of techniques, including weft twining, knotting, braiding and crochet Tech 8.

In the Lake Toba repertory, the whole-cloth layout is relatively stable and the design/technical elements are deployed and combined within that arrangement according to rules of convention. The repertory of Lake Toba textiles can be construed as a record of the design possibilities inhering in the standard or conventional layout, as developed by weavers throughout the ages. With the exception of supplementary-weft patterning, when it predominates in the appearance of the textiles Cat 7, the characterizing features of Batak textile design are in the warp: stripes and ikat patterning. These features are dominant in five chapters of the catalogue Cat 2–Cat 6. In this chapter, I place more emphasis on design organization than on patterning. Patterning receives more emphasis in the style region analyses Part ii, the catalogue Part iii and the technical descriptions Part iv.

fig. Des 1.5 Stylized representation of conventional 7 I have adopted some of the terms facet of textiles can be used as an Lake Toba textile layout showing the standard design used by Yeager and Jacobson 2002:86-88 indication of provenance see Highlights components: warp border, sides, centre, border between to describe the organization of Timorese and Features in each style region. sides and centre and weft border. textiles. The similarities in layout of 9 Bühler, Fischer and Nabholz 1980 : 7, 8 Timorese selimut and Batak textiles describe this layout as characteristic of made from three separate panels are saris: ‘the division of the rectangular striking: the emphasis on bilateral ground into one centre piece and two symmetry, red, black and white colouring, end-pieces, which usually have length- and three as an expression of ‘two plus wise selvedge borders on both the sides.’ one’ to create totality. The similarity between the layout of 8 Certain textiles, including sashes, patola fabric, as depicted by Bühler, headcloths, and blankets are not tri- Fischer and Nabholz 1980 : 9, and Batak partite. Notably, the relative proportions textile layout is strong. of sides and centre vary regionally. This design foundationsDesign 1 35

Principles of design

With few exceptions, the layout of textiles in the Lake Toba repertory is based on the principles of symmetry and tripartition. These two principles are not mutually exclusive. Rather, they are thoroughly interconnected. They inform every level of design from the construction of a single motif to the layout of the entire cloth.

Tripartition

The most immediately striking design feature of Batak textiles is their division into three parts; two similar, plain sides flanking a patterned centre.8 This constitutes tripartitioning along a centre axis in the weft direction see fig. Des 1.5. Barnes 1989 : 51 found that textiles composed of three separate panels have the highest symbolic importance in Lamoholot. This is not the case with Batak textiles. Instead, the textiles with elaborately decorated end fields in the centre or body of the cloth are the most highly valued. I refer to this elaborate layout as ‘Indian’ because it is commonly – and perhaps originally – found in Indian textiles.9 These textiles are organized by the principle of tripartitioning along the centre warp axis, as well as the centre weft axis.

The layout is found in three variations fig. Des 1.6: – The most elaborate variant has white end fields bordering a centre field in the centre panel. The end fields are embellished with geometric supplementary-weft patterning. Examples include the ragidup Cat 7.1; sr 6, pinunsaan Cat 7.2; sr 5 and bulang Cat 7.4; sr 2. – Another variant is found in the style regions Toba Uluan sr 5, Simalungunsr 2 and Si Tolu Huta sr 4. It is exemplified by the ragi hotang Cat 4.2 and the simpar Cat 5.4. Like the previous variant, the ends of the textile body contain elaborate supplementary-weft patterning. If the cloth has distinct white end fields (optional) they may extend across the entire width of the textile. The supplementary-weft patterning gives the textile high value. – The third variant is exemplified by the jongga Cat 3.1 (Si Tolu Huta sr 4 and probably Simalungun sr 2). The supplementary- weft patterning is restricted to bands, narrower and less elaborate than the patterning in the ragidup, but similarly located in white end fields, although smaller than those found in the ragidup. It was a highly respected textile type reserved for elite members of society.

fig. Des 1.6 Three variants of Indian layout found in Batak textiles. a. as exemplified by the ragidup Cat 7.1 b. as exemplified by the ragi hotang Cat 4.2 c. as exemplified by the jongga Cat 3.1 36 Design 1 design foundations

The tripartite design arrangement is further expressed in the Biaxial symmetry structure of the warp stripes that mark the boundary between the panels of textiles of Indian design layout Tech 6.3.2, in the Except in instances of weaver error, all conventional Batak twined edging along the weft border of the cloth Tech 8.3; see textiles are symmetrical around centre weft and warp axes. fig. Tech 8.23 and some supplementary-weft patterning in the Furthermore, many motifs are biaxially symmetrical. This fringe ends of textiles (e.g. tupe Tech 7.8.1) see e.g. Cat 7.2. Maxwell result may be strongly informed by technical procedures used has proposed that tripartite design may have a technical to construct them. For example, the supplementary-weft origin related to the narrow width of the warp that can be patterning in the end field of the ragidup is constructed using accommodated by the backstrap loom: pattern rods, or shed savers inserted in such a way that when By combining odd numbers of fabric panels, decorative and highly the weaver is finished constructing half of the pattern, she has formalized arrangements of warp bands became possible. For example, to use them in the reverse order to construct the other half. As a two identical panels are often separated by a different central panel. result, the pattern is perfectly symmetrical. The major pattern Symmetry is thus maintained while extra width is achieved … rows in this textile have a couple of picks of red supplementary Throughout insular Southeast Asia this tripartite design feature has weft to mark the centre axis of reflection Tech 7.8; fig. Tech 6.17a. gradually become a major decorative device on warp-decorated Not all symmetry is built into technical procedure. For textiles … 1990:76. example, the weaver must warp each stripe – and the textile as a whole – so that the two sides mirror each other. She counts the While these technical constraints may have informed textile cycles of the warp as she winds to attain perfect symmetry Tech design, they do not explain the pervasiveness of tripartitioning 4.2.2. To ensure that the side panels of the ragidup are the same, as an organizing principle in Batak textiles. another innovative and unusual technical adaptation is Dutch anthropologists have attributed the indigenous deployed: the two panels are warped as one, and woven as one, emphasis on the principle of tripartition to what has been but two separate shuttles are used Tech 5.5. dubbed the ‘Indonesian type’ of social organization Lévi-Strauss My weaving teacher in Harian Boho taught me that all warp 1963:156, involving asymmetric, indirect bridal exchange stripes and supplementary-weft patterns are made from an odd among a minimum of three exogamous groups.10 This number of components. Textiles are often ‘read’ to determine conclusion, derived from meticulous and extensive fieldwork whether they will be propitious for their owners. As the stripe is observations see Fox 1980; P.E. de Josselin de Jong 1983 [1977a], coincides read, each element of the stripe is counted off in combination closely with associations in indigenous thought fig. Des 1.9. For with a line of a couplet: ‘Uloshu (my ulos), Ulos ni halak (someone the Toba, the tripartite social arrangement is typically signified else’s ulos), Uloshu, Ulos ni halak …’ If the number of components by the tripod (consisting of three stones) that supports the turns out to be odd, the reader ends up with ‘uloshu’ (my ulos) cooking pot in the hearth (Toba dalihan na tolu).11 Furthermore, and feels comfortable taking ownership of it. A comparable it informs the Toba understanding of the universe, as divided strategy for reading the ragidup consists of counting off the into an upper, under and middle world, with a triumvirate of stripes in the centre field fig. Cat 7.1b. The reading takes place gods in the upper world. The triadic colour scheme, red, white from left to right, the augur mumbling ulos ni raja (textile of a and blue-black, found in almost all conventionally designed free man13), ulos ni hatoban (textile of a slave), ulos ni raja and so Batak textiles (see e.g. the talitali tiga bolit Cat 8.4), signifies on, each line of the two-line prognostication corresponding to a these tripartite structures Tobing 1956; Kipp 1977.12 Given the key stripe Jasper and Pirngadie 1912 :19. In other words, the number of importance of the tripartite principle in indigenous Batak stripes in the centre field of the textile is not as important as thought, it makes sense that the textiles that exhibit that whether that number is even or odd. For the textile to be principle most elaborately along both the weft and the warp desirable, it must have an odd number of stripes. Only then, axes are the most important cloths in the repertory. notably, would a stripe mark the centre warp axis of the centre field. There are other examples of technical language that Batak weavers use in textile-production processes to help them achieve their design goals. For example, while biaxial symmetry is not built into the weft-twining technique, the twined edging is locally referred to in terms of ‘two times half the number of

10 In principle, group A gives brides to 12 The tricolour does not appear to have group B, which gives brides to group C, been explored in Simalungun thought, which in turn gives brides to group A, but it is likely, given the system of bridal thereby completing the connubial circle. exchange, that it was also important More than three can be involved in a there. connubial circle, but three is the 13 The Toba used the title raja to minimum number needed to make the distinguish a free man from a slave. system asymmetric. 14 How the patterns are labelled is not 11 The same symbolism is found in Karo always consistent throughout the region. thought Kipp 1977, but I am not aware of It is clear that the opposition male- enquiry into this theme among the female is of central importance; how it is Simalungun. In his dictionary, Saragih expressed is secondary. 1989 offers the Simalungun word tungku for tripartite social order. design foundationsDesign 1 37 rows’ (e.g. 2◊7) that are found in the edging. Each half is a mirror reflection of the other Tech 8.3. In the case of ikat patterning, regularity if not symmetry results from the prescribed way in which the ties are inserted Tech 4.2.3; see also Theisen 1982. With the exception of some Karo textiles e.g. Cat 2.12; Cat 2.13, the centre warp axis is almost never emphasized by patterning; rather, it is implied by the pattern arrangement s in the cloth. The symmetry along this axis is strong because the two sides of the cloth are, without exception, mirror reflections of each other. The centre weft axis, on the other hand, is often emphasized by a row of patterning, most commonly supplementary-weft, as though to compensate for subtle expressions of asymmetry that can be found relative to this axis. In the jungjung Cat 6.12.1, for example, the lozenge patterning may be transformed with each repetition, from one end of the cloth to the other. This asymmetry is only evident upon careful scrutiny. While textiles of Indian design have the appearance of symmetry, the patterning in the two end fields flanking the centre panel is slightly different. The patterning in one end is designated ‘male’ and in the other ‘female’ see figs in Cat 7.1.14 The location of the patterning in the cloth is also informed by the axes of symmetry. When rows and bands of patterning are used to embellish a textile in the weft direction, they are given a conventional arrangement. If there is a single band/row, it is located along the centre weft axis fig. Des 1.7a. If there are two rows or bands, they are located at the ends of the cloth, near the fringes, in a way that maintains the symmetry of the cloth with respect to the centre weft axis fig. Des 1.7b. If there are three rows, as is relatively common, the third one is added at the centre weft axis (this is found, for example, in the tolu tuho15 versions of the sibolang, surisuri and bolean Cat 1) fig. Des 1.7c. If there are five rows or bands (lima tuho), again a centre row is flanked by the other evenly numbered symmetrically arranged rows fig. Des 1.7d. In the Karo textile garagara jongkit siwa Cat 6.14, there are nine rows of supplementary weft, again arranged such that the centre row is the axis of reflection. The jongkit dua- puluh, a kind of garagara named after the twenty rows of gold supplementary-weft patterning embellishing the cloth, only appears to constitute an exception. Between the rows of supplementary weft there are nineteen bands of lozenge ikat patterning. Here again, eighteen bands are symmetrically distributed with respect to the centre band. There is evidence that these same spatial principles informed the arrangement of tritik Tech 3.7 and fold-resist patterning Tech 3.7 in the Karo batu jala Cat 1.6.2.

15 According to Myers’ findings fig. Des 1.7 Conventional arrangements u.p.:167, the three tuho are symbolic. The of rows and bands of patterning in the weft direction. first relates to the stones used to mark a. A single row. the boundaries between rice fields, the b. Two rows. second to the food and drink brought to c. Three rows. workers in the rice fields and the third to d. Five rows. the versatility in the use of this textile. Jasper and Pirngadie erroneously claim that tolu tuho translates as ‘the three part’ textile 1912 : 266 . 38 Design 1 design foundations

Dualism

The above examples of odd numbers of elements being symmetrically arranged into oppositional structures around a centre point represent mergers of the principles of tripartition and symmetry. They will be familiar to students of indigenous Indonesian thought. As the Dutch anthropologist, J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong pointed out, ‘… any odd-numbered system can be reduced to an even-numbered one by treating it as a form of opposition between the centre and two sides’ in Lévi-Strauss 1963:141. Claude Lévi-Strauss found these arrangements to be illustrative of what he perceived to be a more all-pervasive dualism informing social and physical order in indigenous societies.

Concentric dualism and borders

The typical triadic arrangements found in Batak textiles do not result in a balanced triad, but rather a middle flanked by two equivalent sides. This tripartition is at the same time a form of concentric dualism characterized by the opposition of centre and periphery. This reading of the spatial arrangements appears to have its corollary in indigenous Batak interpretations of their textile design. The indigenous word for the sides of the textiles (Toba, Karo, Simalungun sisi) has connotations of ‘bordering’ Joustra 1907a:200; Van der Tuuk 1861:172 and underscores the inequality of the elements in the tripartite arrangement. This emphasis on boundaries is evident in virtually every component of the textile, such as panels, stripes and pattern rows, as well as in the textile as a whole. Just as the centre of the textile is bounded, sometimes along both axes, weavers use the warp and weft borders to frame the whole textile. A variety of design/technical strategies is used to create borders. The plain sides of the cloth contrast with the patterned centre fig. Des 1.8a. The white elaborately patterned end fields of the centre contrast with the centre field fig. Des 1.8b. The most elaborate expression is achieved in textiles of Indian design, in which the combined tripartite arrangements along centre warp and weft axes mean that the centre field is framed on all sides fig. Des 1.8c. In some instances, the use of a single contrasting colour (e.g. red) in the borders emphasizes the frame of the whole textile fig. Des 1.8d. There is a tendency to repeat the same patterns in the weft border and the border between sides and centre, again framing the centre of the textile fig. Des 1.8e. A common motif used to

‹ fig. Des 1.8 Textile borders. a. of the textile centre b. of the centre field along the centre warp axis c. of the centre field along both the centre warp and weft axes d. using warp and weft edges e. using stripe between sides and centre, and weft edging design foundationsDesign 1 39 frame pattern elements is the stippled stripe/row. Expressed model was ‘valid for the classification of territories as well as for in ikat, supplementary warp Tech 6.3.1, supplementary weft fig. the ordering of social and economic classes, offerings to the Tech 7.6.5 and twining fig. Tech 8.21a, b, c, the stippled line can be divinities, etc.’ P.E. de Josselin de Jong 1983 [1977a]:21. It is notable that deployed in both the warp and the weft direction and can the Karo comprise five clans. Yet, the 4-5 model also depicts the therefore accompany any design component of the cloth. Toba conception of space, time and power, as represented by the The designation end or tip (Toba punsa) is used to denote the bindu matoga, a magically potent square, the corners of which end fields of the pinunsaan Cat 7.2. The Indonesian puncak (the point in the four cardinal directions. When depicted as two equivalent of punsa), denotes the end, or border, of a larger nested squares, the corners point to the eight cardinal whole and the pointed tip of something, such as a bamboo directions, the 8-9 model figs Des 1.1 and Des 1.10. The diagonal axes shoot see pusuk robung Cat 7.7. The triangle or tooth motif plays are not used in Batak textile layout, however. the same role. The theme of framing, a common feature in Southeast Asian textiles, has received too little scholarly attention.16

Asymmetric dualism

Concentric dualism is a kind of asymmetric dualism characterized by opposition between centre and periphery. In tripartite textiles, the diagnostic patterning is almost always found in the centre component. In the supplementary-warp stripes marking the boundary between sides and centre, the most elaborate patterning is sometimes reserved for the peripheral components, but this inverted arrangement also underscores the principle of asymmetric opposition. Spatial organization of this sort has been considered at length by Dutch ethnologists and anthropologists. P.E. de Josselin de Jong summed up socio-cosmic dualism, a recurrent theme N N throughout the Indonesian archipelago, as being more NW NE precisely represented by the opposition of two halves ‘with a third, central element as mediator or uniter’ 1983 [1977a]:20. He refers to what he calls the structuring of bipartition and union, WEWE as the ‘2-3 model’ 1983 [1977a]:21. The analogue in Batak social organization is the ego group flanked by wife-giving and wife- fig. Des 1.9 taking groups to which they are related by marriage . SW SE In its more elaborated form, the 2-3 model is represented by Z Z what P.E. de Josselin de Jong referred to as the 4-5 model 1983 [1977a]:15. If common Batak textiles, in which tripartition is expressed along the centre weft axis, illustrate the 2-3 model, the more elaborate textiles of Indian layout illustrate the 4-5 model, a centre surrounded by four elements, that is, tripartition along both the centre weft and warp axes. An old textile of Karo provenance Cat 7.12 is of particular interest in this regard. It includes a group of five supplementary-weft motifs arranged in the centre of the cloth in a manner that recapitulates the arrangement of the panels and fields in textiles of Indian layout. In the ancient Javanese realm, the 4-5

16 Gavin 2003:238 mentions ‘frame and fig. Des 1.9 The 2-3 model represented by the ‘Indonesian type’ of fill’ as a principle for the organization of social organization. design in Iban textiles. Yeager and The minimum triad of intermarrying clans in which women are Jacobson refer to ‘borders’ around ikat transferred in only one direction emphasizes the oppositions • male – patterned panels in Timorese textiles • female and wife-giver – wife-taker. 2002. fig. Des 1.10 The 4-5 model and the 8-9 model of spatial organization. a. The Four Cardinal Points: a four-five model. An important Batak symbol for space and time, often used in rites of divination. b. The Eight Cardinal Points: an eight-nine model. A symbol of power, totality, and the universe in which space and time are collapsed. Both are commonly depicted on the carved walls of traditional Toba Batak houses. 40 Design 1 design foundations

P.E. de Josselin de Jong noted that ‘To whatever lengths this elaboration may go, it is always recognized as a development of the more fundamental 4-5 scheme – a scheme which, besides being elaborated, may also be reduced to its essentials: a 2-3 grouping.’ In reference to Ambonese classification, he gave an anthropomorphic example: ‘There, the head represents the totality, the right arm and leg the male part, and the left arm and leg the female. The right–left opposition in its turn then serves as the basis for an elaborate dual classification …’ 1983 [1977a]:15. Dual classification with anthropomorphic features is integrated in the tripartite organization of Batak textiles. The word badan or body designates the centre of the tripartite cloth, and the word ulu, or head, the embellishments at the fringe ends fig. Des 1.11. Ompu Sihol, my weaving teacher in Harian Boho, included a subtle narrow ikat row along one fringe end of her ragi hotang Cat 4.2 textile that differed from the rest of the ikat in the textile fig. Tech 4.7. She referred to this, too, as an ulu. When I asked her if the other end of the textile also had such an ulu, the answer was ‘no’ and she looked at me disparagingly as if I had two heads. Yet weavers in other regions sometimes do include subtle, divergent rows or bands at both ends of the textile, and call them both ulu. While the two end fields of the ragidup Cat 7.1 are referred to using the same term — ulu — Myers u.p.:276–8noted that one end field corresponded to the ‘head’ of the textile, and the other to the ‘foot’, and that when the textile is worn over the shoulder, the ‘head’ has to hang in front, and the ‘foot’ behind the wearer. She did not indicate how this protocol corresponded to the male and female patterning at the two ends of the cloth. Inconsistencies in the interpretation of ulu notwithstanding, the asymmetries at the two ends of the textile, at least in some cases17 appear to have something to do with a rudimentary anthropomorphic classification merged with the biaxially symmetrical layout. This organizational theme may also originate, at least in part, in social organization. Asymmetric marriage relations among clans, such as are found in the Batak area, mean that the opposition between men and women, who marry in opposite directions, is as fundamental to the social organization as the triad J.P.B. de Josselin de Jong 1935; see also P.E. de Josselin de Jong 1983 [1977b], 1984; Fox 1980.Socio-cosmic dualism, of which the opposition between men and women is a core element, is a characteristic of Batak culture, and is thoroughly integrated in textile lore, design and classification. The association between textiles and women appears to be a component of early Batak thought Parkin 1978:260. Textiles are woven by women, represent women and, as ‘female’ gifts, are exchanged on ritual occasions

fig. Des 1.11 Textile as anthropomorphic representation. 17 I did not ask the weaver of the • Ulu (head), a row of divergent patterning in the body of jungjung Cat 6.12.1 how she interpreted the cloth. the asymmetry in that textile type. • Badan (body) 18 Male activities included writing and • If this row is present, it is variously referred to as ulu wood carving. (head) or punsa (end). design foundationsDesign 1 41 for ‘male’ gifts typified by the spear or lance (piso).18 In a Toba is relatively stable, holding, guiding and, in the case of pitting myth, the earth originates from the spinning prowess of a and spinning the cotton, pushing and pulling, in and out. Given daughter of an upper-world deity. Textile production is a female the uniformity of the tasks of the hands, it becomes clearer why power and art Niessen 1985a. There are indications that the textile my unconventional (to a Batak) way of winding yarn, as warp is conceptualized as female, and the weft as male, such described at the outset of this chapter, was ‘wrong’ to the that the weaving of cloth accomplishes the production of the onlookers. The sense of order that I had disturbed was larger totality that is characteristic of the union of male and female than just that related to winding yarn. (the 2-3 model). The direction of motion of the right hand also appears to be Another possible origin of anthropomorphic classification in significant. As the weaver makes rolags, winds weft, winds balls textile design is the role of the body during weaving. The loom of yarn and winds the warp, she rolls in a direction that can best is an extension of the body. Strapped in between breast beam be described, given the embodied action, as away from her body. and backstrap, kicking against a stone or piece of wood under- Without having recorded the direction in which the handles of neath the loom to give her stability and support, leaning her the cotton gin and spinning wheel were turned and the body forward and backward to decrease and increase the direction in which the yarn was circulated in the dye pot, I tension on the warp yarns, the weaver is part of the mechanism would hypothesize on the basis of consistency, that these of the loom see fig. Des 1.3. It can hardly be a surprise to learn that motions were also away from the body. Furthermore, the the forerunner of the Indonesian loom was the weaver’s body cylinder of continuous warp in the loom is woven increasingly and involved tensing yarn between the feet and waist Nettleship further away from the body until the cloth is fully woven, thus 1970. completing the cycle. The starting point of weaving is at the I have seen Batak weavers use their feet in this way when same location in the warp as the starting point of warping, installing the coil rod Tech 5.2.1 and substituting the warp of the namely the left peg (it is substituted by the breast beam in the bulang Tech 6.4.2. The rhythms of weaving, from inserting the loom). weft, beating with the sword, wetting (‘crying on’) the woven Right and left also inhere in actions involving insertions and web Tech 5.4.6, and shifting the warp in the loom Tech 5.4.7, are extractions from the warp. Most obvious is the insertion of the bodily rhythms that, when well done, have an aesthetic weft – from the left through a natural shed, and from the right efficiency, just as in dance and sport. The skills are numerous through a counter shed. The two throws of the weft are and complex. They are learned and passed on. And the resultant perceived as a single unit with the weft ending where it began. cloth with a head (ulu), body or centre (badan) and hair or By contrast, throws of supplementary weft begin and end at the fringes (rambu) is an analogue of the body. right. Conventionally, two picks are thrown through each In the act of weaving, the right–left opposition appears to have pattern shed, again suggesting that a pair is perceived as a conceptual as well as technical importance. The Batak data completed unit and complements the alternate throws of the presented in Part iv of this volume reveal a remarkable main weft. The importance of completed ‘cycles’ of weft is clear consistency in the division of labour between the weaver’s from a technical perspective because they ensure order during hands. When manipulating the cotton bow, making rolags, the weaving process. winding weft, winding the reel and winding balls of yarn, the But it also raises the question of whether ‘cycles’ of weft have left hand holds the instrument/ball steady and the right hand any conceptual correspondence with the circular continuous performs the action of plucking/rolling/wrapping. When warp that is strung in the Batak loom. The special symbolism of working with the cotton gin and the spinning wheel, in both textiles that are removed from the loom without the warp first cases the right hand turns the wheel while the left manipulates being cut Tech 5.6 is an indication that the circular warp is the fibre. In warping, the right hand winds the yarn while the perceived as homologous to cyclical time. Such uncut, circular left inserts the heddles see fig. Tech 4.2. The right hand winds the cloths are woven to promote the life cycle of their owners. Life is ikat ties, while the left holds the group of yarns at the right a long vulnerable thread. The round warp symbolizes unbroken place. The right hand ‘winds’ the (continuous, alternate) time, the ongoing of the generations, connection with the spirit supplementary-weft heddles, while the left hand holds them. In world, health and well-being Gittinger 1975; Niessen 1985a. Life cycle, all of these processes, except plucking the cotton bow, the right or cyclical time, is found in the annual cycle of the patterns of hand is engaged in circular, winding motions and the left hand stars in the skies, the cycle of the crops, the human life cycle and 42 Design 1 design foundations

the annual ritual cycle. While weaving, the weaver was Totality integrated, body and soul, in the production of a complex metaphor of life. The skills of the weaver mattered: whether the The theme of totality, according to Philip Tobing’s analysis 1956, size of the cloth she warped would be the size of a death shroud, is core to Toba Batak thought and religion. The spirit world is whether her thread broke in an inauspicious way, whether the characterized as having an ‘essential oneness, which is the High spirit of the dead entered her dye pot, whether she beat a fly to God himself … the High God can hardly be anything else, but the death with her sword while weaving, and so on see Tech 3; Tech 4; oneness of all-space and all-order’ 1956 :120. Tobing documents Tech 5. All of these circumstances would mean that the cloth how repeatedly, in magico-religious thought, conceptions of would fail to promote the well-being of its owner. I am not time and space are collapsed into the oneness of totality: the aware of symbols related to the order of weft insertion, but as bindu matoga fig. Des 1.1 that corresponds to what P.E. de Josselin noted above, Ompu Sihol was very adamant, when I tried to de Jong called the 4-5 and 8-9 schemes of classification. The weave, that the order prevail. banyan tree of fate extending between the upper- and under- This raises the question of whether elsewhere in Indonesia/ world 1956 :133, the anthropomorphic conceptualization of time Southeast Asia the division of labour between the hands is in the form of the body parts of Debata or the High God 1956 :134, similarly constant, whether it is the same as is found among the and the annual passage of the great underworld, snake-like, Toba Batak, whether it is associated, conceptually, with cycles creature, Naga Padoha, encircling the earth 1956 :135 are further and whether direction of motion is consistent and symbolically depictions of the unity of time and space. Tobing points out that relevant. Early Dutch ethnographers found the themes of ‘time is identical with the cosmic order, which is inconceivable dualism (right–left opposition) to be deeply embedded in without space.’ The conception of time is inherent in space, and Indonesian culture P.E. de Josselin de Jong 1983 [1977b], 1984; Rassers space is inherent in time. This understanding of cosmic order is 1982 [1959]. Textile symbolism gives reason to believe that fundamental to ritual activities such as the mangase taon or this theme may be equally pervasive in textile-production annual cleansing ceremony in which the story of the origin of technology in the archipelago. The division of labour between the world is re-enacted and divinatory rites in which the the weaver’s hands has potential for inter-regional comparison. intentions of the spirit world are revealed. It infuses the Care has also been taken in the descriptions in Part iv of classification schemes enumerated above. If the 2-3 and 4-5 this volume to pinpoint just how a technical process yields schemes are interpreted throughout the archipelago as symmetry. Researchers of Indonesian cloth need to attend totalizing, then totality is a common theme in indigenous to the relationship between principles of design integration Indonesian thought, and it is hardly surprising that it should and symmetry throughout the archipelago and the technical find visual expression in the weaving arts. processes that are deployed to achieve these features. Colour is a foremost means of expressing totality. In the Batak Skills are particularly precious because, unlike artefacts, area, the individual strands of red, white and blue-black they cannot be collected, stored or preserved. Nor can they be represent members of the kinship triad, and twisted together deduced from finished cloth. They are ephemeral acts and the strands represent the system as a whole see also Maxwell therefore highly vulnerable to loss. In the modern era, Batak 1990:98. Totality is expressed as a composite. In 1938, the textile production techniques began to undergo rapid change. colonial official Viktor E. Korn received a visit from three By the 1980s, the Karo Batak, for example, were practising only leading practitioners of indigenous Batak religion who were a small number of the techniques that they once knew. Their wearing turbans made from red, white and blue-black yarn textile-production practices appear to be as ancient as those of twisted together (bonang manalu) Korn 1953 : 32; see fig. Des 3.5.This the Toba and Simalungun, but, as noted in Part iv, many were was unusual given that such practitioners commonly wore only different. Some of the insights that could have been gained black headdresses. Korn was later able to explain the choice of from comparing techniques within the Batak region alone, the tricolour in terms of the message that the visitors wanted to have therefore been lost.19 convey: they had come with the authority to represent the entire population Korn 1953 : 38, n12. Totality in Batak cloth design can be expressed in the form of patchworks, or samplers that pull together a variety of patterning and colour. The sampur borna Cat 9.1.5 is a jacket

19 A short segment of film depicting 20 Two strategies are recorded in the ends see Gittinger 1975 : 22; Myers u.p.: Karo weaving techniques allows for some literature. Both strategies are well- 276-278 offers a variant description. In comparison. Its origin is not clear, but it known in the Silindung Valley see this case, it is not clear whether there is a was probably made in the second decade Maxwell 1990 :119, fig. 171. One strategy numerological correspondence between of the twentieth century by the colonial makes use of the female supplementary the verse and the pattern arrangements administrator, Wilhelm Middendorp, weft motif found in one white end of the in the textile. perhaps with the assistance of the textile. Each of the repeating motifs photographer, Tassilo Adam. Janneke van composing this pattern is counted off in Dijk brought this item of the succession while a line of a verse is Tropenmuseum collection to my recited for each motif. The fate of the attention. recipient of the textile is believed to be bound up with the meaning attached to the line of the verse where the recitation design foundationsDesign 1 43 stitched together from (imported) fabrics of different colours. The meaning of the ragidup varies from region to While this was not confirmed for me during fieldwork, it is region, and from person to person. However, in the likely that such a jacket expressed the same principle as the design of this cloth, the principles of textile layout tricolour so that, by wearing it, the wearer was assured of are more elaborated than in any other textile in the ‘composite’ spiritual power. Such jackets were worn exclusively repertory Niessen 1985a:167–228. That this complex by magico-religious specialists. textile is locally perceived as the ‘number one’ Toba Comparable to a sampler, the harungguan textile type Cat Batak cloth, underscores the respect that the Toba 2.14, is a composite of the patterning found in other textile types have for repetition and elaboration of design Detail. Such a textile is usually acquired on the advice of a local principles. It may be argued that if this textile healer. It is believed that at least one of the range of patterns symbolizes totality, this has as much to do with the displayed in the cloth will appeal to the soul of its owner, who composite of principles manifested in its design will then derive protection and strength from it. This belief as the meanings associated with its patterning, suggests that the range of patterning in Toba textiles is summarized in the previous paragraph. perceived as corresponding to the variety of tastes and needs The ragidup has a key ritual function as a soul of the human soul. cloth (Toba ulos ni tondi). In this capacity, it is given In Javanese court culture, sacred patchwork patterns with by her parents to a woman pregnant with her first extraordinary magical and protective power are associated child. Such a cloth will be kept carefully because of its with, and reserved for, the exclusive use of social and spiritual power to promote well-being and protect the life of leaders on special occasions Veldhuizen-Djajasoebrata 1984 : 74–9; the mother and her progeny. It makes sense, given Guy 1998:102–3.At the folk end of the Javanese culture spectrum, this important function, that such a complex textile Heringa describes how the theme of totality is infused in representing totality is also one of the textiles in the East Javanese village of Kerek. In that village, accoutrements of divination rituals, and that it is colours are multivalent symbols; they mark phases in the life consulted to determine whether it will be auspicious cycle of the human, and correlate those phases with the order of for the owner.20 the universe. Here, too, totality is represented by the composite of all colours, as in the cloth called pipitan. The aesthetic expressed by Batak textiles could When the young wife becomes a mother, she is allowed to wear the scarcely be more different from the exuberance of pipitan cloth. Blue and red have now mingled to become black, the spontaneously constructed tie-dyed cloth from symbolizing the union of husband and wife … The pipitan though it Ecuador in which much appears to depend on mood looks blue and black with red, can also be considered to be multi- and chance. Batak textiles, whether complex or coloured – incorporating all possible colors …’ Heringa 1989 :127 simple, are thoughtful, consistent, methodical, and regular: in short, rule-bound. But the twentieth Tobing recognized the ragidup Cat 7.1; Detail (the variant century has been tumultuous. As a consequence of with stripes in the centre field) as being a symbol of the Toba external influences, the design of Batak textiles has Batak High God 1956 :185 and, as such, a symbol of totality. undergone change so considerable that it is better The composite character of the cloth is expressed in local described using the term revolutionary. The concept explanations of its design. As its name indicates, the of ‘progressive elaboration’ of the ancient design textile comprises ‘motifs of life.’ I was told that the black elements fails to successfully describe what is going supplementary-weft patterning in the white end fields on. These changes are addressed in the following two represents theearth, flora, fauna and humans. The stripes in chapters on Early Design History Des 2 and Modern the centre field are the sun and precipitation hitting the earth, Design History Des 3. and the side panels are the cultivated fields Niessen 1985a:225. The cloth, in other words, was perceived or interpreted as representing the Batak universe Detail.

ragidup Cat 7.1. Detail.

harungguan Cat 2.14. Detail.