Functions of Gringsing Textile Within the Cultural
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The Bulletin of JSSD Vol.1 No.2 pp.1-2(2000) Original Articles Received Apr 18 2018; Accepted Jul 11 2018 convey the heart, Kodansha, 2008(in Japanese) Original paper [33] Kakehashi, E., Kasamatsu K., et al., Proposal for a swallowtail butterflies color scheme collection for CMF design based on Kansei representation, 6th International FUNCTIONS OF GRINGSING TEXTILE WITHIN THE Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research Conference CULTURAL SETTINGS AND DESIGN ELEMENTS (KEER2016), 144, 2016 Succession of Gringsing Textile as a Tool of Conservation towards Local Wisdom Within the Community of Tenganan Pagringsingan, Bali, Indonesia (1) Lira Anindita UTAMI*, Dudy WIYANCOKO**, Akira UEDA* * Chiba University Yayoi-cho 1-33, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8522, Japan * * Bandung Institue of Technology, Ganesha 10, Bandung City, West Java 40132, Indonesia Abstract: Gringsing is a sacred textile of Tenganan Pagringsingan village produced especially to be used in festive rituals as ritual clothing and offering. This paper is consisted of the research data resulted from the interviews, surveys and participant-observation, and specimen analysis conducted on the design structure of Gringsing such as textile layout, motifs and patterns, and sizes. These elements have significant relevance to the cultural setting which is the functions that were emerged from the necessities created by the traditional customs and the daily life. Through researching the function, the design and the meaning of Gringsing textile related to its ritual context, it can be concluded that (1) through the ritual usage, the physical form of the textile could become exceptionally diverse. (2) The strict customs are therefore translated into the language of colors, size and pattern design. (3) Gringsing represents much of the communal identity and becomes the carrier of meaning for its local symbolism. Keywords: Sacredsacred Artefact,artefact, Textile,textile, Culture-Based-Design,culture-based-design, Semantic,semantic, Non-verbal non-verbal Communication, communication, Traditional traditional communityCommunity 1. Introduction ‘collaborative village republic’ [1] is internalized down along Located in the southeastern part of Bali, the Bali Aga village with the practice of communal rituals and daily life of Tenganan Pagringsingan is one of the oldest Balinese village cooperation following the Tri Hita Karana philosophy; the settlement whose tradition and livelihood is centered around sacred philosophy that governs the natural and the supernatural fulfilling religious ritual duties. Their unique communal art of world, by living in harmony with the Supreme Force (God), living and their village political structure defined as other human being and the surrounding nature. The woven textile of Gringsing is a textile produced solely in Tenganan Pagringsingan by the technique called double-ikat, in which patterns are being tied in both the warp and the weft threads to later be woven in a way that the intricate patterns conjoin perfectly to form a complete image. Gringsing production is strictly supervised and conducted by the female generations. Amidst the growing transition towards the more economic urbanization, the production of Gringsing has since been increased to fulfill the demand of selling the sacred textiles to Figure 1. The area of Tenganan Pagringsingan village add the economic value. The mass production, however (source: Pusaka Collection online museum) inevitable, is slowly corroding the valuable cultural properties 8 Journal of the Science of Design Vol. xx No. x 20xx Journal of the Science of Design Vol. 2 No. 2 2018 91 that are stored within Gringsing. Hence, the main objective of Hence the current exploration of the textile Gringsing is this article is to study Gringsing to clarify its cultural properties aimed to clarify and record the less explored details on how the from the perspective of the correlation of design, functions and traditional culture influence the culture of creating Gringsing meaning for the purpose of re-recognizing and re-transmitting and how the textile is treated as one tool to preserve the many the recorded knowledge back to the community. stories, myths and meanings related to the life of the community, from the perspective of design and function. Figure 2. 19th Century Gringsing Wayang Kebo (source: LACMA, Gift of Mary F. Kefgen) 2. Previous Research 3. Research Method Many Researchers of social science have conducted The research on textile design was conducted using ethnographic studies on the community of Tenganan ethnographic methods to collect data such as interviews, field Pagringsingan and of the sacred textiles. Regarding the surveys, participant-observation, specimen analysis, as well as community, Miguel Covarrubias [2] wrote extensively on the taking questionnaires to village informants and local experts culture of Tenganan Pagringsingan as one of the surviving old [1,3,4,5,6]. The method is used primarily in research for Balinese community (Bali Aga). The village have been existed anthropological and sociological studies, hence considered since before the coming of the Majapahit refugees that made relevant for the purpose of studying the textile design because up the most of Balinese population today. To the new Balinese, of the need to understand the influential and inspirational the community of Tenganan Pagringsingan is unique because factors such as the people, their way of life and myths. The the culture and tradition are different than theirs in terms of method produces in-depth research that will assist in religious practice and traditional communal living. Angela emphasizing on how culture could be integrated in the creation Francais-Simbuerger [1] focused her study on how their belief of artefacts and product design alike [8]. In one study [9] system, which is a mixture between paganism, animism and ethnographic approach can help fostering a culture-based the Indra-sect Hindu, influences greatly on the shaping of design. In another [10], it helps on how native culture traditional customs that govern the social and political influences the development of new textile pattern design that relationships. Urs Ramseyer [3] later wrote expanded volumes reflects the great historical and cultural values. on the ritual culture, the settlement and the tradition of The current research has been conducted within the village endogamous marriage. Regarding Gringsing textile, there are establishment of Tenganan Pagringsingan, located in the only three notable researches introducing the art of Gringsing Karangasem region, eastern coastal of Bali, Indonesia. The textile, the usage in the ritual and the possibility of origin. Urs field research was conducted three times (February – March Ramseyer conducted a comprehensive study concerning the 2014, June 2015, and September 2016). The first survey ritual and its components in which Gringsing, as an important focused on introducing research activity and approach to the ritual article, is mentioned as a textile that brings divine life of the community. The second survey focused on protection [4]. Second, Yoshimoto Shinobu [5] has dedicated interviews and observation of the textile technology, design many profound studies regarding the textile art and the details and the functions conducted in the residences of the technology of South Asian textiles, including the relation to textile artisans, while the details regarding ritual and society Gringsing’s possible origin. The last one is H. Coleman [6], were acquired from the interviews with the chieftains and the who has researched how cultural and historical values of a village scholars. The third survey focused on obtaining the data tradition played a major role in creating the richness of motifs, regarding Gringsing which is kept as heirlooms and their symbols, and ceremonial uses, also indicating to the preferred pattern designs through questionnaires. In this paper, development of Gringsing design. the sources is given numeration to denote their name initials, 92 Journal of the Science of Design Vol. 2 No. 2 2018 that are stored within Gringsing. Hence, the main objective of Hence the current exploration of the textile Gringsing is gender and age [11]. wrap-around cloths, scarfs, chest cloths, or belts (Figure 4). this article is to study Gringsing to clarify its cultural properties aimed to clarify and record the less explored details on how the Rantasan presented to deities and ancestors should be in from the perspective of the correlation of design, functions and traditional culture influence the culture of creating Gringsing 4. The Belief System of Tenganan Pagringsingan tubular form, meaning the warp is intact (known as Meladung) meaning for the purpose of re-recognizing and re-transmitting and how the textile is treated as one tool to preserve the many The ancestors of Tenganan Pagringsingan people built a life and therefore should not be used as clothing for people. The the recorded knowledge back to the community. stories, myths and meanings related to the life of the enriched in ritual activities centered in the culture of prescribed form of tubular cloth for the cloth offering is community, from the perspective of design and function. worshipping, cleansing, protecting and offering as gratitude symbolizing the birth and rebirth as well as the continuation of towards the divine as well as keeping out the malice by paying generations. The cloth for costumes are all having cut warps tributes to the underworld