Lombok fabrics survive desperately

By Agni Amorita

JAKARTA (JP): The magic of weft ikat has attracted the world's leading fashion designers, such as John Galliano in his l996/1997 glittering collection.

But on Lombok island, West Nusa Tenggara province, where these elaborate textiles are also produced, there is no smell of glamour.

Like other textile-producing areas of Indonesia, the life of most weavers in Sukarara village, Loteng area, is desperate.

The village, which has a population of 2,880 people, has long known as a center for traditional Sasak single- and double-weft ikat textiles. The Sasak people are the island's indigenous inhabitants.

All family members participate in the making of the textiles. Teenage girls and boys prepare raw materials such as ginger, used as a natural dyeing solution, to create yellow-colored ikat, while their mothers spin the thread using modest traditional looms.

The textile making process in this village is labor-intensive work. Men boil almost finished fabrics to make the color last longer. Small children have their own jobs -- collecting raw material from playgrounds. Or sometimes their parents ask them to play near drying textiles, to keep chickens or cattle away.

The textile making process is very simple.

Threads come from silk-cotton trees. For coloring, the villagers use natural vegetation, fruits and flowers.

Ginger is used to create yellow, coconut for red, mangosteen for purple or violet, the tarum leaf for blue and jara oil for brown.

The threads are dyed using these substances and boiled in water repeatedly to achieve the desired colors.

The colored threads are delicately woven using a traditional loom locally called a suri. The most difficult part of the weaving process is designing motifs without using a pattern. Most of the village's older women have mastered this skills.

Ina Alisah, 70, works no less than eight hours a day. "Almost all adult female members start weaving from dawn till dusk," Ina Alisah explained in the local language while finishing a piece of textile, a special order from a Japanese tourist.

Ina Alisah received no formal education and speaks only Sasak. "It usually takes her three months to finish one piece of double- weft ikat," her grandson, Amien, added.

A single-weft ikat is simpler than a double-weft one. It contains only one motif on one side, while the double weft has two or more different motifs and color on each side of the cloth.

One piece of cloth is sold for between Rp 700,000 and Rp 1 million.

The most expensive ikat has an ancient motif called subanale and is believed to be sacred.

"The motif was first created by our ancestors," explained Muharim, who runs a traditional Sasak fabric store in Sukarara.

The word subanale was first introduced by village clerics who kept uttering the word Subhannallah (Praise be to God) while producing the cloth during their spare time.

People were amazed with its beautiful, bold design and harmonious combination of white, yellow and blue tones.

The Sasak people later adopted the word Subhannallah into subanale.

Lombok ikat fabrics are very delicate and require careful treatment. "To properly treat ikat, one should only wash it by hand and only scrub the inside part of the textile," explained Amin.

Many Sasak people, especially the youth, wear modern clothes like jeans and T-shirts, but traditional ikat textiles are still widely worn by the community, especially during rituals.

Girls often combine a tubular ikat sarong with colorful and trendy T-shirts. The older ones wear ikat with traditional lambong blouse.

"Actually, it is very comfortable to wear ikat, particularly during dry and hot weather," said Uciek, a local teenager.

Demand for Lombok ikat is very high. The fabrics are usually sold on neighboring Bali where tourists buy them at high prices, often for millions of rupiah a piece.

Uciek said that people have started to recognize the village as one of the most productive ikat centers, yet only a few people come to the village.

One day, Uciek recalled, a South American tourist visited his village, eager to buy ikat. He did not have enough rupiah to pay his bill, and offered to pay by credit card. The villagers did not accept plastic.

For Uciek and his fellow villagers in Sukarara, the road to prosperity is still rocky.