NTB Museum: Lombok's Textile Heritage Increasingly Recognised Globally Through Scientific Research

The West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) Museum has stated that literacy regarding the traditional textile heritage of the Lombok people is becoming increasingly recognised internationally through various scientific research and publications.

Museum head Ahmad Nuraliam said the book ‘Two Islands, One Thread: Textiles of Lombok & Bali’, sponsored by Australian collector Michael Abbott, could serve as an important reference on Lombok’s traditional fabrics. ‘Indonesia and Australia are very close; these two countries are very close neighbours. So, one form of collaboration we continue to pursue is building cultural communication,’ he said in Mataram on Monday.

The book, which is over 500 pages long, involves eight local writers from Lombok alongside several foreign authors from Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia. The NTB Museum contributed eight photographs of artefacts to the book, which is scheduled for launch in October 2026, to strengthen the historical documentation of Lombok textiles.

He expressed hope that the collaboration would become part of efforts to strengthen cultural communication between Indonesia and Australia, ties that have existed for centuries. ‘Hopefully, after this, more of the Sasak generation in Lombok will write about their culture and get published, so that the wealth of cultural treasures becomes known to the wider public,’ Nuralam said.

He views that scientific works written by many local researchers can enrich perspectives on Sasak culture while simultaneously strengthening Lombok’s position in the world’s cultural literature treasury. James, who first set foot in Indonesia in 1979, said he hoped the book would be a step for local people to conduct deeper research into the history of textiles in Lombok.