Nusa Tenggara weavings, footprints of cultures

Fitri Wulandari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Although Nusa Tenggara's weaving products may not be as famous as batik but they do show the richness of cultures, footprints of nations that had once touched many regions.

For centuries, the islands of Nusa Tenggara -- now administratively known as West and East Nusa Tenggara provinces -- absorbed foreign cultural influences through traders -- as well as sea pirates -- passing the sea lanes, according to textile expert Suwati Kartiwa.

The foreign cultural influences left their mark on Nusa Tenggara textiles. Such influences can be traced to as far as India, China and Europe.

There are also Hindu and Islamic symbols on many Nusa Tenggara textiles. Hinduism's influence came mainly from Bali as history shows that Lombok -- now part of West Nusa Tenggara -- was part of the Hindu Balinese kingdom of Karang Asem during the 17th and 18th centuries.

"Lombok textiles have common patterns such as wayang (shadow puppet) figures, gunungan (mountainlike figures symbolizing the universe), barong (mythical lions) and birds," Suwati explained during a lecture on Nusa Tenggara weavings at the National Museum recently.

Hinduism's influence on Nusa Tenggara art can be seen from the flower motif with six angles in the checkered background called ragi genep.

A strong presence of Islam is also seen with Nusa Tenggara weavings. The Islamic influence came from the Muslim merchants of Java and Sulawesi in 15th Century.

Such influence is seen in the Lombok songket or supplementary weft technique of the weaving pattern called subhanale.

"It reminds us of a phrase from the Holy Koran Subhanallah (Allah most holy)," Suwati remarked.

Weaving motifs from Lombok's neighboring island Sumbawa also shows strong Sulawesi-style Islamic influences due to its historical past.

Sumbawa is known for its supplementary weft of gold and silver threads. It is normally dominated with floral pattern, leaves, twigs and branches as well as figures like birds and butterflies.

Although the time of the kingdoms and nobles have long passed from Sumbawa, common locals still shun the use of gold and silver threads as it is considered the exclusive domain of the blue bloods.

Sumbawa people now use the songket for ritual feasts and ceremonies. And for daily occasions, they use pelekat sarongs with a checkered design. But on special occasions such as ceremonies, the sarong has a checkered pattern with the songket motif.

While West Nusa Tenggara weavings were influenced by Muslims and Hindus, neighboring East Nusa Tenggara has more of a Christian influence from its Portuguese colonization in the 16th century.

European influence is very strong in its famous hand-woven textiles called ikat in East Nusa Tenggara.

For example, a woman's sarong in Sikka, on Flores Island, is called utang mitang. Utang means woman's skirt and mitang means a black, blue or indigo color. The motifs include peacocks and grape vines.

However, European influences are not so strong in some parts of the regions such as Ngada and Manggarai in West Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.

In these regions, songket is more popular than ikat. They also do not use gold and silver threads, but color threads with patterns of geometric motifs in variations of crossed hooks and rows of diamond figures.

And the fabric of Manggarai and Ngada songket is cotton, not silk.

Besides European influences, East Nusa Tenggara also has a lot of Indian influence in its weavings.

In Central Flores, Lio people use India's double-weaving motif of patola on their customary shawls or hinggi. The shawl is worn by village elders as a shoulder or head cloth on special occasions.

In Sumba, people also have adopted India's patola motif into their customary shawl, called patola ratu. It is worn by both nobility and traditional leaders.

While in Roti, the patola motifs are known as dula nggeo which is a six-angled floral pattern in the lateral bands.

For the people in the regions, textiles play a significant part in the celebration of the life cycle: birth, puberty, wedding and death.

People use special shawls, called umbak kombong during a ceremony to bless the children and protect them from danger.

For funerals, the deceased will be buried with the most exquisite textiles as an offering to the gods for protection.

As in many regions across the country, women play an important role in preserving traditional textile weavings. Creating various fabrics is a part of their daily activities apart from doing daily chores such as going to the rice field or taking care of the family.

Unfortunately, in modern times, more and more young women have abandoned a lot of these traditions.

"The young ones who choose to do textile-weaving also lack in patience. Consequently, the quality is not that good," Suwati said, adding that it takes a maximum of one year to make one quality piece.