Weaving the distinctive Bangka resam kopiah

Resam kopiah is one of the cultural identities of the people of Bangka Barat Regency, in Bangka Belitung Islands Province. Resam kopiah is among 386 Cultural Advancement Objects (OPK) in Bangka Barat in the category of traditional knowledge. The OPK traditional knowledge category includes clothing, crafts, health methods, jamu, local foods and drinks, as well as knowledge and customs about nature and the cosmos. The Bangka Barat Regency government has included resam kopiah as one of the OPK of traditional knowledge as an effort to preserve, protect and develop that traditional craft. The existence of resam kopiah in Desa Kacung and Dendang has existed since the 1800s. This fact is supported by KITLV’s collection in the form of a photograph with the object resam kopiah from Bangka, with a caption dating to around 1880. This kopiah resam is likely one of the legacies of the Islam spread on Bangka Island by Tuan Guru Syaikh Abdurrahman Siddik at that time. ‘According to our estimates, Tuan Guru was called back to Indragiri in 1920 and by that time had already imparted the weaving skills of resam to be fashioned into a kopiah to be used as a head covering during prayer,’ said Muhammad Ferhad Irvan, Head of the Culture Section of the Bangka Barat Regency Culture and Tourism Office. Syaikh Abdurrahman Siddik was a prominent ulama from Banjar who played an important role in spreading Islam to Bangka Island between 1898 and 1909. He is also known as Tuan Guru Syaikh Abdurrahman Siddik. Made from resam fibre.