Lampung - Textile

Textile

Up until the 1920s, Lampung had a rich and varied weaving tradition. Lampung weaving used a supplementary weft technique which enabled coloured silk or cotton threads to be superimposed on a plainer cotton background. The most prominent Lampung textile was the Palepai, ownership of which was restricted to the Lampung aristocracy of the Kalianda Bay area. There were two types of smaller cloths, known as tatibin and tampan, which could be owned and used by all levels of Lampungese society. Weaving technologies were spread throughout Lampung. High quality weavings were produced by the Paminggir, Krui, Abung and Pesisir peoples. Production was particularly prolific among the people of the Kalianda Bay area in the south and the Krui aristocracy in the north.

The oldest surviving examples of Lampung textiles date back to the eighteenth century, but some scholars believe that weaving may date back to the first millennium AD when Sumatra first came under Indian cultural influence. The prevalence of Buddhist motifs, such as diamonds, suggests that the weaving traditions were already active in the time when Lampung came under the Buddhist Srivijayan rule. There are similarities between Lampung weaving and weaving traditions in some parts of modern-day Thailand that experienced cultural contact with Sriwijaya.

Lampung textiles, Palepai, tatebin and tampan were called 'ship cloths' because ships are a common motif. The ship motif represents the transition from one realm of life to the next, for instances from boyhood to manhood or from being single to married and also represents the final transition to the afterlife.

Traditionally, Lampung textiles were used as part of religious ceremonies such as weddings and circumcisions. For instance, the Palepai cloths were used as long ceremonial wall-hangings behind the bridal party in aristocratic marriages. The smaller, more humble tampan cloths were exchanged between families at the time of weddings.

Production of many fine cloths blossomed in the late nineteenth century as Lampung grew rich on pepper production, but the devastating eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 destroyed many weaving villages in the Kalianda area. By the 1920s the increasing importance of Islam and the collapse of the pepper trade brought production to a halt Today Lampung textiles are highly prized by collectors.