Ceremonial textile (cepuk)
Approx. 1850–1900
Indonesia; Buleleng or Tambanan regency, Bali island
Silk, metal-wrapped threads, and dyes
Gift of Joan and M. Glenn Vinson Jr., 2018.122
The name for this textile, cepuk, means “to come face to face with” and implies an encounter with the supernatural or divine. A cepuk is used in a number of ways: as a ritual seat, a protective canopy, or a purifying wrap during important life events, like the burial of a placenta, tooth- filing ceremonies at puberty, and wedding ceremonies. Cepuk are also worn as part of the costume for the sorceress Rangda in a famous dance-drama, as garb for people entering into trance during rituals, and as funeral shrouds for members of the highest class.
Most cepuk were made of cotton (and the most sacred from handspun locally grown cotton), but rarer silken examples like this one were made in the courts of Buleleng and Tambanan. The spiky white triangles along the borders are called gigi barong and refer to the teeth of the guardian deity Barong.
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