Lower garment (jarit)
1970 or earlier
Indonesia; Kerek, East Java province, Java island
Cotton and dyes
Gift of Robert T. Coffland, in memory of Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, 2021.97
The region in northeast coastal Java between Kerek and Gresik is the last area in Java where the tradition of using batik to pattern locally woven cloth persists. Textiles made by using wax resist on handspun and handwoven cloth are called batik gedog, an onomatopoeic word based on the sound made while weaving the base cloth.
The color of this batik is called putihan, meaning whitened or purified. Textiles with dark motifs against a white background were considered otherworldly and protective, and were used to carry babies or to cover someone who was ill. The motif depicted on the textile resembles a double vajra, a ceremonial weapon of Hinduism and Buddhism. Although cloths with abstract patterns were generally worn by older women, archival photographs seem to depict them worn by Hindu priests as well.
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