The word batik is Javanese and has been translated as “good points or dots.” This refers to the tiny dots in Indonesian patterns that give them a lively quality and that show a mastery of technique. A standard definition of the medium of batik is that it is a way of coloring fabric with successive […]
A new museum and study center inside the Yogyakarta palace complex is helping to preserve the region’s batik tradition by educating a new generation of people about this important cultural heritage.
The batik on exhibit in the museum, which was recently opened by Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, was donated by the palace and members of the […]
The Indonesian Air Force has an excellent but little known air museum in Yogyakarta called the Museum Dirgantara Mandala. The museum is located behind the main Yogyakarta airport. All aircraft are under cover and beautifully maintained in static condition. A tribute to the curator who must work with a very limited budget.
Included are a […]
Kolak is rather heavy and is usually eaten after the mid-day nap. It’s not something you’d eat after a big dinner, but you might like it after a light meal.
Kolak isn’t a dessert - Indonesians don’t eat desserts as Westerners know them. Sweet stuff is snack food. In Indonesia there’s no big distinction between […]
Sambal, it’s the daily condiment in Indonesia. Sambal is a “relish” made of chilis. I watched grown men cry while eating, still heaping on more sambal. Yes, even though they eat it daily, they, too, break into a sweat, their eyes water, their noses run, and they drink lots of water or sweet tea to […]
The Jakarta Post . Widya, a tourist from Malang, East Java, found it hard to believe the traditional vessel inside the ship museum in the Borobudur Temple compound had sailed from Bali to Accra, the capital city of Ghana in Africa.
The vessel measuring 18.29 meters long, 4.25 meters wide and 2.25 meters high is positioned […]
What is now the Kota Gede district of Yogyakarta is in fact the original capital of the Mataram kingdom, the great 16th century Muslim kingdom which held sway over most of Java, until the Dutch arrived. The city was founded by the first sultan of Mataram, Panembahan Senopati, in 1582. Not much of the old […]
The writer of this letter, whose name was Kartini, was Javanese Regent’s daughter, with the title Raden Adjeng. She lived only from 1879-1904, but she had a tremendous influence in her short life. She was the first Javanese lady of high rank to break with the old Mohammedan traditions. She was hungry for […]
The designs are either geometric or freehand, sometime a combination of both could be found.
In the geometric patterns there are the Ceplokan, repetive designs, the Kawung, circular designs, the Nitik or weaving designs, the Garis Miring, parallel diagonal designs and the Tumpal, triangular designs.
One of the oldest and most popular ceplokan designs is the […]
If we are still not far from the heart of Java, the samples which are introduced on this page are no more called Batik of Central Java, they are usually defined as Batik from the North Coast of Java.
They are easily recognized by the more vivid colors and the design. They are originated in […]
Batik is generally thought of as the most quintessentially Indonesian textile. Motifs of flowers, twinning plants, leaves buds, flowers, birds, butterflies, fish, insects and geometric forms are rich in symbolic association and variety; there are about three thousand recorded batik patterns.
The patterns to be dyed into the the clothe are drawn with a canting, […]
The term “Batik†is an Indonesian-Malay word (Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malay are the official languages of Indonesia and Malaysia and are linguistically similar). Batik has come to be used as a generic term which refers to the process of dyeing fabric by making use of a resist technique; covering areas of cloth […]