tribaltextiles.info

This thread is especially for Laverne who has a current fascination with twining and has been working hard to understand the technique and replicate it. See her blog. I have been going through my collection of Batak textiles looking for examples of twining and have photographed several of them and attach the photos below. An extremely good reference is, not surprisingly, Sandra Niessen's Legacy in cloth: Batak textiles of Indonesia where, in Technique 8, Finishing Techniques, 8.3, pages 522-529 twining is covered by detailed text and numerous photos and diagrams. See Sandra's blog from her Back to the Villages visit to N Sumatra in June 2010 to give copies of Legacy to the weavers, dyers and twiners who had helped her during her field research for the book during the past thirty years. Enlightened shows Sandra sitting with twiners in the Karo Batak city of Kaban Jahe.

I am especially attracted to the fine and intricate twining on my older textiles. Most striking at a distance and on the computer screen are the twining borders of the ragi hotang shoulder cloths usually worn by men for ceremonies. However, whilst they are wide borders of strong patterns the actual twining is relatively coarse. For me the finer twining on sibolang, bolean, surisuri are the ones that really attract.

Most of the images to be posted are from Toba Batak cloths but there are a couple of Karo and one Simalungun (the last three examples posted below). I will make a post per textile with several images of the twining. If you wonder how I can get more than five images in one post it is because of the freedom afforded to Administrator status by the forum software. Many of the designs are repeated on several textiles. I found it interesting to get a sense of identity and style as my bank of images grew. If Laverne would like more blown-up images I will try to provide them.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
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My first sirat is on a bolean - one of the core, ancient, blue cloths of the Toba Batak - that I collected in1997 in Prapat on the shores of Lake Toba. According to the market trader it had originally been woven by his grandmother on Samosir Island. It has beautiful, long twisted fringe and a fine twined sirat.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
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Another bolean which I collected recently - and is, perhaps, a later example, shows some similar patterns but also incorporates text in Latin script.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
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...and yet another bolean which can be seen as a complete cloth in my Vera Tobing collection http://www.tribaltextiles.info/articles ... l/VT11.htm which gives an idea of how the sirat contrasts with the main woven cloth. This has a somewhat different pattern. It belonged to a family who originally came from the Silindung Valley, a Toba Batak area away from Lake Toba itself. Whether it was woven in Silindung or at the Lake is not known. It was thought to be about 75 years old in 2007 so may be older than the previous two textiles.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

The next sirat is from the same Toba Batak family as the the bolean immediately above. It is a sibolang, the highest status of three indigo-dyed textiles (sibolang, bolean and surisuri) used for Toba Batak rituals. In 2007 it was thought to be about 50 years old. It can be seen as a complete cloth http://www.tribaltextiles.info/articles ... l/VT12.htm

Note how all the white warp threads have been cut away to leave only the dark indigo threads in the twining and fringe.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

To complete the three core blue textiles of the Toba Batak here is a surisuri. I recently acquired it and nothing of its provenance.

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

A later cloth into the Toba Batak repertoire is the pinunsaan which is now probably their highest status ceremonial cloth. The depth of twining on the pinunusaan is quite narrow. This is a fine textile whicht was thought to have been made in the 1930s.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

This is the first of the three Toba Batak (Silindung valley) ragi hotang in my collection. Note the very much bolder and wider twining than on the previous textiles illustrated here. The three textiles can be seen as whole cloths (and click on each one to see an enlargement) at http://www.tribaltextiles.info/articles ... tion.htm#3

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

The next ragi hotang:

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

and the third ragi hotang:

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

A much simpler Toba Batak textile is the mangiring worn by a young girl as a shoulder cloth or sometimes it was used as a carry cloth for a baby. This one was woven by Ernestina br. Hutagalung in the first decade of the twentieth century. She probably did her own twining. The complete cloth can be seen http://www.tribaltextiles.info/articles ... l/VT03.htm

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Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

This Toba Batak sadum (a woman's shoulder cloth) was probably woven at the end of the 1930s/beginning of the 1940s by Tianur br. Hutabarat in the village of Huta Sisunggulon in the Silindung valley. She probably executed this twining herself. The complete cloth can be seen http://www.tribaltextiles.info/articles ... l/VT13.htm

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

The next Toba Batak sirat is from a ragi harangan from the Holbung/Uluan region around Lake Toba.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

The next textile was probably woven by Toba Batak for the Karo market and has a Karo style twining.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource

This next example was collected by me in 1997 from the Karo village of Lingga. It is a garagara type of textile. It had been sewn into a sarong by the seller's mother, the wife of the head man of the village. He said that she had woven it but quite possibly it had been woven by Toba Batak for the Karo market.

_________________
Pamela

http://www.tribaltextiles.info
on-line tribal textiles resource