- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Square textile with abstract design of a red ship in which are human, animal, bird (peacock ? ) and tree figures in red. blue, green and brown. Bordered with geometric designs in designs in the same colours. [JP 12/3/2003]
- Long description
- The base of the textile is a plainwoven unbleached cotton. Despite having only been made in the 1990s it is an uneven brown colour, this suggests that it may have been artificially aged with dye. The design is worked in cotton thread using supplementary wefts. [JP 12/3/2003]
- Person
- Field collector George Wood
- Field collector Felicity Wood
- PRM source George Wood
- PRM source Felicity Wood
- Date / Period
- Date made: Circa 1990
- Date collected
- 1982 - 1983
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 2003
- Materials and processes
- Material Cotton Textile Plant, Process Woven, Process Supplementary Weft Woven, Process Dyed
- Dimensions
- Length x Width 880 x 800 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 2003.69.3 Other numbers: S (L) 3
- Research and responses
Textiles bearing the motif of a ship are often referred to in literature about Sumatran textiles as 'ship cloths', however in Sumatra they have three names according to their specific type. These are either tatibin (a rectangular shaped textile of not more than a meter in length), palepai (a rectangular shaped textile longer than the tatibin and often more than three meters long), and the tampan (usually about one meter square). All three types of cloth were used in naming, circumcision, marriage and death ceremonies. The history of the ship cloths is vague and reasons for their original use is not known. They ceased to be made around the beginning of the twentieth century, the reasons for which are thought to be a loss in prosperity due to the decline in the pepper trade, the lack of a dedicated weaving force due to the abolition of slavery, and a change in marriage conditions. In the late twentieth century copies have been made for sale to tourists. Only a relative few original examples are thought to remain in Sumatra, the donor states in her notes that families only sold the cloths when the coffee or other harvest failed and they needed money. Historically, though not strictly, the use of tatibin and palepai was restricted to the aristocracy. Tampan were used by all levels of society. Tampan were used in gift exchanges at important life ceremonies. At funerals a tampan tied around a small woven mat was an obligatory gift, and at engagements, weddings, name-givings and cicumcisions the cloths were used to wrap token foods. Large numbers were also included in a bride's dowry. Tampan were recorded in 1979 by Mattiebelle Gittinger as still being used in rituals, though rarely. [JP 12/3/2003]
Source: Splendid Symbols: Textiles and Tradition in Indonesia, by Mattiebelle Gittinger, The Textile Museum, Washington: 1979, and Traditional Indonesian Textiles by John Gillow, Thames and Hudson 1995. [JP 12/3/2003]
Search terms: Textile, Ritual and Ceremonial