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Ikat from Tanimbar, Moluccas, Indonesia
 

270 Moluccas, Tanimbar


Ceremonial cloth  magnifiermicroscope



Locale: Selaru
Period: Late 19th c.
Yarn: Cotton, hand-spun, coarse
Technique: Warp ikat
Panels: 2
Size: 100 x 304 cm (3' 3" x 9' 11")   LW: 3.04
Weight: 1280 g (45.2 oz), 421 g/m2 (1.38 oz/ft2)
Design: Large and heavy cloth, here shown folded over, which came with Selaru provenance. According to Van Vuuren the types of motifs are indeed consistent with manufacture on Selaru, with its preference for curly motifs. Five wide ikated bands in morinda and greenish blue on a black background, two narrower ikated bands in the same colours running along the selvedges. The field has been divided into four sections separated by plain lateral bands. The banded structure and the patterning are similar to those seen on the photograph below, taken on an unidentified island in the Tanimbars.
Comment: The main ikated motif is similar to Van Vuuren's crawfish motif 155 on p. 128 and the 'dignified curling figure' 130 on p. 156., which both have the same inward curling extremities. Van Vuuren speculates that it may represent two human figures with elaborate headdresses. Ex collection J.H.-Lüth.
Background: Chapters on Moluccas and Tanimbar.
Exhibited: Roemer Museum, Hildesheim (1991)
Published: Brigitte Khan Majlis, Woven Messages, 1991.
Compare: 078
Sources: Depicted in Brigitte Khan Majlis, Woven Messages, Fig. 322, and described as late 19th c. and hailing from Selaru. Stylistic similarity to Selaru sinune in Khan Majlis, Indonesische Textilien, Wege zu Goettern und Ahnen, Fig. 613. On Tanimbar young men used cloths of similar size to fashion outsize turbans, called puput sere. However, there is close similarity to the multi-layered 'aprons' worn by the women on the below photo, dated 1900-1920, on unidentified island in the Tanimbars.



Van Vuuren's analysis of the motif shows what appear to be figures with large headdresses:

  
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