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IKAT FROM WEST TIMOR, INDONESIA


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  • 004 WEST TIMOR
    Turban cloth. Warp ikat. 1940-60. Probably made by Atoni people (Atoin meto).
  • 005 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1950-1960. Pusu or Lekat, Amanuban.
  • 013 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1910-1930. Amanuban, largest of the Atoni kingdoms.
  • 020 WEST TIMOR
    Tais feto (women's sarong). Warp ikat. 19th to early 20th c. Malaka Timur (Belu), Tetun people.
  • 023 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1920-1940. Insana or Ambenu.
  • 031 WEST TIMOR
    Tais (sarong). Warp ikat. 1930-1950. Malaka, Tetun people.
  • 081 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1950-1960. Subun, Western Insana, North Central Timor.
  • 086 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. Circa 1950. Insana .
  • 094 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1940-1955. Insana, most likely Manufui, possibly Manumain B. .
  • 095 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1920-1940. Insana, North Central Timor, near Maubesi.
  • 112 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. Circa 1910. Amanuban, largest of the old Atoni kingdoms.
  • 120 WEST TIMOR
    Tais mane (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1930-1940. Waenopu (eastern part of Timor Barat, Belu Regency).
  • 132 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1935-1950. Maubesi, a market village between Insana and Kefamenanu.
  • 133 WEST TIMOR
    Sarong. Warp ikat. Circa 1950. Insana District. Timor Tengah Utara.
  • 137 WEST TIMOR
    Tais mane (blanket). Warp ikat. 1960-1970. Malaka, Belu Regency, Tetun people.
  • 149 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1940-1960. Mamsena, the neighbouring village of Maubesi, in the sub-district of Insana, North Central Timor.
  • 150 WEST TIMOR
    Bete krao (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1970. Manulea (Malaka Tengah), Atoin Meto people.
  • 156 WEST TIMOR
    Tais feto (sarong). Warp ikat. Circa 1880. Malaka. The motifs match both the Malaka and the Insana vernacular, but given the morinda end panels it was most likely made by Tetun people on the Malaka side of the border. .
  • 157 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 19th c. Amanuban: village of Pusu, Lakat, Ofu or Naime hamlet in desa Nule.
  • 159 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. First half of the 20th c. Amanatun, a rather isolated part of Timor Tengah Selatan Regency; Bokong village or the Oinlasi area.
  • 162 WEST TIMOR
    Blanket. Warp ikat. Circa 1950. Could be Semau, or Kupang region in Western Timor. .
  • 176 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. First half 20th c. Biboki, Insana district, probably Tamkesi area, in the mountainous spine of Timor. Atoin Meto (Atoni) people.
  • 177 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1930-1950. Biboki, Insana district. Atoin Meto (Atoni) people.
  • 181 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1925-1950. Amanuban or Miomafo.
  • 182 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat and supplementary warp. Circa 1950. Miomafo, Biboki, Insana district, probably from area just north of Kefemenanu; Atoin Meto (Atoni) people.
  • 183 WEST TIMOR
    Tais (sarong). Warp ikat. Late 19th c. Northern Biboki, Insana district, Atoni people.
  • 191 WEST TIMOR
    Tais (sarong). Warp ikat. 1930-1950. Amarasi, Oekabiti clan.
  • 192 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1930-1950. Amarasi, Oekabiti clan.
  • 206 WEST TIMOR
    Tais (sarong). Warp ikat. 1930-1945. Amarasi, Baun people.
  • 207 WEST TIMOR
    Tais (sarong). Warp ikat. 1920-1940. Amarasi, Oekabiti clan.
  • 208 WEST TIMOR
    Tais (sarong). Warp ikat. 1950. Amarasi, Atoin Meto people, Oekabiti clan.
  • 215 WEST TIMOR
    Tais koli (shroud). Warp ikat. 1930-1945. Tetun people, probably from Malaka, S.E. Western Timor; possibly from Suai Loro or Camenaça, Cova Lima district, across the border in Timor Leste.
  • 216 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1950-1960. Biboki, Insana district.
  • 224 WEST TIMOR
    Bete krao (blanket). Weft ikat. Late 19th to early 20th c. Manulea (Malaka Tengah), Atoin Meto people.
  • 235 WEST TIMOR
    Fat (blanket). Warp ikat. 19th to early 20th c. Anas region of northern Amanatun, Linome village, Tafuli clan.
  • 244 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. Early 20th c. Amanuban, largest of the old Atoni kingdoms, most likely in Niki-Niki.
  • 245 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1930-1950. Amanuban .
  • 258 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1900-1930. Niki-Niki in Amanuban most likely, else Insana.
  • 285 WEST TIMOR
    Tais (sarong). Warp ikat and buna. Early 20th c. Malaka Timur, Tetun people. .
  • 287 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1920-1945. Insana region, perhaps Ainuit village.
  • 289 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1930-1950. Amanatun.
  • 296 WEST TIMOR
    Mau'ana (shawl). Warp ikat and buna. Ca. 1950. Molo, else probably Amanuban Barat, more specifically Nusa, where such large motifs were more common than elsewhere in the region.
  • 297 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. ca. 1950. Molo, else probably Amanuban Barat, more specifically Nusa, where such large motifs were more common than elsewhere in the region.
  • 303 WEST TIMOR
    Tais mane (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 19th or early 20th c. Probably Tamkesi village in southern Biboki, possibly Ponu in northern Biboki.
  • 312 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. Early 20th c. Ayotupus region of Amanatun Utara - probably Bokong, close to Sambet where the King has his ancestral home, the heart of Ayotupus.
  • 324 WEST TIMOR
    Bete krao (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 19th to early 20th c. Manulea (Malaka Tengah), Atoin Meto people.
  • 325 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1970. Noebesa village, close to Niki-Niki, North Amanuban.
  • 326 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. Late 19th or early 20th c. Desa Hane, Amanuban Barat.
  • 332 WEST TIMOR
    Beti naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1950 or before. Pene Utara, Amanuban (neighbouring villages are Hoie and Oineno).
  • 335 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. Circa. 1930. Amanuban: village of Pusu, Lakat, Ofu or Naime hamlet in desa Nule.
  • 349 WEST TIMOR
    Mau (men's wrap). Warp ikat. Mid 20th c. Amanatun, most likely Amanatun Utara.
  • 360 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1945. Bokong, North Amanatun.
  • 363 WEST TIMOR
    Mau naek (men's wrap). Warp ikat. 1925-1940. Amanuban.
  • 370 WEST TIMOR
    . Warp ikat. 1930-1945. Biboki.



Timor Barat, land of the Atoni - and some others


We have already remarked upon Timor's ethnic diversity in the article on the island as a whole. This diversity is most extreme in East Timor, but West Timor also has many ethno-linguistic groups. The dominant groups, in order of importance, are the Dawan speaking Atoni, divided into seven main dialect groups, and the Tetum or Tetun speaking Belu, an ethnic group that immigrated into Timor from areas near the Malacca Straits in the 14th C., and crosses over into central East Timor. Less important language groups are the Helong, remnants of a group thought to predate the Atoni, many now living on the small island of Semau; the Papuan-related Bunak; and the Rotinese and Savunese who were imported by the Dutch colonial regime to run the colony, and who, on account of their education and generations of experience in administration still form a population segment with an importance far out of proportion to their limited numbers.
     Bahasa Indonesia is widely spoken, especially by the young, but is not yet universally understood, many elderly people especially have only their own local dialect, and perhaps that of their neighbours. Some 90% of the West Timorese are Christian, mostly Protestant, but under the veneer of Christianity many maintain animist beliefs and practices. Each clan is associated with one or more plant or animal totems that figure in its myths of origin, which are taboo for them to cut, kill, leave alone eat, and are often used as an emblematic motif in its textiles. Many still make and wear ikat, not just for ceremonial occasions, but in many regions also for daily attire.


Timorese weaver, early 20th C.
Ikat weaver in West-Timor. Photographer unknown, early 20th C., Tropenmuseum of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Creative Commons Licence. When we visited Timor in the early 1980s, while attempts were made by development agencies to 'industrialize' ikat (meaning mechanisation and rationalization, i.e. abandonment of symbolic content and other links with tradition), most weaving was still practiced under the same primitive circumstances, and with the same adherence to tradition.


The lives of the majority of the West Timorese are still hardly touched by modernity. Health services, education, public transport, and communication infrastructure, where on offer, are very poor. Most of the islanders practice low-yield ladang (slash and burn) agriculture, producing corn, cassava, sweet potatoes and some rice, which at best allows them to subsist, because geography and climate collude to make agriculture hard and unrewarding. To enrich their menu buffalo, cattle, pigs and chickens are reared as the local circumstances allow. As most everywhere in Nusa Tenggara lontar palm also plays an important nutritional role, and betel nut is grown because of its importance in ritual - which outsiders might deride as a centuries old justification for maintaining addiction.
     Timor Barat is a rugged, mountainous country, with the mountains getting higher
  
Amarasi warriors
Amarasi warriors in ceremonial ikat attire. Note the similarity of the beti worn by the man on the right to our PC 192. Photographer unknown, early 20th C. Tropenmuseum of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Creative Commons Licence.
 
as one goes east. The highest peak, Gunung Mutis, nearly 2500 m, stands practically on the border with East Timor, from where the range continues to climb. The coastal plains are narrow, and the highlands have no wide river valleys. The soils consist largely of rocky limestone, and both the rainy and dry season are extreme. There are pockets of favourable microclimate that allow agriculture and horticulture with a decent yield, but water and food shortages are common in most parts of the island.
     The dry season, also called the 'hungry season', leaves the islanders with little to do but repairing their houses, attempt some trading, and share their yarns as they wait for better days. When the 'better days' come, in the form of often torrential rainfall, flash floods, landslides, and swept away bridges are common. Still this is a period of new hope, as the fields can be planted and soon turn green. The end of the rainy season is harvest time, and time for celebration. Recent advances in water management, mainly focused on the construction of small dams, help conserve some of the abundant rainfall of the wet season and improves farmers' incomes. The northern coastal zone, reminiscent of Australia, is largely dry and barren, and beyond improvement by water management; part of the mountainous interior is thickly wooded; some of the humid southern parts are quite lush, the coastal basins of the Belu quite fertile.
      Prior to European intrusion,Timor was organized into numerous tiny kingdoms, each comprising some five to thirty villages, i.e. 500 to 10.000 people. The Dutch changed the power structure dramatically by appointing rajahs, who had complete power over large tracts of land, and could lord it over many formerly independent kings, but were themselves subordinate to the colonial governor. All of these kingdoms had their own traditional ikat patterns, by which the wearers could distinguish themselves. Most West-Timorese ikat textiles, including those for ceremonial use, take the form of clothing: tubular sarongs for the women, and oblong wraps for the men. Today many West-Timorese men still wear traditional ikat cloths, some daily, others just on festive occasions, and though the rigid adat rules prescribing what motifs may be woven by whom are not adhered to as strictly in the past, on the whole the Timorese have stuck to their regional patterns.


Ikat textiles of Western Timor


West Timor is somewhat underrepresented in the collection. When we first started collecting, the market, especially the Balinese market, was flooded with man's wraps of type 2 (see below), many of them indifferently made, and rather gaudy looking due to their flanking panels done with chemical dyes. This had the effect of turning our eyes towards other regions. It was only in more recent years that we discovered the wealth of motives and refinement that West Timor has to offer. We aim to address the deficit in the coming years - not an easy task as superior pieces now are hard to find.

Man's wraps - six regional types

The wraps for men, called selimut in Bahasa, locally go by a range of different names such as beti naik, mau naik and tais mane. Most West-Timorese ikat is made on very narrow looms, rarely exceeding 75 cm in width, and sometimes as narrow as 30 cm, so that a fair sized selimut requires two or three panels stitched along the selvages.
     Atoni selimut usually consist of three panels, with a central panel that contrasts in technique, colour, or both with the side panels, which tend to be red or consist of a number of narrow stripes of different colours that when seen from some distance come across as red. Those from Amanuban and neighbouring areas have ikated centre fields, those from the northern and western Atoni regions have white centre fields.
     Tetum selimut generally consist of two panels, though the design may mimic a three panel format, probably as three is considered a holy number, standing for the place of origin, and the places on either side.

Yaeger and Jacobson differentiate six basic design types for West-Timorese man's wraps, and indicate the regions where they are most prominent. Where available we illustrate the types with examples from the Pusaka Collection.
1. Three panels, central panel fairly narrow and white, with or without decoration in buna. The historic dress of the Atoni. Regions: Molo, Miomafo, Amfoang, Biboki, Insana, and also Ambenu - actually in East Timor, but culturally part of Atoni territory. The significance of the white centre field is the subject of speculation. One likely reason for its continued popularity is that in Atoni culture white stands for virility and other qualities associated with a warrior, whereas black (dark indigo) stands for female attributes. Example: PC 159, PC 182.   ikat West Timor type 1
2. Three panels, the central one ikated in indigo or indigo overdyed with morinda, the side panels decorated with narrow stripes usually in bright colours, predominantly red. Regions: Amanuban, Amanatun and neigbouring parts of Miomafo, Molo, Insana and Biboki. Those from Amanutan and Miomafo usually have an ikat design stripe in each side panel. Example: PC 013. ikat West Timor type 2
3. Two panels, multiple longitudinal narrow stripes with fine motifs. Regions: Atoni areas bordering Belu: Biboki, Ambenu, Maubesi, Insana. The number of design stripes is most commonly eight, more rarely two, four or eight. Some cloths of this type have an odd number of design stripes, one of the panels being wider than the other to accommodate the additional stripe. This may be seen on older cloths from Biboki, and these days on wraps from Ambenu. Examples: PC 132, PC 095, PC 095.   ikat West Timor type 3
4. Two panels, each with a longitudinal ikated band of around 5-10 cm width in between narrow stripes. Known as Belu style. Regions: Tasifeto, Malaka, Lamakman, Biboki, and also in the East-Timorese enclave of Ambenu (as well as in much of the rest of East Timor). Examples: PC 120, PC 137.   ikat West Timor type 4
5. Two panels, both with ikat on one half, plain black or dark indigo on the other, producing a cloth with dark middle section, and visually a tripartite aspect. Regions: Insana, northern Amanutan, and some localities scattered across the Belu area. This may be an archaic type, a legacy of the Melu ethnic group which was displaced by the Tetum in the 14th C. Example: PC 081.   ikat West Timor type 5
6. Two panels, mirror images of each other, with ikat patterns over the entire surface. Regions: Not the dominant type anywhere, but found in most areas of Timor where ikat is made. Most common in Amanuban, especialy Niki-Niki and Oinlasis, where they are generally executed in indigo only and are decorated with human figures, crocodiles, scorpions or other animal motifs. Also found in the East Timorese enclave of Ambenu, and in Lamakman where motifs tend to be geometric and the background black. Example: PC 005.   ikat West Timor type 6

Tubeskirts - sarong - three basic types

While there are several different types of tubeskirt worn on Western Timor, only three rely on ikat as the main technique for decoration. Most are similar to the selimut from the same area. The numbers correspond with the styles of man's wraps shown above.

  2. Central ikat panel flanked by stripes. Usually fairly short and wide, therefore practical. Simpler ones are the same as selimut from the area, but sewn into a tube. Some, especially later examples, show ikat patterning all over, and may have only two panels. Found in same areas as selimut with central ikat panels: Biboki, Amananuban, Miomafo, Amanutan. Regions: Atoni areas bordering Belu: Biboki, Ambenu, Maubesi, Insana.
  1 & 3. Sarongs with ikat stripes. Regions: Biboki, Amarasi, Ambenu, western Miamafo. These types of tubeskirts have multiple ikat design stripes of varying width, often interspersed with plain stripes. Those from Amarasi resemble the selimut from the area without the white central area. Their lay-out sometimes shows a similarity to sarongs from Savu or Flores.
  4. Belu style sarongs. These commonly comprise two or four panels, with a striped centre, flanked by an iketed band and plain colour borders. In Insana the design is invariably tripartite, whatever the actual number of panels. Regions: Belu, Biboki, Insana, northern Amanutan. Long (well over 2 meters) and narrow four panel sarongs are made for ceremonial use and as bridewealth. Example: PC 133.


Great wealth of motifs

West Timorese kaif motif

 
Kaif motif on a Belu type sarong.

The great attractiveness of West Timor ikats is its great wealth of motifs, much of it figurative, expressive of the traditional animist belief system, some of it geometrical. The most common is the kaif (hook and rhomb) motif of varying levels of complexity and nesting. The rhombs tend to be fairly large, two or four across a panel, with curved hooks on both inner and outer sides. Each hook tells of a member of the weaver's clan and each dot represents a totemic guardian spirit of the suku (clan) or family. While also found on other islands, occasionally, as on Sulawesi, in the West Timorese weaving tradition it is both common and vital.
     The figurative motifs of the West Timorese weavers cover the entire range of the natural world: human figures, plants, and animals, all with totemic significance. The most common and important of these are crocodiles, representations of Uis Neno, the animist supreme being. Also frequently depicted are lizards, frogs, chickens, particularly the cherished fighting roosters, jungle fowl and other birds. As the Atoni are highland people with little interest in the sea, aquatic animals other than crocodiles (in Indonesia usually salt water crocodiles) are rarely woven into their cloths.


 

Literature

With their well documented, lavishly illustrated Textiles of Western Timor, Yeager and Jacobson were thought to have pretty much scorched the earth of Western Timor. Until Fowler published Textiles of Timor, by Hamilton and Barrkman, ed., which also cover East Timor.


Apart from the titles mentioned above you may want to consider acquiring Peter ten Hoopen, ed., Timor: Totems and Tokens, which appeared in 2019. It gives an overview of different styles of ikat on Timor, using almost exclusively early examples, and is particularly strong on East Timor.

cover   Timor: Totems and Tokens, the catalogue of the eponymous exhibition at Lisbon's Museu do Oriente in 2019-2020, introduces the ikat from both West Timor (Indonesia) and East Timor (Timor-Leste). Edited by Peter ten Hoopen, with contributions by Jill Forshee, Linda S. McIntosh, Pierre Dugard and Georges Breguet.

Illustrated with field photography both contemporary and historic, and 70 full page plates. Bilingual: English and Portuguese. Size: 23x28 cm, 192 pages. Published by Fundação Oriente, Lisbon.

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Map of Timor - Interactive (number of active links to be extended)

Click on marked areas to jump to an example from the respective village or region. Note that there may be more specimens from the same region, but the link will go to just one example.

Semau Amanuban Ambenu Subun Malaka Maubesi Insana Waenopu Niki Niki Manufui Los Palos


Map of Timor - Colonial


Map of western Timor prepared by the Dutch colonial government, 1898. Click on map to open high resolution version in new window.



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