2075 Antique Sasak Ceremonial Cloth from Lombok
Rare Sasak Weaving from the late 1800s
Ceremonial cloth used in funerary rituals.
It is important to remember that many cultures of Indonesia view death very differently from the cultures in the most of other parts of the world. In Indonesia it is treated as an important event -perhaps even the most important event - of our journey that begins at birth and then goes through marriage and procreation. Death is the event that takes us into the next stage. The ceremonies surrounding this final event are grand and many times grander than weddings. Secondly, the concept of woven cloth had a very high status and weavings were seen as wealth. It was therefore appropriate that the best textiles were used at ceremonies for funerals.
This is my understanding based on conversations in Kamasan (Bali), Toraja (Sulawesi) and Lampng (Sumatra).
Some of these funerary textiles have been shown in my essays on Toraja ceremonies and the Museum of Lampung on the blog wovensouls.org
Understanding their paradigm of death - which is quite far removed from the concept I held earlier - helped to come to terms with this inevitable event that all must go through. In the context of wovensouls, I used to view artefacts associated with ceremonies for death with some reservations. Understanding the context of the cultures that produced these artefacts forced me to reframe my view and see them as the extremely important (if not the most important) textiles of the culture.
These are rare and textiles that survive and make it to the world of collectors are very few and to be treasured.
Cloth yellowed with age.
Has minor repairs and some damage.
Similar cloth from Lombok is shown by Thomas Murray on page 364 of "Textiles of Indonesia"
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This item has spent a lifetime being used for the purpose of its creation with the original artist/user. Signs of this life lived heartily may be present on the piece in the form of stains, thread loss, loose threads, holes, tears, color run and other imperfections. Therefore the condition must be assumed to be “not” perfect. More photos of such imperfections will be provided on request.
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