Ibu Kahi
Man’s Wrapper (hinggi) Depicting Royal Funeral in Rende Village
1999-2003
Scroll
Ibu Kahi
Man’s Wrapper (hinggi) Depicting Royal Funeral in Rende Village
1999-2003
Physical Qualities
Cotton, indigo and mordant red dyes, 104 x 48 1/2 in. (without fringe) (264.2 x 123.2 cm.)
110 1/2 x 48 1/2 in. (with fringe) (280.7 x 123.2 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Frandy Garrett, Jakarta, Indonesia
Object Number
2004.172
A man's hip or shoulder wrap (hinggi) consisting of a long rectangular cotton cloth formed of two joined warp-ikat panels with figural images depicting a scene. The imagery repeats from side to side, but forms a single continuous program from bottom to top. This cloth depicts a royal funeral in the village of Rende. Features include monolithic tombs, people restraining sacrificial water buffalo, musicians with gongs, men and women in the funeral procession, roosters to be slaughtered so that their entrails can be read by the village wise man, the village clan house, and horses and goods probably to be buried with the deceased. (See explanation of Sue Potter, Jakarta, May 2004 in folder).
The patterns are created through a resist dyeing and weaving technique called warp ikat, consisting of binding and unbinding areas of warp before placing the yarns in various dye baths then arranging them on the loom so as to create specific designs when woven. Vegetable dyes used include indogofera sumtrana to create blue and morinda citrofolia--the root or bark of the noni tree--to create red. A purplish brown background results from overdyeing these two, and white results from areas bind bound throughout the dyeing process. Two panels, each approximately 24-1/2" wide are hand woven on a backstrap loom, and joined up the center with hand stitching. An additional woven edging (kabakil) approximately 2-3/8" wide is added at each end and the warps at each end are twined into a fringe approximately 3" long.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2004; Frandy Garrett, Jakarta, Indonesia
Alit Djajasoebrata and Linda Hanssen, "Sumbanese Textiles," Decorative Arts of Sumba, The Pepin Press, Amsterdam & Singapore, 1999.
Laurens Langewis and Frits A. Wagner, Decorative Art in Indonesian Textiles
Leigh-on-Sea-Englsnad: F. Lewis, Publishers, LTD, 1964, pp. 19-32, figs. 35-37, and others.
Laurens Langewis and Frits A. Wagner, Decorative Art in Indonesian Textiles
Leigh-on-Sea-Englsnad: F. Lewis, Publishers, LTD, 1964, pp. 19-32, figs. 35-37, and others.
