Museum and the Online Archive of California

Bali

Indonesia

Tenganan

Textile; geringsing wayang; ritual cloth. Indonesia

1941

double ikat

handwoven

dyed

cotton

textile

241.0 cm by 63.5 cm

Fowler Museum of Cultural History. University of California, Los Angeles.

Los Angeles, California 90095-1549

UCLA FMCH X61.1

- wayang patola ceremonial dance magic
- double ikat handwoven dyed cotton textile

Content/Description

REMARKS COMPILED IN 1987 BY ROY HAMILTON ON THE BASIS OF EXISTING RECORDS, EXAMINATION OF OBJECT, AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE: Collected during the decade prior to World War II. "Geringsing" are double ikat cloths made only in the village of Tenganan Pageringsingan in eastern Bali. They are considered the most sacred of Balinese cloths. "Geringsing wayang" are a category of geringsing with "wayang" style motifs. "Geringsing wayang kebo" is the name of this particular motif, characterized by a central four-pointed mandala dividing the cloth into four semi-circular quadrants.

CONSTRUCTION:

Double ikat; both the warp and the weft are tie-dyed separately before weaving. Plain tabby weave in homespun cotton. Donor information states that the red dye is human blood, but this is incorrect. The actual source is the root of Morinda citrifolia [Ramseyer 1983:17], "sunti" in Balinese. The blue-black dye is indigo, "taum", and the background is natural cotton.

DESIGN:

The motifs in the four quadrants form exact mirror images of each other, both vertically and horizontally, resulting from the technicalities of the ikat technique. The motif is a stylized "wayang" scene, echoing common motifs in Javanese and Balinese puppets, theater and relief carving. Each quadrant contains six human figures, in two groups of three, which have been interpreted as an audience among a priest, his wife and a devotee [See Gittinger 1979:148 for photo and explanation of motif]. The end panel motif consists of rosettes in the "patola" style, believed to be imitations of the motifs of silk "patola" cloths imported to Indonesia from Gujarat, India as luxury trade cloths from the 16th to the 19th Century.

FUNCTION:

The village of Tenganan Pageringsingan is recognized in Bali as occupying a unique place in the island's ceremonial life. It is "above all a society for the optimal fulfilment of ritual tasks with the purpose of maintaining its status as the divinely chosen and its material wealth and social equilibrium." [Ramseyer 1983:19]. Geringsing cloths generally, of which approximately twenty motifs are known, are used by both men and women in a variety of rituals in Tenganan. They are believed to be inspired by the god Indra, who created the ancestors of Tenganan and taught the women to weave geringsing. Geringsing wayang cloths with the warp still an uncut loop as it comes from the loom are used as components of offerings, intended as garments for dieties, "rantasan" [Ramseyer 1984:227-228]. Once the warp is cut, they are worn by women and girls in certain ritual dances, including the "rejang mombongin" during the first month of the Tenganan calendar and the "abuang luh" dance at the "ngatah saat" ritual during the fifth month. See Ramseyer 1984:225 & 227 for photos of geringsing wayang being worn for these two dances. Outside of Tenganan, geringsing are recognized throughout Bali as sacred cloths and are put to use to sanctify a variety of rituals such as weddings, toothfilings and cremations. Cloths are borrowed or rented for such purposes and even a scrap of a geringsing cloth can serve as a marker of a sacred occasion. Geringsing wayang are also recognized throughout Bali for their magical powers. They are used in exorcism rituals to combat impurity and disease. They are also associated with black magic involving the reciting of mantras and the invocation of an evil witch named "Geringsing Wayang".

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Ramseyer, Urs. 1984 CLOTHING, RITUAL AND SOCIETY IN TENGANAN PEGERINGSINGAN (BALI). Basel: Verhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft.

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