Detail View: Museum and the Online Archive of California: Textile; tampan; gift wrapping. Indonesia

Collection: 
Museum and the Online Archive of California
Creation Place: 
Baturaja
Creation Place: 
Indonesia
Creation Place: 
Lampung
Creation Place: 
Pedada
Creation Place: 
Sumatra
Title: 
Textile; tampan; gift wrapping. Indonesia
Date: 
1900-Collected 1974
Materials: 
handwoven
Materials: 
supplementary weft
Materials: 
handspun cotton
Materials: 
fabric
Dimensions: 
58.3 cm by 55.3 cm
Current Location: 
Fowler Museum of Cultural History. University of California, Los Angeles.
Address: 
Los Angeles, California 90095-1549
Object ID: 
UCLA FMCH X76.1393
Subject: 
- tree animal ship bird? geometric zig zag - handwoven supplementary weft handspun cotton fabric
Heading: 
Content/Description
Notes: 
REMARKS COMPILED IN 1987 BY ROY HAMILTON ON BASIS OF EXISTING RECORDS, EXAMINATION OF OBJECT, AND REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE: This composition, a tree riding in a ship with limbs supporting birds, animals and human figures, has a broad distribution. Gittinger illustrates similar examples from the South [Gittinger 1972:Plates 9-12] and Krui Coasts [Gittinger 1972:Plate 13] and refers to examples similar to Plate 10 found in Liwa and the Semangka Bay "kampung" (="village") Putih Doh [Gittinger 1972:98]. In a generalized Indonesian context, the tree motif may be compared to a sacred tree planted on a stone terrace in the center of a village or, more broadly, as cosmic tree symbolism [Gittinger 1972:155]. More specifically, the large trees with the single ship probably represent the "kayu ara", the many limbed pole hung with gifts and ceremonially plundered at rites of passage ceremonies [Gittinger 1972:156-157]. The animals depicted on the tree limbs have not been identified. Somewhat similar animals with raised backs can be seen in Plate 85 [Gittinger 1972:172]. See entry for X76.1365 for background information on "tampan" and "pelepai" textiles from Lampung, Sumatra.
Heading: 
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Notes: 
Gittinger, Mattiebelle. 1972. A STUDY OF THE SHIP CLOTHS OF SUMATRA: THEIR DESIGN AND USAGE. Ph.D. Dissertation, Columbia University.
Collection Description: 
METS ID: 
ark:/13030/ft2c6004hs