Indonesia · Surface Design / Wax-Resist Dyeing
Batik tulis on sutra tenun tangan (descriptive Indonesian; no single standardized term documented)
Hand-drawn wax-resist batik made not on imported cloth but on silk that is hand-spun and hand-woven in Indonesia for the purpose, so that one workshop controls the whole chain from yarn to finished design. Batik on silk was not new, but in the mid-1980s the silk and cotton it was drawn on were largely imported; the technique recorded here starts earlier in the chain, with softer, locally spun yarns woven into cloth fine enough to take the canting line and supple enough to be wrapped and tied around the body. The hand-spinning and hand-weaving took several years to perfect before the cloth was wearable. A single piece can pass through around 40 pairs of hands and take from three months to a year and a half; finished cloths are often kept uncut, as sarongs and shawls, so the pattern stays whole.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Falls within Indonesian Batik, inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009
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