Cloth, Batik

Kain Panjang

Note: The following text is taken from a 19th-century collection catalog and, in its language and perspective, partially reflects colonial thought patterns. We present the text in its original version to make the collection's history transparent and promote a critical examination of the colonial legacy. Certain terms and formulations may be perceived as problematic today. A 2009 research project concluded that most descriptions are factually correct and still usable; only a few details were found to be inaccurate or incorrect. The results of this project were published in the following collection catalog: https://khm-wmw-tm-library.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1457155265

"603 - 607. Cloth - "Beled"
This cloth of several square meters is also called "kein" and is a typical piece of clothing among the Javanese, like the sarong; it is worn by men and women. This is simply wound several times around the loins and fastened over the hips with a band or belt which is more or less valuable and called "sabuk". The men know how to take the end of the cloth to the front and to make fine, delicate folds from the top to the bottom. When they walk two fingers of the left hand hold the bottom edge up to make walking easier, which always takes place in a graceful and playful way. This cloth is hand-made either by the Javanese themselves or imported; it is wool and is roughly woven but durable. The most important and interesting thing with the Javanese keins and also the Javanese sarongs is the procedure of dying, the creation of various patterns and colors. The dying takes place in the most original and tedious way and is called batik. The procedure for this, briefly, is:

The design is drawn with coal following a pattern, onto the completely white and un-dyed cloth and this in such a way that the pattern lies under the un-dyed cloth, or it is stretched over a vertical frame so that the pattern can shine through onto the white cloth and be drawn. When this is done the contours of the figures are followed with hot liquid wax using a small "machine", a small, deep spoon of copper (a canting) which has a wooden handle and at the front a hollow needle, or fine spout, through which the hot liquid wax continuously flows in a thin stream. The wax necessary for this is kept hot on a small charcoal oven, where a large number of such machines are kept warm. After this is done, the other parts of the drawing that are not to be dyed are filled with wax with the same machine but this time one with a larger spout. When the whole cloth is covered with wax, with the exception of the figures to be dyed, the cloth is put into the dye-liquid and left there as long as necessary for the complete dying. After a few days the cloth is taken out and boiled so that all the wax is removed from the cloth and gathers on the surface of the water. The cloth is now covered with the figures in color, the waxed places, of course, are white and un-dyed. If the design is to be one color, then the procedure is finished; if more colors are demanded, then the procedure must be repeated as often as the number of colors in the design. All of the work in these procedures is done by women , usually small girls. Months are often necessary to get a fine and multicolored design. Such finely made cloth can cost several hundred Guldens, and even more. In all the large places in Java thousands of women and children are occupied with this work, there are whole districts of towns where batiking goes on in every house.
Cloths which are dyed in this way are worn in the entire Indian Archipelago by European women and for this reason the manufacture of these cloths is so extensive. They are imitated in Europe, in Switzerland and France in large factories and exported to Java en masse, where they are, however, mostly bought by European women and by natives who work in European households. These pieces of cloth are true Javanese works, from the independent kingdom Surukarta. They exhibit fine designs in dark colors, primarily blue and brown."