Batik

Batik is an Indonesian method of dyeing cloth and making it resistant using wax. Such fabrics originally come from the island of Java. Nowadays, batik also can be found worldwide, mainly in Asia and Africa.

Batik
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
Batik craftswomen in Java drawing intricate patterns using canting and wax that are kept hot and liquid in a heated small pan, on 27th July 2011
Country	Indonesia
Domains	Traditional craftsmanship, oral traditions and expressions, social practices, rituals and festive events
Reference	170
Region	Asia and the Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription	2009 (4th session)
List	Representative List
Written batik (batik tulis) and stamped batik (batik cap)

Education and Training in Batik
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
Museum Batik Pekalongan, Central Java
Country	Indonesia
Domains	Traditional craftsmanship, oral traditions and expressions, social practices, rituals and festive events
Reference	318
Region	Asia and the Pacific
Inscription history
Inscription	2009 (4th session)
List	Register of Good Safeguarding Practices
Education and training in Indonesian Batik intangible cultural heritage for elementary, junior, senior, vocational school and polytechnic students, in collaboration with the Batik Museum in Pekalongan

Batik — Indonesian textile originated from Java

History of batik

The ancient bronze statue of Dewi Sri Jawa — the goddesses of fertility in Javanese culture depicted wearing batik sarong with the kawung motif (one of the ancient batik motifs)

Batik is an ancient fabric wax-resist dyeing tradition of Java island (nowadays part of modern Indonesia). In the Ramayana—ancient Sanskrit epics dated 500 BC—, the island of Java is recorded as the island that already had seven kingdoms long before the story of Ramayana created, and Batik is one of the regarded clothes that have glorious value that originally made by the manufacturers within the kingdoms' environment itself. Batik is a part of an ancient Javanese tradition and has been taught for centuries, the art of batik is most highly developed in Java and some of the best batiks in the world still made there until today.

Due to the colonialism, batik also became popular in the Western countries, especially since the Dutch colonial era.

Batik sarong worn by Sri Sultan Hamengkubuwana X — the king of Kasultanan Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat

Technique

This picture shows the person is drawing a batik with tjanting.

To make a batik, they use the cloth as the paper, and they just start drawing hot wax over the cloth. And they said if we repeated the process, it will be more colorful. For the first step, make sure the cloth is washed. Batik patterns are drawn with pencil and later drawn again using a hot wax. The very common thing that people use is the pen-like instrument called a tjanting. After the cloth is dry, the areas keep their original color, and it also shows the pattern between the areas that have the color and do not have the color. It gives them a pattern. Then the artist repeats the process once for each color. A very traditional type of batik, called written batik, is drawn using only a tjanting. The cloth needs to be drawn on both sides and put in a color bath three or four times. The process may take up to a year.