2-739-785 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Sarong, 1800s. This sarong, overlaid with gold leaf (or gold dust), would have been worn for high ceremonial occasions and festivals. The gold has been applied only to the parts of the sarong that would show when draped, and on one side only. The delicate, linear design with Chinese phoenixes, butterflies, and leafy tendrils is one of the characteristic styles of batiks made in cities along the north coast of Java. The "tumpal" (triangle) design of the wide end border (a pan-Southeast Asian motif that commonly occurs on northern Javanese batiks) seems to have symbolized growth and fertility as well as the sacred mountain, Meru.