Exhibition on traditional cloth of Indonesia songket starts at Jakarta Textile Museum

Jakarta Textile Museum is hosting a songket (traditional cloth) exhibition to create awareness about the richness of Indonesia’s songket,” Art Museum management unit head Dyah Damayanti said on Wednesday.

At the exhibition, around 100 pieces, from various provinces in Indonesia will be on display. Among the highlights are Tembe Songke sarong — a piece woven with silver thread that was made before 1940 with intricate tree and bird motives — and Ija Pinggang, a silk woven cloth from Aceh that is simple yet beautiful. The cloth is said to be a gift for a traditional teacher named Nawawi Soetan Makmoer in 1905.

Dodo sarong from North Toraja (South Sulawesi), the colorful King Sungkir sarong from Sungai Pelaik (West Kalimantan), and the Baju Muli from Kaur (Bengkulu) are also on display at the exhibition.

The age of the songket clothes exhibited at the event varies widely, starting from the early 20th century to those woven at the end of the 1970s.
Dyah said that the songket collections displayed at the exhibition belonged to the Textile Museum, National Museum and several other museums across Indonesia and private collectors from Jakarta and Bali.

West Kalimantan Museum is one of the museums that lent its songket collections so that they could be displayed at the event.

West Kalimantan Museum head Muhammad Hasyim said that they lent 4 songket collections to be exhibited here including several songket clothes and a shirt that was more than 100 years old and the only one remaining in West Kalimantan.

The exhibition on Songket started yesterday 19 Aug and will continue till 20 Sept.