Textile travel notes from Eastern Flores and Lembata: Chris Buckley

click on image to go to enlargement - all text & images © Chris Buckley

In August 2010 Chris Buckley made a visit to eastern Flores and Lembata. On his return he sent in the textile travel notes below and shared some of his stunning photos. He also posted on the forum photos and comments on a couple of textiles not included here.

Chris says: "These notes should be read in conjunction with Donna Lum's notes from 2005. The good news is that despite Flores' development as a tourist destination there is still a great deal of traditional weaving and it is still well worth a visit. We flew to Maumere and worked our way east, missing out the western half of the island (which apparently has much interesting weaving also).

There are a great deal of rapid changes taking place, but weaving seems to have a future as well as a past on Flores. One thing that stands out is that locally made textiles are still being worn on a daily basis, in the market place as well as on the way to church on a Sunday (Flores is predominantly Christian, in contrast to most of the rest of Indonesia). Most of the ikat being made for local use is made with commercial cotton and synthetic dyes, but as Roy Hamilton pointed out in his book "Gift of the Cotton Maiden" these modern materials have facilitated the continuation of handwoven textiles: it is doubtful whether weaving for local use would have continued to thrive if they had not made the work easier and less time-consuming.

Good ikat made with natural dyes and handspun cotton is also available in a few places. This is being sustained in a limited basis by two factors: traditional requirements for bridewealth textiles in Lembata, and by the production of textiles for collectors. In the case of collector's textiles the sponsorship of Threads of Life in Bali is particularly important. Both dyeing with natural dyes and handspinning cotton are extraordinarily time consuming, much more so than the ikat tying and weaving parts of the process, so weavers will only use these classical methods if there is a clear demand and appropriate financial reward. Which is a complicated way of saying expect to pay more ... a sarong made of handspun cotton and natural dyes should be ten times the price of a sarong made with commercial cotton and synthetic dyes. This is a matter of time and effort, the cost of raw materials being negligible in comparison.

click on image to go to enlargement - all text & images © Chris Buckley - see below for photo captions

Sikka village

Nggela

Lamalera

Getting around

Since we had a relatively short time (about 10 days in Flores) we found a guide and used a driver to help us get around quickly. You could also travel by public bus without a guide more cheaply, but you would need a lot more time and patience this way. We found Hiro at the Hotel Gardena and would recommend him to anyone who is looking for a guide (his mobile phone # is +62-81-339355664). Hiro also has a colleague at the hotel who specializes in the western half of the island.

Maumere - Sikka

Maumere is the main town around the center of the island, and is a base for exploring Sikka, Nggela and Watublapi, which are all weaving centers worth a visit. My top pick for seeing good textiles in this area is Daniel David's weaving group in Watublapi (The Bliran Sina Cultural Arts Cooperative, ask for info at the Gardena Hotel or other hotels in town or call 81-339463561), also mentioned by Donna Lum in her account. Daniel is a natural dye enthusiast who can show you Morinda, turmeric, indigo and other dye materials and the ikat process in some detail. Depending on the time of year he usually has some textiles to sell to visitors too. He has genuine natural dyed textiles made with both handspun and commercial cotton. Not cheap, but worth it.

At Daniel David's workshop I tried my hand at pounding Morinda root for the red-brown color that is practically the signature of traditional Indonesian weavings. It takes a couple of hours to reduce the root to pulp, and a couple more hours to mordant the cotton and then dye it ... all for the sake of a rather pale brownish shade ... because the bad news is that this process has to be repeated many times over a period of months, sometimes more than a year, to get that rich red-brown shade. The effort involved boggles the mind. Indigo also requires anything between a half dozen and a dozen dips to get a dark shade, though this is relatively easy compared with Morinda and can be done in a few weeks (only!). Now take a look at the work involved in handspinning the yarn for a sarong. You need a different sense of time if you are to produce a textile the old-fashioned way.

The ladies at the nearby village of Sikka are also delightful and well worth a visit. There are Indian patola inspired designs in the old church at the village and ikat with Patola and Portuguese influenced designs being produced. The Sikka ladies can also lay on a good demonstration of natural dyeing and handspinning, but bear in mind that this is only for show: the ikat you will be offered is 100% commercial cotton and synthetic dyes. But they are charming and the ikat is not bad either.

I was less impressed with Nggela. This is a very well-trodden spot that gets a lot of visitors, and the old village is well-preserved. They can lay on a show of natural dyeing and handspinning but like the Sikka group they are not really using this for any of their woven sarongs. Nggela sarongs are rather dark in color and less attractive to my eyes than the Sikka weavings, and the sellers were very pushy. You could skip Nggela and not miss much. The village of Jopu along the road to Sikka is worth a look: the weaving is not great but the houses are lovely.

From the Maumere area we drove east, spent one night at Larantuka and then took a ferry to Lembata, then to the whaling village of Lamalera. This village was the subject of Ruth Barnes' book "The Textiles of Lamalera". Aside from the villagers unique lifestyle hunting whales and dolphins (the whole village smells of whale blubber) this is worth a visit if you are interested in ikat. Lamalera villagers still weave traditional sarongs, partly for use in bridewealth exchanges, partly for sale to collectors and local people. Handspun cotton from local perennial cotton plants is still used, and Lamalera villagers achieve an impressively dark Morinda shade. If you stay at one of the local guest houses and express an interest in weaving you can usually find some sarongs for sale.

On the other side of the island bridewealth sarongs are also made in the Ili Api region, underneath the still-slightly-smoking volcano of the same name. There is no weaving for commercial sale in this area though, and weavings are much harder to come by and expensive. I did manage to find a couple of sarongs, mainly thanks to some very diligent searching by our guide, who accepted the task as a challenge, but overall Lamalera weaving has more to offer.

A visit to Threads of Life in Ubud in Bali is also recommended, you will sometimes find textiles there that are not available in Flores or better than examples that can be found locally." top

See below for photo captions

click on the thumbnail photo to go to an enlargement

01 - tying ikat with palm frond in Sikka village

02 - tying ikat with palm frond in Sikka village

03 - ikat on the loom at Sikka village

03X-Sarong from the weaving group at Sikka and the design is typical from that area. Commercial thread and synthetic dyes. The large motif is a flower basket (so I was told), like the flower offering baskets you see outside homes in Bali.

04 - weaving with a backstrap loom at Nggela

05 - handspinning cotton at Watublapi

06 - indigo dye at Watublapi: this small pot is for demonstration purposes; large pots are used for the real thing

07 - setting up the warp on the loom: ikat dyed threads are set up with plain threads that will become warp patterned bands in the finished textile. Watublapi

08 - chopping and pounding Morinda root, Watublapi

09 - Morinda root: the color is an unpromising yellowish shade in the fresh root. Watublapi

10 - a skein of cotton after a few dips in Morinda, still a very pale shade, Watublapi

11 - pot containing yarn mixed with mordant ingredients for Morinda (papaya leaf, candlenut, loba leaf), to be heated up on the fire, Watublapi

12 - ikat, partly dyed, at Watublapi. The brown color becomes deeper if the yarn is left slightly damp after dyeing. Which might partly account for the unique smell of naturally dyed Morinda textiles.

13 - Theorara Gelu with a young relative and the sarong she dyed and wove herself, with a manta ray motif. Handspun cotton and natural dyes. Lamalera

14 - detail of manta ray motif from Theorara's sarong. This motif is unique to the Lamalera area

15 - sarong by Anastasia Bataona with Patola motif. Handspun cotton and natural dyes. Lamalera

16 - sarong by Anastasia Bataona with manta ray motif. Handspun cotton and natural dyes. Lamalera

17 - Margareta Lolon (right) and Juliana Boy from Ili Api, with sarongs that they wove themselves. The red sarong on the left is used for wrapping elephant tusks given in bridewealth exchanges, while the dark blue sarong at right is worn by the bride's family members at weddings.

18 - Wate-mea (Red sarong), from Ili Api, woven by Juliana Boy. The ikat was dyed by another lady in the village.

Watublapi

Ili Api

Also see Chris' forum post re his Flores visit

see Donna Lum's travel notes on Flores from June 2005

Chris Buckley is a collector of ethnic textiles - see his Torana tribal website selling ethnic minority textiles and Asian art - but he is better known to Beijing residents as the "Tibetan carpet guy". Chris is originally from England and came to China in 1995, having previously lived in Japan, where he acquired a taste for things handmade and an appreciation for texture. He used to work for a multinational company but that is a long time in the past now: these days he spends most of his time on his Tibetan carpet business. He has a workshop near Lhasa making Tibetan carpets the traditional way, with designs that are mostly by him, and that are sold in his stores in Beijing and Shanghai as well as to individual clients and interior designers overseas. More about his Tibetan carpet business can be found on his Toranahouse website. He is also interested in Tibetan crafts generally and in painted furniture in particular, a subject he wrote a book about.

Aside from running the carpet business he has also been a collector for many years, and he has been lucky enough to travel widely in China and Asia (and still does). One of his earliest and most memorable trips in China was a cycling trip in Guizhou province through Dong and Miao minority areas. Apart from the rain and the mud the villages were entrancing, and he has been hooked on minority arts ever since. Chris can be contacted via his websites.

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this page last updated 5 April, 2012

Sikka village Nggela Lamalera	Getting around Since we had a relatively short time (about 10 days in Flores) we found a guide and used a driver to help us get around quickly. You could also travel by public bus without a guide more cheaply, but you would need a lot more time and patience this way. We found Hiro at the Hotel Gardena and would recommend him to anyone who is looking for a guide (his mobile phone # is +62-81-339355664). Hiro also has a colleague at the hotel who specializes in the western half of the island. Maumere - Sikka Maumere is the main town around the center of the island, and is a base for exploring Sikka, Nggela and Watublapi, which are all weaving centers worth a visit. My top pick for seeing good textiles in this area is Daniel David's weaving group in Watublapi (The Bliran Sina Cultural Arts Cooperative, ask for info at the Gardena Hotel or other hotels in town or call 81-339463561), also mentioned by Donna Lum in her account. Daniel is a natural dye enthusiast who can show you Morinda, turmeric, indigo and other dye materials and the ikat process in some detail. Depending on the time of year he usually has some textiles to sell to visitors too. He has genuine natural dyed textiles made with both handspun and commercial cotton. Not cheap, but worth it. At Daniel David's workshop I tried my hand at pounding Morinda root for the red-brown color that is practically the signature of traditional Indonesian weavings. It takes a couple of hours to reduce the root to pulp, and a couple more hours to mordant the cotton and then dye it ... all for the sake of a rather pale brownish shade ... because the bad news is that this process has to be repeated many times over a period of months, sometimes more than a year, to get that rich red-brown shade. The effort involved boggles the mind. Indigo also requires anything between a half dozen and a dozen dips to get a dark shade, though this is relatively easy compared with Morinda and can be done in a few weeks (only!). Now take a look at the work involved in handspinning the yarn for a sarong. You need a different sense of time if you are to produce a textile the old-fashioned way. The ladies at the nearby village of Sikka are also delightful and well worth a visit. There are Indian patola inspired designs in the old church at the village and ikat with Patola and Portuguese influenced designs being produced. The Sikka ladies can also lay on a good demonstration of natural dyeing and handspinning, but bear in mind that this is only for show: the ikat you will be offered is 100% commercial cotton and synthetic dyes. But they are charming and the ikat is not bad either. I was less impressed with Nggela. This is a very well-trodden spot that gets a lot of visitors, and the old village is well-preserved. They can lay on a show of natural dyeing and handspinning but like the Sikka group they are not really using this for any of their woven sarongs. Nggela sarongs are rather dark in color and less attractive to my eyes than the Sikka weavings, and the sellers were very pushy. You could skip Nggela and not miss much. The village of Jopu along the road to Sikka is worth a look: the weaving is not great but the houses are lovely. From the Maumere area we drove east, spent one night at Larantuka and then took a ferry to Lembata, then to the whaling village of Lamalera. This village was the subject of Ruth Barnes' book "The Textiles of Lamalera". Aside from the villagers unique lifestyle hunting whales and dolphins (the whole village smells of whale blubber) this is worth a visit if you are interested in ikat. Lamalera villagers still weave traditional sarongs, partly for use in bridewealth exchanges, partly for sale to collectors and local people. Handspun cotton from local perennial cotton plants is still used, and Lamalera villagers achieve an impressively dark Morinda shade. If you stay at one of the local guest houses and express an interest in weaving you can usually find some sarongs for sale. On the other side of the island bridewealth sarongs are also made in the Ili Api region, underneath the still-slightly-smoking volcano of the same name. There is no weaving for commercial sale in this area though, and weavings are much harder to come by and expensive. I did manage to find a couple of sarongs, mainly thanks to some very diligent searching by our guide, who accepted the task as a challenge, but overall Lamalera weaving has more to offer. A visit to Threads of Life in Ubud in Bali is also recommended, you will sometimes find textiles there that are not available in Flores or better than examples that can be found locally." top See below for photo captions click on the thumbnail photo to go to an enlargement 01 - tying ikat with palm frond in Sikka village 02 - tying ikat with palm frond in Sikka village 03 - ikat on the loom at Sikka village 03X-Sarong from the weaving group at Sikka and the design is typical from that area. Commercial thread and synthetic dyes. The large motif is a flower basket (so I was told), like the flower offering baskets you see outside homes in Bali. 04 - weaving with a backstrap loom at Nggela 05 - handspinning cotton at Watublapi 06 - indigo dye at Watublapi: this small pot is for demonstration purposes; large pots are used for the real thing 07 - setting up the warp on the loom: ikat dyed threads are set up with plain threads that will become warp patterned bands in the finished textile. Watublapi 08 - chopping and pounding Morinda root, Watublapi 09 - Morinda root: the color is an unpromising yellowish shade in the fresh root. Watublapi 10 - a skein of cotton after a few dips in Morinda, still a very pale shade, Watublapi 11 - pot containing yarn mixed with mordant ingredients for Morinda (papaya leaf, candlenut, loba leaf), to be heated up on the fire, Watublapi 12 - ikat, partly dyed, at Watublapi. The brown color becomes deeper if the yarn is left slightly damp after dyeing. Which might partly account for the unique smell of naturally dyed Morinda textiles. 13 - Theorara Gelu with a young relative and the sarong she dyed and wove herself, with a manta ray motif. Handspun cotton and natural dyes. Lamalera 14 - detail of manta ray motif from Theorara's sarong. This motif is unique to the Lamalera area 15 - sarong by Anastasia Bataona with Patola motif. Handspun cotton and natural dyes. Lamalera 16 - sarong by Anastasia Bataona with manta ray motif. Handspun cotton and natural dyes. Lamalera 17 - Margareta Lolon (right) and Juliana Boy from Ili Api, with sarongs that they wove themselves. The red sarong on the left is used for wrapping elephant tusks given in bridewealth exchanges, while the dark blue sarong at right is worn by the bride's family members at weddings. 18 - Wate-mea (Red sarong), from Ili Api, woven by Juliana Boy. The ikat was dyed by another lady in the village.	Watublapi Ili Api
click on thumbnail image to go to enlargement - all text & images © Chris Buckley
Also see Chris' forum post re his Flores visit
see Donna Lum's travel notes on Flores from June 2005