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CHAPTER TWO

Endek

Ikat Production in Transition

THE form of traditional textile most commonly seen on Bali today is endek. This is the most highly-developed process in terms of technique and design; largely as a result the fabrics have acquired many new, non-traditional uses and are now seen far beyond the island's shores. Once the prerogative of noble families, endek has become a popular article of dress and an important badge of cultural identity for Balinese men and women of all social classes.

The patterning technique known here as endek is actually a variant of the ikat process widely practiced throughout Indonesia. Ikat (Indonesian "bundle," mengikat "to tie") is a complicated and time-consuming resist-dye technique in which undyed yarns are mounted on a frame in bundles according to the pattern and tied in places with short lengths of banana bast or plastic strips. During the dyeing process, the tied areas resist the absorption of dye and remain uncolored; repeated tyings and dyeings can result in a multihued pattern of great intricacy. The preprogrammed designs may be applied to either the warp threads alone (warp ikat), or to the weft (weft ikat)—or to both thread systems at once, so that the patterning of each one supplements the other (double ikat)..

Two forms of ikat are known in Bali: weft ikat, called here endek, has the pattern in the weft only; double ikat, known as geringsing, has patterns in both the warp and the weft. The latter procedure is exceedingly complicated, as the two designs have to be brought precisely into register with one another, and is undertaken in only one place in the whole of Indonesia—the tiny village of Tenganan Pegeringsingan in eastern Bali (see Chapter 9). In recent years, combined warp and weft ikat processes have been used in some establishments in Gianyar (central Bali) as well, but here the warp is patterned in some places and the weft in others, while the two are never blended together as in Tenganan.

Figure 2.1: Outer hip cloth for men (kampuh). Endek and songkèt on silk. Bulèlèng, 1920-30. 141 x 109 cm. MEB IIc 17571.

COURTLY SYMBOLS OF STATUS

For a long time endek cloths were solely the prerogative of the princely families of Bali. They were worn on special occasions in palaces and temples as sumptuous wraparounds (wastra, kampuh), as breast cloths (selendang, anteng) or as shawls (cerik), frequently containing added songkèt or supplementary weft patterns (see Chapter 3). Elaborate production methods and exotic imported materials such as silk, special dyes, gold and silver threads greatly enhanced the value of these traditional status symbols of the courtly culture.

Figure 2.2: Breast or shoulder cloths (anteng, cerik). Endek on silk. Bulèlèng, Buhunan, first half 20th century. 294 x 46 cm.; 252 x 41 cm. MEB HC 17574; 13992.

The earliest extant endek textiles date from the late 19th to early 20th centuries and come from the north Balinese principality of Bulèlèng, which was at this time an important and influential textile-producing center. Endek patterns from this period are predominantly geometric, and are combined with songkèt patterns to form an artistically unified whole. Endek crossbands patterned with lozenges, crosses and arrowheads alternate with strips of geometrically patterned songkèt. Likewise; endek triangles with small, multicolored dashes nest together with contrasting songkèt ones to form rectangles. The basic color of these early endek-songkèt fabrics is red—varying from a deep purple-red to a warm brick-red. Only later do yellows and greens appear.

Early figural representations are rare and very sumptuous, consisting for example patola patterns with lions and riders on elephants (see Chapter 8). This tendency to imitate patterns produced by other techniques—thereby creating, as it were, a substitute product—can also be observed in endek versions of the geringsing patelikuf double-ikat cloths. The dominant feature of these geringsing cloths, highly esteemed throughout the island for their ritual and magical properties, is the large four-pointed star with crenelated internal pattern which divides up the surface of the fabric into large, semicircular segments (see Chapter 9), Outside Tenganan this pattern is known as kota mesir (from kota, etymologically meaning "battlements," in modern Indonesian and Balinese "town; and mesir, "Egyptian" often referring to swastikas and other meander-like patterns). At the beginning of our century, it came to be applied to silk endek fabrics from Bulèlèng; in the 1930s it was imitated in Nusa Penida (possibly also in Lombok) in coarse materials of handspun cotton with dark backgrounds. Recently this pattern has cropped up again in mercerized cotton cloth sold by the meter (from Sidemen and Sampalan, near Klungkung), and has now gained acceptance as the dernier cri for wraparounds worn by Balinese on festive occasions (Fig. 2.13).

At the beginning of the 20th century, endek cloths from Bulèlèng came to be produced without the addition of songkèt in small strips of fabric which women wore as breast or shoulder cloths, and in broad outer hip cloths composed of two widths of fabric sewn together. Here again some of the patterns, such as tiny, flowering trees, are reminiscent of the patola motifs (Fig. 2.2, left). Innumerable endek silks containing geometric cepuk patterns with their characteristic rows of gigi barong ("barong teeth"—see Chapter 8) also date from this period. Other designs create a more expansive effect, forming huge flowers and stars (Fig. 2.7). One of these stylized four-petal patterns (Fig. 2.2, right) has survived to the present day and is still woven in one of the purl or palaces of Singaraja in Bulèlèng under the name of tampak beta ("poinsettia blossom").

Figure 2.3: Ritual cloth. Endek on gauze-like cotton. South Bali, first half of 20th century. 71 x 43 cm. MEB IIc 14014.

During this period, the range of figural endek patterns was greatly extended. Depictions of the evil witch Rangda with flaming hair and lolling tongue, as well as of the demon Kalarau (who according to Balinese belief swallows the moon during eclipses) and many other gods and demons—even the much-beloved "go-between" or penasar figures from the Balinese wayang play (Fig. 2.4)—became popular motifs in endek cloths of exceptional artistic merit. The placement of these figures at right angles to the direction of the woven piece—technically a very difficult feat—is required by the way the cloths are worn as garments. Their production is said not to have been confined to Bulèlèng at this time, and the princely courts of Karangasem and Klungkung in eastern Bali are also believed to have been centers of endek weaving. In this period, the puri of Tabanan and Kerambitan also produced a unique geometrically patterned endek with multicolored stripes known as serapit Uncertainty still prevails as to the precise origin of certain coarse, gauze-like endek fabrics with similar geometric patterning that were used as ceremonial cloths in Gianyar and Tabanan (Fig. 2.3). Their patterns and their names, recorded by foreign observers already in the 1930s, suggest a certain affinity with cepuk cloths (see Chapter 8). Like the latter, they were used as ceremonial textiles in rites of passage and as decorations at the courts.

AN OLD TECHNIQUE WITH NEW POTENTIAL

During the 1930s, the tradition of endek production and use began to detach itself from the closed world of the courts and underwent a renewal. In many villages in Tabanan, and even on Nusa Penida, weavers began to make simple endek materials from handspun local cottons or from factory-produced and patterned yarns on traditional cagcag looms. At this time a dyehouse in Denpasar began marketing factory-patterned endek yarns in large quantities. New techniques and new designs appeared employing loud colors on cotton, silk and soon afterwards on rayon, and new segments of the population became potential customers and wearers of the fabrics as a result. What proved to be the decisive factor, besides the abundance of new geometric and floral motifs, was that the production was no longer completely limited to individual cloths in specific sizes with a surrounding border, but consisted to some extent of yard goods with a continuous pattern for sale by the meter.

Figure 2.4: Overskirt (kampuh) with depictions of Wisnu (on horseback), Garuda, Naga and Twalen. Endek and songkèt on silk. Karangasem or Klungkung, first half of 20th century, 154 x 114 cm. MEB IIc 7514.

Figure 2.5: Dyeing of endek bundles. Karangasem, sidemen.

After independence, this development proceeded at an explosive rate. During the 1950s, the first large workshops were set up in Gianyar and these have now grown into important manufactories. In the 1970s, workshops large and small mushroomed all over Bali—in Sidemen, in the Singaraja area, in Sampalan near Klungkung, and in the neighborhood of Negara (Jembrana, west Bali). By 1989-90 there were 160 commercial endek producers in Bali employing a total of 10,042 people, and the production of checked, striped, plain and endek materials from cotton as well as man-made fibers and silk had by this time burgeoned to an average of 188,000 meters per month.

The profusion of new patterns reflects the astonishing creativity and technical skills of the Balinese. The modern endek style has changed, and is now dominated by small repetitive geometric designs suitable for traditional and modern dress as well as for furnishings and decorative fabrics. Some workshops also look to the past and copy patterns from old Balinese and east Indonesian originals, while in Lombok one factory has even commissioned a famous American designer to create new patterns.

At the same time, the endek dyeing and weaving techniques have undergone thorough changes—indeed, far more thorough than those of any other Balinese textile tradition. This process of modernization has been marked by such decisive innovations as the application of new and more efficient winding and warping methods, the use of more convenient tying materials, the introduction of fast-acting synthetic dyestuffs, and a changeover from the traditional cagcag or backstrap loom to the new ATBM loom. A brief look at the individual production stages and a comparison of older methods with newer ones will clearly show how radical these changes have been.

Figure 2.6: Partial dyeing of endek yarn. Karangasem, Sidemen.

The first step in the endek process is the winding of threads and their separation into bundles corresponding to the pattern, so that tyings may be applied. The threads are drawn from bobbins suspended on a rack, and wound on a revolving frame that is the width of the cloth to be woven. The weft threads for four meters of cloth were formerly drawn from four bobbins; today the yarns are drawn from racks with 24 to 32 bobbins, yielding cloth lengths of up to 15 meters.

The tying technique has remained basically unchanged, although now rubber strips or flat plastic string are used instead of vegetable banana bast, as they are easier to apply and make a considerably better resist. Different colors of plastic make it easier to visualize the overall design. Familiar patterns can be reproduced from memory, while complicated and novel motifs are achieved using auxiliary lines drawn from sooted threads and/or a finished cloth or a drawing.

Improved bobbin wheels (Fig. 2.8) and large warping winders have resulted in great economies of labor. Traditional warping equipment such as is commonly used in songkèt home weaving was once employed (see Chapter 3, Figs. 3.9, 3.10), but the length of the warp produced by such means was limited. Today warps of up to a hundred meters in length are prepared on large winders that are driven by electricity in the more modern establishments.

The use of synthetic dyes in place of traditional vegetable dyes commenced very early and resulted in major changes in both technique and form. In 1908, Dutch administrators in Bulèlèng bemoaned the loss of quality in endek materials dyed with gaudy aniline dyes. Today naphthol or indanthrene and helanthrene dyes of Indonesian, Japanese or Bast European manufacture are used to the exclusion of all others (Fig. 2.5). The range of shades has been extended, and the dyeing process has been simplified and shortened. Whereas at one time some tyings were removed and new ones were applied for each new dye bath, today only a single bath is used to dye the basic color. The resists are then removed and the bundles arranged, stretched and hung up; other colors are then applied directly to the threads with a pair of toothed bamboo sticks, and rubbed in (Fig. 2.6). This simplified method of application (nyatri) became established in the 1930s and is possible only with synthetic dyestuffs. The winding-off devices for separating, winding up and spooling the colored weft yarns on bobbins have also been modernized.

Figure 2.7: Overskirt (kampuh). Endek on silk. Bulèlèng, first half of the 20th century. 160 x 106 cm. MEB IIc 19971.

The last and most crucial technical development came with the introduction of faster looms. In 1928, the first experiments were made with treadle looms set up in a few small workshops in Denpasar and Klungkung. During the Second World War, the Japanese introduced a modernized treadle loom on which coarse cotton cloth and sugar bags of coconut fiber yarn had to be woven. This so-called ATBM loom (alat tenun bukan mesin, or "unmechanized loom") was adapted to the needs of endek weaving during the following decades, and its use has been widely promoted by government programs and loans. Today it is used in all major workshops and manufactories (Figs. 2.9, 2.10).

The ATBM is a treadle loom with four pedals, a suspended batten, and two shafts with metal heddles for tabby weaving. Its most important feature, however, is a rapid-throwing mechanism which moves the shuttle to and fro automatically on the backward motion of the batten. On the ATBM, as much as two meters of material can be woven per day. The traditional cagcag loom is still used for weaving endek in less modernized areas, or by women who still weave a combination of endek and songkèt, as the complicated songkèt patterns cannot be produced on the ATBM.

Figure 2.8: Winding of weft yarns with a modern bobbin wheel using a bicycle wheel. Karangasem, Sidemen.

Figure 2.9: Weaving room in an endek manufactory. Karangasem, Sidemen.

Figure 2.10: Weaving endek on an ATBM loom. Karangasem, Sidemen.

CONDITIONS OF PRODUCTION

Endek textiles, usually in the form of finished clothing, are seen today all over the world—either as souvenirs brought home from Bali, or as commercial products on the international market—and it is natural to wonder about the conditions under which the fabrics are made. All endek cloths are still handwoven, and are therefore especially appreciated in industrialized countries where people must usually do with machine-made goods. "Handwoven" means that the cloths have either been made on a handloom at home or in a manufactory by a woman (less often by a man) weaver. Buyers who are not quality-minded often allow themselves to be dazzled by the low prices of cheap, imitation endek prints from Java and Lombok, not realizing the enormous amount of work that goes into the carefully tied bundles of yarn and the dyed patterning of genuine handwoven endek fabrics.

Developments of the past several years have established a clear pattern: only the larger manufacturers are able to adjust rapidly to changing dictates of fashion and demands of the market, while selling their products at competitive prices. Competition is fierce, and only establishments with a keen, market-oriented management and first-class production methods have a chance of survival Individual weavers who try to market their own products can no longer keep up.

Figure 2.11: Half of an outer hip cloth for men (kampuh) with a depiction of the demon Kalarau. Endek and perada on silk. Karangasem or Khmgkung, 1920-30. 143 x 68 cm. MEB IIc 18513a.

Figure 2.12: Selendang. Endek on silk. Bulèlèng, early 20th century. 292 x 48 cm. MEB IIc 17573.

Manufactories vary in size. In the village of Sidemen they have anywhere from 5 to 30 ATBM looms (Fig. 2.9); those in Gianyar have even more. The looms are set up in rows in a large hall and run from early morning—usually just before daybreak—until evening. Goods for sale by the meter are woven on ATBM looms, yielding bales measuring about 80 meters in length. A skillful weaver can produce up to two meters of endek per day.

Some manufactories loan single looms out to women with several small children so they can work at home. Materials, colors and patterns are determined by the manufacturer—usually a family-run operation—and given to the women with appropriate instructions. Thus the homeworkers produce directly for the manufactories, the only difference being that their workplace is at home. The quantity produced by homeworkers, because of the double job they have to do, is noticeably less than that of women in the manufactories, most of whom work an 8-hour day (sometimes longer, as they are paid according to output).

Figure 2.13: Women attending the cremation of a brahman priestess, dressed in formal apparel with a wraparound skirt of songkèt and endek in the geringsing style.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF HOME-WORK

There are significant differences between women who produce songkèt at home and those who produce endek. Women from all levels of society weave songkèt at home, not always out of direct economic needs but sometimes to earn a bit of extra money. Their economic position is thus strong—they become money-earners through their weaving and sometimes defray the greater part of the costs of maintaining a family. Songkèt weavers work on cagcag looms which are their personal property; they select their own yarns, colors and patterns themselves and buy what they need to weave cloths which appeal to them and of which they are proud. They sell to dealers or take the textiles to market themselves. They much prefer not to become dependent on contractors who are an encroachment on their autonomy. If money becomes short, they may always solicit orders for execution with borrowed material and predetermined patterns.

Endek home weaving, on the other hand, is not encountered among households from every social class. Only families with no other means of income will try to borrow a bulky ATBM loom to enable the women to earn money by weaving at home. Since the homeworker receives the' loom and the material on loan, she is highly dependent on her employer. Precisely because she cannot concentrate on her work for any length of time without being disturbed, her quality is often below that of cloths produced in the manufactory. At the same time, depending on her domestic commitments, she is far less dependable when it comes to meeting delivery dates. Factors that can be clearly calculated and foreseen in the manufactory are often much vaguer in the home. These pressures often impose suffering on the home weaver.

A SIDEMEN MANUFACTORY

Let us consider two examples more closely, taking a manufactory first. The entrepreneur, a man of initiative who is receptive to new ideas, has set up a production unit in the precincts of his house compound. He bought the land and built on it with the aid of a bank loan in the 1970s. The layout (Fig. 2.14) has characteristic Balinese features: it is enclosed by a wall with an entrance gate affording access to the lower compound. The sanctuary is located in the northeast—a direction considered particularly pure and divine. Opposite it, to the southwest, are the kitchen and bathroom. This direction is regarded as ritually more "polluted" and is set aside for physical needs. The dwelling and sleeping quarters are also built on the preferred northern side.

Figure 2.14: A weaving manufactory in a compound. 1) Sanctuary with abodes of the gods; 2) Open reception area for customers/employees; 3) Dwelling house; 4) Production hall (19.5 x 8 m.); 5) Storage sheds; 6) Kitchen bath; 7) Experimental corner for new patterns; 8) Veranda with workplace for entrepreneur's wife; 9) Sales shop; 10) Fountain with small garden; 11) Drying frame for dyed yarn.

The manufactory sits in the northwest corner. There as many as 26 people, mainly women, weave, prepare warp and weft, and reel. The southeastern corner is for experiments; there men are busy tying and dyeing bundles of yarn to develop novel patterns. The sales shop is on the southern side, facing the street. In the inner courtyard is a fountain (the compound is, however, supplied with running water), a small flower and herb garden, and a drying frame for the dyed strands of yarn. The actual dyehouse is about 100 meters away from the compound and is annexed to the house of the entrepreneur's second wife. There, two people are engaged in dyeing the warp and the tied sets of weft threads (Fig. 2.5); as many as nine young men are busy dabbing on the additional dyes (Fig. 2.6). The workers, male and female, all come from the lower social classes and are between 14 and 26 years of age. Some have been there since the business began; they started at the age of 15 or 16 and still hold the same jobs today. The looms are operated almost exclusively by women (Fig. 2.10). Men work on the warping and reeling devices (Fig. 2.8) and all the dyers and tyers are also men.

Of the 33 men and women on the payroll of the manufactory, three are from a neighboring village and three from Gianyar. In earlier years, when the owner was starting up, he brought over a number of women endek weavers from Gianyar who were already experienced in using ATBM looms. But now there are enough women from the village who, with a knowledge of songkèt weaving on the cagcag loom, have been retrained on ATBM looms in a free conversion course which takes only a few days. Meanwhile they have given proof of their skill. Fourteen women still work at home in Gianyar for the entrepreneur, likewise four men apply the tyings for pre-determined patterns at home. After the patterned weft yarn has been dyed, the tyings have to be removed before it can be woven. This removal work is contracted out as homework, usually to boys who work part-time while they are still attending school.

Figure 2.15: House compound of a family engaged in home-weaving. 1) Working and dwelling house, veranda with dining area; 2) Weaving room with ATBM loom; 3) Bedroom-cum workroom for songkèt; 4) Bedroom; 5) Sanctuary with abodes of the gods; 6) Open kitchen.

There are five women weavers working at home in Sidemen for this manufactory—married women over 25 years of age who already have large families and cannot absent themselves from home for the whole day. The manufactory has still not acquired the cold, impersonal atmosphere of a proper factory, and a great deal is still informal. One weaving woman sometimes brings her little son with her to work when she has no one to leave him with. Any worker failing to fulfill his or her quota will know about it on payday, as wages are paid per meter of woven material and according to quality.

The entrepreneur's risk and input were and are considerable, for changes on the market affect him directly. Prices have a marked tendency to plummet, and sales are dependent on the vagaries of fashion. The manufactory's production figures for 1988, for example, are only half what they were in 1983. The owner has been able to ride out the crisis by introducing new designs, particularly motifs from old Balinese and east Indonesian cloths. More recently, brightly-colored red checked fabrics without endek have been particularly successful on the market.

Thus, the entrepreneur has prospered. With no land of his own to begin with, he has been able to buy rice and vegetable fields over the course of the years, and to employ others to farm them for him. He owns two rice mills in the village, two house compounds, and a house in a suburb of Denpasar where he goes in his car on business or to visit his older children, who are receiving higher education there. However, as we have noted, the manufactories shave their prices very finely and competition between them is fierce. A single mistake in color, pattern or material, and all that he possesses could be at stake.

HOME-WORK: FAMILY AND COMMISSION WEAVING

The second example deals with a family where the mother is engaged in home-work. The house compound of this particular family is a small complex standing on leased land which belongs to the village temple (see Fig. 2.15). The married couple pay off the lease by working for the temple. They live together with their six children in a house where they also work, and which they built themselves with help from neighbors. They are members of the lower class (like 95 percent of the Balinese population, although the modern money economy with its new opportunities of accumulating wealth is bringing about changes in the previously rigid hierarchic order). One of the three rooms in the house is set aside for endek work, and the ATBM loom occupies almost the entire room. In the middle room the 15-year-old daughter and the mother weave songkèt. The cagcag looms occupy a relatively small space.

The father has leased small plots of land, on which he plants maize and vegetables. If there is no work to do in the fields, he does occasional work in the market, helping to load and unload goods and running errands. He regularly takes his two cows to graze along a grassy roadside or on a tiny pasture. He also looks after the goat and tends to the small-scale gardens within the compound. The oldest child, a son, is already employed part-time as a tyer in an endek workshop although he is still attending school.

Before her family became so large, the mother worked for seven-and-a-half years in a small workshop. For the past two-and-a-half years she has had an ATBM loom at home on loan from her previous employer, for whom she continues to work.

The home-worker rises each day shortly before dawn, attending to her large family before the children—ages 6 to 18—go off to school. One of her jobs is also to fetch water (although the eldest daughter sometimes does this for her). From 8 to 10 a.m. she works at the ATBM, and then sees to her housework, goes shopping and prepares the midday meal. At 1 p.m. she returns to the loom for another two hours, after which she must once again tend to domestic chores. After the evening meal she sits down at the cagcag loom from 7 to 10 p.m. to weave songkèt. The aim of this work, she tells us, is to obtain some (relative) freedom for herself. She wants to earn enough money to buy yarn and gold threads for work which she elects, so that she will not be under the pressure of total dependance upon an employer—at least not in this field. Her hope is to work as an independent producer at least for a few months of the year, but this does not always work out. When school fees and electricity bills have to be paid, there is no' money left for new investments and, without these, independance is unattainable. And her exertions begin all over again.

—B. Hauser-Schdublin and M.L. Nabholz-Kartaschoff