Jembrana, Bull Racing Center

Weavers at Work

Foreign artists living in Bali often capture traditional Balinese life as subject matter, especially the domestic activities of women. During Dutch civilization for instance, Willem Gerrard Hofker (The Hague 1902 ‘’Amsterdam 1981”) created some paintings on the subject of weaving. One of the best of his paintings in the genre of weaving was entitled ”Ni Tjawan and Little Ketoet at a weaving Loom”, oil on canvas, 73 x 100 cm. , 1939.

The painting appeared in a South East Asian Picture Auction by Christies, Singapore in l996. A little girl was watching her elder sister, a weaving artisan when she was at work at a rice granary in their Balinese compound. The gesture of open arms, hands and fingers are interesting to look at. Her body is not wrapped in cloth and her eyes are closed when she is at work. Her long hair is fastened with cloth and she wears traditional earrings locally known as subeng. Just imagine how beautiful and romantic she is. During weaving, usually after cooking time, she creates two sounds continually from the wooden blade; ceg ceg in the loom and plung when the blade is thrown out above the wooden tom-tom.
The sounds tell her neighbours that she is at work and invite he boyfriend to come. Her boyfriend loves to sit beside her, if she continues to work in the evening, she works under a kerosene lamp. It is true that the life of weaving is interesting and romantic. That is the reason why artists, both foreign and local, capture it as the source of inspiration to create such a story be it a novel, painting, song or dance. 

Hand Weaving Demonstration
Nowadays, is the traditional skill of hand weaving still alive? As the Balinese tradition based on the Hindu religion, the tradition is well and truly still alive. The weaving cloths with many motives and styles, of cotton and gold yarn are used in wall decorations and for wrapping around statues and shrines as well as for traditional costumes, especially wedding dress, cremation, temple festivals or tooth-filing. A rapid growth of tourism on the island has been supporting the weaving progress; woven cloth is bought for both fine art and souvenirs. Weaving demonstrations are interesting to watch as a tourist attraction.
Where can you see this? As the home industry, hand weaving can be found in some villages throughout the island; Jembrana in west Bali, 100 kms west of Denpasar is no exception. The region that is known as the centre of bull race and the home of jegog also offers virgin nature and traditional hand weaving demonstrations at four neighbouring villages in the eastern part of the town. Visit the villages of Batuagung, Dangintukadaya, Dauhwaru and Sangkaragung. All of the woman weavers work in their own homes, from early morning until late in the evening. For those wishing to buy woven cloths from the village, the price is cheaper than in the main markets. (Lanus Sumatra)