A Gorgeous Tampan Ship Cloth from Sumatra

A textile full of soul!

From the Kota Agung region, Sumatra. Pre 1900s.

A rare design in Tampans featuring a colonial Dutch ship and the associated ancestral tree.

Note the use of the fantastic natural yellow. And the colorful fish swimming in the sea.

Why is one ancestor rendered in an anomalous red color?

Why is there the one ancestor inside the ship and other shorter one below the ship’s hull in the right hand corner?

WHat is the connections between these two?

Who is the figure in the centre? And the one in the extreme left?

Why does one ancestor have ringed hands? What does that mean?

Other Tampans such as the one below have a structure that is easy to hypothesize about. But the one above leaves the possibilities open ended.

Am left mesmerised. By the colors, by the drawing and by the story contained within it!

jm

Oct 2013