Visit to the Lampung State Museum

Lampung has been very close to my heart since I began collecting shipcloths. Reading about the place, hearing about the volcano Krakatoa, reading about the textile culture, made Lampung larger than life over the years.

Since it was so close to Singapore, it felt like I could visit any time at moment’s notice, without much planning. Only a trigger was needed to push me into action. And that is exactly how it played out.

In mid-June I discovered Kain Inuh on the internet. I can’t remember how I came across the first one… but then the frantic hunt began. It wasn’t the embroidery that excited me … it was the ikat base that completely swept me off my feet. In the recent past I’d become familiar with Iban Ikats, Pidan ikats and of course Patan Patolas. All of those were well structured patterns, repeating across the textile with an order that could be called rigid and strict.

In Ikats, the craft is so hard, that the creators probably thought – let’s limit the creativity to the act of designing a few motifs and the arrangement of these on the textile… rather than allow a free creative hand in the design. And so we see repetition and symmetry especially as the ikats across the regions grow finer and denser. In Sumba Ikats with large drawings we do see larger scenes with just one repetition – but in the fine Cambodian ikats or Patolas we usually see 3-4 motifs repeated multiple times over the textile.

Ikats from Lampung differed so dramatically on this single aspect that I was dazzled. And kept searching for more and more and more. And for once, I found the internet to be poverty-stricken – there just weren’t enough images of Kain Inuh or Ikat Lampung textiles out there…. I could find less than a dozen!!

Passion begins to languish when it is starved …. and so though I kept looking and searching into the early hours of the morning, I was ready to give up.

And then on page 11 or 12 of google search results suddenly I came upon a blog written in Bahasa Indonesia. It has some pictures, and the one with the Kain wasn’t what I was looking for. But there was a picture of another textile …. another category that I have been addicted to. So google worked with me through their ‘translate’ service and helped me to figure out the subject matter and the people mentioned. Then, using Google maps I looked for the name, address and contact details of the shop mentioned in the article. (Bless you Google!). Now this article was old -written in 2017 after which the world saw the pandemic. People had died, businesses had shut down and the world was no longer the same. So with very little hope, but hope nonetheless, I sent a message to the number listed.

Nine times out of ten, my pursuits born on a whim and fueled by passion lead to nothing fruitful other than the adventure of seeking out. But I know that I wouldn’t have been able to sleep until I tried all that I could in my power to reach that Tampan. And I also know that even if the result were to be disappointing, I would recover quickly because I would have dodged that soul-crushing regret that “I should have tried that ONE last thing”.

And so that message was sent.

And next morning when I opened my eyes (and my whatsapp) I heard back. I was so excited that I think it alarmed my little puppy as we both got into some intense joyous animated playing and prancing.

The dealer and I struggled through the communication and after an exchange of photographs and negotiations, a plan fell into place. I booked myself to travel to Bandar Lampung – just half a day’s journey from Singapore.

And that is how I came to be at the Lampung State Museum.

Here are pictures of the museum and mainly the textiles.

The role of textiles in Indonesian culture is very central. Rituals and traditions revolve around them.

1. Textiles used at Birth

2) Textiles used in Wedding Ceremonies

3) Textile used at Death

4) Textiles used at Life-Transition ceremoines – Shipcloths

5) Kain Inuh Textiles (Will write a special note for this group shortly)

6) Other beautiful sights in the museum.

Nine times out of ten, my attempts lead to dead ends. But it is worth that one time out of ten, when the universe brings it all together to create magic.

That trip to Lampung was nothing short of magic.

Textiles led me there. But the people I traveled with, the dealer and her family, became so close to my heart – that it seemed like that was the main purpose of the trip. Through textiles, through some mad hippie decision, through some help from google, the universe arranged for all of us to meet in this lifetime.

We met, we laughed, we sang bollywood songs, we bonded and we parted. All in joy.

Such is the hippie life. Enjoying the temporary and the transient. Embracing the impermanence and therefore extracting every iota of soul-energy possible from every experience. All we have are those moments. And of course the 4 textiles that came back with me. Hehe 🙂

More on the textiles of Lampung coming soon.

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jaina mishra / wovensouls.com

MORE MUSEUM WALKS: https://wovensouls.org/category/museum-walks