Product Description

Sumatran Tampan 4

Material: Cotton
Style: Lampung, South Sumatra, Indonesia
Size: Length 77 cm, Width 71 cm
Order Number: MHSST4

South Sumatra has one of the most splendid and diverse textile traditions in Indonesia. The Paminggir people, who date back to the early 15th century,  were strictly hierarchical. Status was displayed by ownership and use of certain textiles. They practised ancestor worship. The ship motif on their ritual textiles was common, symbolising safe transport in their rites of passage ceremonies.

There are three main ship cloths, depending on their size and use: small square tampan, tatibin and the long rectangular palepai. Weavers copied the patterns from old pieces.

The palepai were only used by aristocrats along the south coast. They were hung behind the family on the wall during ceremonies or council meetings. They were not used in gift exchanges and stayed with the families.

Tampans were used during rites of passage. They were highly valued textiles used in ceremonial gifts of exchange. Patterns could be highly abstract. Sometimes there are ships, sometimes carrying animals.

These textiles ceased to be made by the beginning of the 20th century, possibly because of the decline of the pepper trade in South Sumatra, as well as the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883, which killed thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands of Javanese migrated during the 20th century, which reduced the original Lampung population by 90%.

19th – early 20th century.

Map of Sumatra.

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