Batik ... Indonesian Textile

How Batik Craft Artists Make Batik Fabric
The patterns to be dyed into the cloth are drawn with a canting, a wooden 'pen' fitted with a reservoir for hot, and liquid wax.
In batik workshops, circles of women sit working at clothes draped over frames, and periodically replenish their supply of wax by dipping their canting into a central vat. Some draw the art designs directly on the cloth from memory and others wax over faint charcoal lines.
This method of drawing patterns in wax on fine machine-woven cotton was practiced as a form of meditation by the female courtiers of Central Java. Traditionally, batik tulis (tulis means 'write' in Indonesian) is produced by women.


19th Century Batik Method
In the 19th century, the application of waxed patterns with a large copper stamp or cap saved the batik fashion industry from competition with cheap printed cloth. You can still find these batik stamps sometimes in antique shops.
The semi-industrial nature of cap work allows it to be performed by men. Batik motifs recall characters from the Hindu epics, plants, animals, sea creatures and gamelan melodies.
In Surakarta rich creams and browns are juxtaposed with tinges of yellowish gold.
White, undyed cloth is left to contrast with the sombre opulence of brown and blue dyes in Yogjakarta.
The colour palettes of the north coast were influenced by lively marine-trade and the textile traditions of the Chinese and Arab mercantile communities living in port and coastal towns.

The Symbolic Meaning of Batik Motifs
As in other fields of Javanese tradition the motifs of Batik material especially with older antique patterns symbolizes something. This might be one of the reasons why people still adore batik fabrics up to present date. Some of the Motifs are:

- Sido Mulyo
- Sido Dadi
- Satrio Wibowo
- Tikel Asmorodono

All these antique motifs have great meaning. Just as with crystals and gem stones it is thought that the woman or man wearing batik fabrics bearing these motifs will be furnished with what she or he wears.

The Cities of Batik
Yogyakarta and Surakarta are the art centres of traditional antique designs of batiks, whilst the north coastal town of Pekalongan is the centre of more modern batiks, using more floral and birds motifs.
There are some well-known artists of batik design in Jogya and Surakarta, as well as some big batik manufacturers with famous trademarks. The growing production of batik makes way to the establishment of mori (woven cotton fabrics) factories in Jogya and Central Java.

borobudur ...
is the largest Buddhist monument in South-east Asia. Its overall form is that of a mandala (show in plan and section below). Some scholars believe that the site was originally intended as a Hindu temple, but was converted to a Buddhist monument after construction had begun.The finished temple recreates in minature a microcosm of the Buddhist cosmos. The pathway up the temple spirals around the center so that the pilgrim may view over a kilometer of bas-reliefs depicting events found in Buddhist sutras and in the Buddha's life. The base of the temple is square, perhaps to symbolize the profanity of the earth. As the pilgrim rises, the squareness gives way to circular rings on the upper terraces, symbolizing the heavens. The rings are composed of miniature stupas, each holding a Buddha inside. This level was probably meant to represent the Buddhist world of "formlessness" in which various Buddhas dwell. At the center of the upper platform is a giant empty stupa. It is not known whether the stupa was always empty, but if it was, the stupa's emptiness conveys the symbolism of having arrived at nirvana where the chain of rebirths finally ends.The form of the temple is rather unique for its age. Several centuries later, similar (but smaller) mandala temples were built in Cambodia and Thailand. Unlike Borobudur, those temples have "Mt. Meru" at the center, not a large stupa. Mt. Meru is the sacred Buddhist mountain that is believed to reach up into the heavens from the earth far below.

Indonesian Cooking Receipt

Fried Rice Receipt ...

ingredients ...
2 plates white rice
2 cloves galic, finely chopped
5 shallots, finely chopped
2 red chilies, finely chopped
1 tomato, thinly sliced
1 egg, make omelette then thinly sliced
1 spoon sweet soysauce1 spoon salty soysauce
2 spoons cooking oil
1 teaspoon salt as you need1 teaspoon pepper

How to ...

Saute garlic, shallot and red chilies till nice aroma appears than add sliced tomato and stir a while. Fresh tomato can be replaced with 1 spoon tomato sauce or tomato pasta which is added the time when rice and soysauce are addedAdd rice, both sweet and salty soysauce then mix well
Add salt and pepper, mix well again
Serve with sliced omelette as topping
It can also be added with fried sliced shallot on the top

you may add omlet if you want. mmmmmm ...