Culture Of National Costume -- Indonesian Clothing Culture

The same applies to 300 different nationalities in Indonesia. For a long time, Indonesians have expressed their social status, identity and belief through their clothing habits. Even today, these traditional clothes are still regarded as a symbol of noble blood.

According to the Indonesian tradition, textile and batik work is done by women, some of which are very complex and time-consuming, so a traditional wax cloth will eventually take a year or even longer to complete.

The traditional waxes of Java are hand painted wax dyed fabrics. The best craftsmen in Indonesia use a small "writing" tool, which has 9 different sizes. They draw the wax on the cloth in a very ingenious way, such as hand drawing, instead of simply applying it.
　
In sixteenth Century, batik was first popular among royal and aristocrats in Central Java. The traditional colors of waxed fabrics in Central Java are indigo and light blue, and batik garments with special designs or special themes can only be worn by royalty and aristocrats. According to the Indonesian tradition, the wider the stripe or wavy line of the batik is, the higher the grade. At the ceremony of Java, people can judge whether they have royal lineage through a batik cloth worn by a person.

The patterns of wax cloth are various, from Arabia calligraphy, European bouquet and Chinese phoenix to Japanese cherry blossoms and peacocks in India, reflecting various cultural influences. This process is often handed down from generation to generation and is closely related to the cultural identity of the Indonesian people.

Other areas in Indonesia often use the theme of everyday life as a pattern of wax and dyed cloth, such as drawing flowers, nature, animals, folk customs or personas on batik cloth. There are various special batik fabrics designed according to celebrations such as marriage, pregnancy, and other forms of art. These complex designs greatly enhance the artistic value of the batik cloth.

Batik clothing even plays a central role in religious ceremonies, such as the Royal wax cloth as a tribute to God at the ceremony.

The batik fabric connoisseurs believe that as a work of art, the Java area's batik cloth is clearly at its highest level.

In the early twentieth Century, the local batik fabric artists invented the advanced batik dyeing and printing process, greatly reducing the time relative to hand painted wax dyeing. As a batik printing and dyeing fabric, wax and dyed fabrics are widely disseminated and used in different cultures all over the world.

The advantage of the batik dyeing and printing process is that it can be produced in large quantities and ensures the uniformity of patterns. With machine printing entering the batik and dyed fabric industry, all kinds of batik fabrics have entered ordinary people's homes. Indonesia's batik printing process shows its creativity and mental state through its color and patterns.

In October 2, 2009, UNESCO identified Indonesia's batik cloth as a masterpiece of human oral and intangible heritage, aiming to encourage local communities to protect this batik process and to inherit these forms of culture.

Batik cloth has a high aesthetic value and fully represents the clothing culture of Indonesia.