Ceremonial cloth (pua kumbu)

Iban women on Borneo wove large cotton textiles, often ornamented with intricate ikat patterns and dyed with deep reds or rust browns. Besides the complex coiling patterns like the ones to your right, Iban weavers also depicted culturally significant animals like snakes and crocodiles.

Much attention has been paid to how to “read” Iban pua. Identifying motifs is complicated by the fact that due to their sacred character some heirloom textiles are given honorific titles that may not relate to the motifs. Some scholars focus on the importance the weavers give to other factors —the age of a cloth, the depth of its dye, the difficulty of its ikat patterning.

On ceremonial occasions pua line the walls of traditional longhouses, they cover shrines, and they lie beneath offerings. These textiles connect the world of men and the world of the gods and ancestors, inviting those unseen forces to visit and protect those below.