Woman's ceremonial skirt (tapis inuh)

The women of the Sumatran province of Lampung produced spectacular textiles in diverse styles. The eruption of Krakatoa in 1883 is said to have destroyed many weaving villages, and the decline in the pepper market further reduced women’s abilities to produce prestige textiles.

This ceremonial skirt cloth consists of two panels sewn lengthwise together. The entire length would have been sewn into a tube skirt, like the one to your left. The textile shows two types of decoration, rows of ikat and sections embroidered with silk thread. The ikat is particularly impressive as it has nine unique patterns across each of the eight rows of the textile. Each of these intricate patterns was tied and dyed into the warp threads of the textile before weaving. The rows of silk embroidery which bisect each panel display a pattern called cumi-cumi (squid). This is likely a recent appellation; scholars theorize that the sinuous tendril-like figures may be related to ancestor spirits.