Tampan Pasisir (Ship Cloth)
Unknown Artist
1800s
Medium
tabby weave with supplementary weft; cotton
Dimensions
{"overall":{"height":0.724,"width":0.667}}
Classification
Textile
Department
Textiles
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of The Textile Arts Club
Accession Number
1984.50
About this artwork
For several hundred years, until early in the present century, textiles of this type played an essential, symbolic role in virtually every southern Sumatran ritual. Since there is no written mythological literature in Indonesia, the exact meaning of the "tampan pasisir" (as this ritual cloth is called) remains unknown. Nevertheless, this fine weaving must be a kind of narrative. Ships, of course, were essential to the life of these island people, and using one as an image for safe passage from o...