In 1996 I stayed a few months in West Sumatra learning the Indonesian language. During this time I also got to know the songket weaving which is typical for West Sumatra. Comparing the songket textiles sold at the local markets with the old songkets I could admire in the museums, I soon noticed the decline in the songket weaving handicraft, which was once flourishing.
What is songket? In Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei songket is the term used for the supplementary weft weaving technique, also known under the name of brocade weaving. The characteristic feature of songket is that the pattern is made by weaving supplementary weft threads, either continuous (going all the way across the warp) or discontinuous (in separate motifs).
In Indonesia, songkets with metallic threads are not only woven in West Sumatra, but also in Aceh, on the Eastern coast of North Sumatra, in Palembang and Jambi in South Sumatra, as well as in other parts of Indonesia like Sambas in West Kalimantan, Bali and Sumbawa .
Map showing the songket weaving places in Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia
The golden age of songket weaving in West Sumatra lasted from approximately 1850 until 1920. After World War I, economic crises and natural disasters led to decline and finally, with the occupation of the Japanese in 1942, Minangkabau songket weaving came to a complete standstill.
Individual Minangkabau women, for example Ibu Sanuar in Pandai Sikek, began weaving again in the 1960s, but mothers had failed to pass the traditional patterns and techniques to a generation of daughters, and the new weavers could not replicate the fineness and variety of the old motifs.
Knowledge about traditional patterns and pattern arrangements was almost lost.
In Pandai Sikek, mainly the patterns of Pitalah and Batipuh (which are in the same district Sepuluh Koto) were - and still are - used. In an old cloth from Pitalah (author's collection) both ends are patterned, with quite simple motifs but with a certain arrangement of the motifs; the middle part is plain.
The bamboo sprout motif is simple but quite dominant and nicely done
