The History of Lampung Batik Motifs

The History of Lampung Batik Motifs and Explanations – Lampung province is the southernmost province on the island of Sumatera with the capital Bandar Lampung, a combination of Teluk Betung and the twin Tanjung Karang. On the north side directly with Bengkulu province as well as South Sumatera. The geographical area of Lampung Province is located between : 103º 40′ – 105º 50′ North East Longitude – South and 6º 45′ – 3º 45′ South Latitude.

We need to know together that Lampung has a traditional woven fabric, namely Lampung tapis cloth which is the result of weaving from cotton threads with natural flora-fauna motifs and embriodered using gold or silver threads, the fabric is used as a traditional clothing material for the Lampung tribe.

THe History of Lampung Batik Motifs

Lampung batik emerged because of the idea of one of the Javanese residents who had lived in the Lampung area for a long time, namely Gatot Kartiko with the creative idea of developing batik patterns or motifs from traditional Lampung woven fabrics, namely tapis and siger fabrics. The development of Lampung batik was quite rapid when it was started to be worn by the former governor of Lampung, Mr.Sjachroedin Z.P. THe meaning and philoshopy of LAmpung batik is not like that of Javanese batik in general, it’s more about the richness of batik motifs that show the identity of Lampung it self. If viewed from the point of view of the history of Lampung batik, it does not show historical facts that traced to a batik culture in the past, so that Lampung batik exists because it was developed on a business basic that accentuates regional characteristics from the City of Lampung itself as well as Jember batik made besause of business factors combined with the characteristics of the city. Lampung batik became increasingly popular when worn by the former president of the Republic of Indonesia who loved Indonesian batik, namely Mr.Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono when attending the HIMPI event in Lampung. The variety of Lampung batik when viewed from the manufacturing process, there are 3 types of batik, namely batik tulis, stamped batik, and written batik with full Lampung motifs. The price of a piece of Lampung atik cloth is almost the same as the price of batik in general, starting from the range of 74 thousand rupiahs to the milion, depending on the type of batik cloth materials itself.

The year 2012 was the year of Lampung batik where the ministers at that time wore Lampung batik in their work activities to give a domino effect on Lampung batik. The international community is starting to recognize and be interested in wearing the Lampung batik motif as an additional fashion reference for them, especially fashionistas and masculine men. Unfortunately, many Indonesian designers have not used this Lampung motif in their designs, perhaps because of the philosophical meaning of the batik cloth itself.

In another reference to the history of Lampung batik motifs, it is stated that Lampung was familiar with the art of cloth starting in the 18th century, as evidenced by the existence of tapis cloth (woven fabric), sebage, pawns, teppal, cindai, selekap, trays, and peleppai (ship patterned cloth). The development of the Lampung batik motif began in 1970 by a Lampung culturalist, Andrean Sangaji, who can be said to have helped popularize the boat batik motif and the tree of life or tree of life batik motif which was strongly influenced by past Hindu-Buddhist culture. The currently developing Lampung batik motif is a modified Lampung batik motif or creation to add to the rich variety of Lampung batik motifs so that Indonesian batik lovers have many choices such as gamolan, butterfly, siger, and elephant motifs.

Lampung Batik Motif Images

Lampung batik clothes model

Taking motifs that have characteristics around the city of Lampung makes Lampung batik itself able to provide a new freshness or oasis in the variety of Indonesian batik. Currently, it is not only a workplace or other official event, but the Lampung batik clothes are now starting to be rich in combinations of fashionable designs.