#17: gerinsing cloth

8.5" x 25", cotton, double ikat gauze, brown, perfect condition, some weaving defect, indonesia

gerinsing cloth of tenganan ...produced by the double ikat method - a technique in which resist patterns are applied to both the warp and the weft before weaving, so the final pattern appears only upon completion.

as the story goes..."one evening, seated on a medicinal selegui shrub, bhatara indra was reveling in the radiance of the moonlight and the beauty of the stars. these resolved themselves into images and patterns which, from that time onward, were destined to become the sacred raiments of the balinese." ( from BALINESE TEXTILES, Periplus Editions, 1991)
The god indra then taught the girls and women the art of making double ikat cloths. these fabrics are used in ceremony and are wrapped around the body to actively shield a human being from threats during rites of passage, when a person undergoes a critical transition from one phase of life to the next.