Sasak Batik Costume

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Sasak Costume, Dress, and Clothing

Sasak is one of the 700 languages spoken in Indonesia, with 260 million people. The Sasak language and the people who speak it are called Sasak.

Originally from the island of Lombok, located in the province of West Nusa Tenggara, the Sasak people are a distinct ethnic group. Many Sasak people currently work and live on the Gilis, which are part of the Philippines. Lombok is an Indonesian island located east of Bali. The Gilis are a group of islands off the northwest coast of the Indonesian island of Lombok.

Some Sasak people work as farmers, fishermen, and artisans, among other things. Beautiful weavings and other crafts may be found in the Sasak villages of Lombok and other parts of Indonesia. Some Sasak people travel to and from Lombok to find work in other parts of the country, such as the Gilis.

Islam is the religion of most Sasak people. They are sometimes split into two groups: "Lima Waktu" and "Wektu Telu." The Lima Waktu are the people who make up the bulk of the Sasak people. They are Muslim and pray five times daily, seven days a week. The Sasak people, who are members of the Wektu Telu tribe, are concentrated mostly in settlement of Bayan. In addition, they are Muslims. There are, however, Buddhist, Hindu, and animalistic traditions that have influenced their religious practices and beliefs. They also pray but only three times a day rather than five.

Sasak Batik Costume

Sasak Batik is an Indonesian word for a general wax-resist dyeing method commonly used on costumes or textiles such as scarves and shawls. The name is derived from the Javanese word amba, which means "to write," and the Javanese word for dot or point, titik, which means "to point." More than a thousand years have passed since the invention of the technology, which may have originated in ancient Egypt or Sumeria.

Batik can be found in several countries in West Africa, such as:

  • Nigeria
  • Cameroon
  • Mali
  • India
  • Sri Lanka
  • Bangladesh
  • Iran
  • Thailand
  • Malaysia

However, the art of batik is thought to have grown the fastest in Indonesia, where some of the best batik cloth item in the world is still made today.

Traditional Sasak batik costume is created by hand-drawing designs with hot wax on prepared cloth, using specific instruments known as cantins to create the finished product. Designs are based on established patterns, some of which have been used for hundreds or thousands of years. The wax coats the skin's regions that need to be protected from the dyeing process. The material is then colored, and more sections are treated with wax before being dipped in a second dye color to complete the dying process. Continue this method until all of the colors have been applied. It might take as long as six months to create a high-quality batik, and these pieces are highly sought after.

In Indonesia, the Sasak, also known as the Sassak, are the biggest ethnic group on the island of Lombok, part of the Lesser Sunda Islands. Approximately 2.6 million people lived on the island at the turn of the twenty-first century, constituting most of the island's total population. It is the native language of the Sasak, which is either the Austronesian language of Sasak or the Balinese language with a distinct Sasak flavor. Lombok was a single island until the Dutch took it in 1895. The Sasak have been under the political control of Bali since the 18th century when they were the only people there.

The Sasak People

The Sasak are primarily subsistence farmers who grow wet rice, coffee, vegetables, coconuts, bamboo, sugarcane, and pandanus. They are concentrated in the center portion of the island, where they are the most densely populated ethnic group. They may live or work together in tiny villages of 5–20 families or huge communities of several thousand people. There is a kampu (religious complex) in the center of the village where rituals are held.

Even though they are adherents of Islam, they recognize the existence of social divisions based on caste and practice two forms of the religion: Wetu Telu ("Three Times") and Wetu Lima ("Five Times"), which are named after the number of times per day that practitioners pray, with five times being the standard Muslim practice.

Wetu Telu is mainly a local custom with Islamic alterations, and its adherents are mostly found in little communities where they practice their beliefs. Members of the Wetu Lima religion, on the other hand, tend to live in bigger communities. Both Muslim and traditional religious authorities are involved in the selection of village officials, which includes the selection of a chief. Islamization has helped the Sasak keep their patrilineal system strong, which means that men have more power over family structure, inheritance, and the economy.

Sasak Language

The Indonesian archipelago has more than 17,000 islands, making it the world's largest. Indonesia has a population of around 242 million people in total.

Bahasa Indonesia plays an important role in the languages of several regions:

  • The native language of 43 million people in Indonesia, who speak it as their first language.
  • It is the second language of 156 million Indonesians, making it the world's most populous country.
  • It is one of more than 700 languages spoken in Indonesia, but many other languages are spoken there as well.

The introduction of Bahasa Indonesia was intended to make it possible for everyone in Indonesia to communicate with one another. Indonesia's official language is Bahasa Indonesia, which means "Indonesian language." It is taught in a variety of settings around the country.

The vast majority of Indonesians speak the Bahasa Indonesia language. It is used for communication in various contexts, including the media, government, trade, etc. When speaking with relatives or friends from the same ethnic group, individuals communicate in their native language rather than Bahasa Indonesia, the national language.

Javanese, spoken on the Indonesian island of Java, is the country's second most widely spoken language. Javanese is the native language of 98 million Indonesians, followed by Sundanese, which has 42 million native speakers in the population. Sundanese is a language that is spoken in West Java and Banten.

The Sasak Lifestyle

Lombok has traditionally been controlled by the Majapahit prime minister, Patih Gajah Mada. Lombok was invaded by the Gelgel Balinese kingdom in the early 16th century, bringing a wave of Balinese people and their culture to the Indonesian island of Lombok. Balinese people make up around 10–15 percent of the population of Lombok nowadays. Other indigenous peoples live on the island of Lombok, including the Tionghoa-Peranakan, Javanese, Sumbawa, and Arab Indonesians, as well as many other groups of people.

Conversion to Islam occurred during the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The Wetu Telu is a new religion that came about because of a mix of religious beliefs. Input from Islamic and Hindu-Buddhist principles was combined to make a new religion.

The Wetu Telu, which translates as "three times," was a traditional concept held by the Sasak people that was prevalent in their culture. In recent years, however, it has centered around Bayan, a town located north of Lombok. The Wetu Telu refers to the number of prayer times per day, as opposed to the stricter Waktu Lima or Wetu Lima, which means "five times" in Arabic, which is performed by orthodox Muslims and refers to the number of prayer times per day. We learn from our guide, Karyadi, that a community in North Lombok called Malaka has been directly affected by Islamic missionaries from Melaka, West Malaysia.

Those who adhere to pre-Islamic beliefs are called Sasak Boda, a reference to the original religion practiced in the area, Boda, which is ancestral worship (and has nothing to do with Buddhism). Because of where it is, Hindus flock to a temple in the village of Pura Batu Bolong.

 

Sasak Family Life

Kinship is a two-way street, albeit the paternal line is emphasized in some instances, such as when it comes to the inheritance of noble status or other positions. The wirang kadang, comprising paternal grandparents, father, paternal uncles, and paternal cousins, is responsible for most of the rights and duties.

The nuclear family is the most fundamental household unit, which may sometimes include a bereaved parent, a divorced child, and adopted children. After the death of their parents, aristocratic brothers and their families often stay on the same property together.

Marriage between cousins is the desired arrangement, although marriage between uncles and nieces or aunts and nephews is frowned upon. On the other hand, Aristocratic couples are more likely to live with the groom's family than the bride's.

The typical person has three divorces over his or her lifetime. In the Wetu Lima culture, children remain with their father; in the Wetu Telu culture, they can remain with either parent. In other cases, the woman will leave her husband's home and return to her parents as a show of unhappiness with a spouse who is adulterous or a poor provider, resulting in a divorce.

 

Sasak Food

Rice is the Sasak people's staple food, accompanied by cooked cassava and sweet potatoes as side dishes. The significant meals are served between 12:00 and 2:00 p.m. for lunch and 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. for dinner.

A breakfast of rice, maize, or boiled bananas with coffee is served to the privileged few who can do so. Fried corn served with coffee is a comforting dish during the rainy season.

Fruits still need to be a regular part of the peasants' diet. Instead, they buy them from stores in town. For Muslim celebrations, dishes such as reket rasul, a yellowed glutinous rice dish with chicken, and jaja tuja, steamed glutinous rice cakes with shredded coconut, are cooked.

 

Sasak Clothing

There are popular Sasaks clothing worn by Sasak people for a long time:


  1. For Men: Sasak men customarily dress in a Sasak Batik sarong in blackish hues for everyday use, with the longer front-hanging edge held up by the waist when walking. A breast cloth made of white or gold thread and an open short-sleeved shirt is added to the ensemble.
  2. For Women: Women dress in a batik sarong, a long-sleeved kebaya tunic, and a gold-thread belt to symbolize wealth.
  3. General Rules: Men and women both dress in black baju lambungs, which are shirts with oversized sleeves that are cut short in the back over their sarongs and sashes at the waist. Older folks and heavy smokers carry receptacles for cigarettes and tobacco, and many ladies carry carriers for betel nut chewing gum as well. Men's ceremonial dress includes a sapu, a batik fabric head wrap with a white stripe along the center used as a head wrap.

 

Sasak Weaving

According to the guide for the demonstration center and museum, more than 300 individuals live there. We were taken aback by the Sasak rice storage buildings, constructed with ylang ylang and borak at the top. We couldn't stop ourselves from taking selfies.

Each thread is around four meters long, colored by plant parts (such as saffron), and a simple pattern may take up to a week to finish. Weaving is considered a valuable talent among the Sasak people and is used to guarantee that women are eligible for marriage. Consequently, kids begin learning to weave as young as seven years old. Meanwhile, the men are out in the fields, cultivating cotton (for weaving) and rice, among other things.

A shawl, sarong, or bedspread is made in the comfort of one's own home, and after it is finished, it is carried to a gallery where it may be sold. Profits are distributed to the members of the community. There are, however, specific difficulties. It was noted by the guide that "drought, particularly during the dry season, makes rice and cotton cultivation difficult." In addition, the ladies work up to eight hours a day to support themselves.

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