Batik : One of Proud Genuine Indonesian Locar Heritage

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“Indonesia…..Tanah Air Beta, Pusaka Abadi nan Jaya”. That ’s a fragment of Indonesian folksong, which means “Indonesia is my motherland, an everlasting and glory heritage”. I am proud to be Indonesian, as the most multi-local-cultural nation, with 224 ethnics spreading in  17.504 island (including  9.634 unnamed Island)[1].  That’s why no wonder Indonesia has very many local heritages. The genuine heritage from Indonesia, which will never found in other places in this world wide.

One of very famous local heritage is Batik. Batik is a kind or genre of fashion with unique motifs.  Batik is generally thought of as the most quintessentially Indonesian textile. Motifs of flowers, twinning plants, leaves buds, flowers, birds, butterflies, fish, insects and geometric forms are rich in symbolic association and variety; there are about three thousand recorded batik patterns [2]. The batik’s motif can be made either manually by hand using a tool called “canting” as depicted in the figure or automatically using machine. I m sure you bet that the hand made one is much more expensive than the machine made one. But, for your information all of them are still affordable.  There are some places in Indonesia that very famous for its batik, such as Yogyakarta, Solo, and Pekalongan. These places are located in central of Java.

Indonesians never aware about this local heritage for many years. Batik is considered as a traditional, not modern fashion.Even, young people of Indonesian feels ashame  to wear this kind of fashion. It is only wear in traditional ceremony such as wedding party. Until once day our neighbor country, Malaysia, claimed it as their local heritage while promoting their tourism worldwide.  Since the day, Indonesians angry to know about that and since the day, Indonesian start awaring this local heritage.  Now,  batik become a trend  back in Indonesia. That’s what they called “modern batik”. Now Batik is worn anytime and anyplace, not only in traditional affair such as wedding ceremony. Even, in any governmental institution, it is compulsory to wear batik, one day a week, usually on Friday. That’s what they called “Batik Day”.

Sometime we forget, that we have a forgettable worthiness heritage. We just realized it when, it has been lost or stolen by others.
References:
[1] http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembicaraan:Daftar_suku_bangsa_di_Indonesia
[2] http://www.indonesianmusic.com/batik.htm