The History of Wonderful Batik from Indonesia

When we discuss about clothes, we talk about something that cover our body and become the important factor of the look that we have. Yes, by wearing attractive clothing, we also get beautiful look. Today, yow will discover many kind of fashion art. They all  are wonderful. but, there’s one fashion art that make all people that wear it seems more stylish, traditional as well as natural. The fashion art that we’re discussion here is batik. This is one of the old fashion artwork from Indonesia. But now, batik is generally known as the world heritage. And, lots of people all over the world, including Hollywood celebrity, wear this wonderful art of fashion.

JLA Brandes and F.A. Sutjipto, both of them are archeologist from Dutch and Indonesia, said that the story of batik in Indonesia started in 6th to 7th century. Although the system to use wax on fabric was found in Egypt  in the 4th century ( for fabric that use to wrap the mummy) and similar method that also found in India, batik in Indonesia is the original art from Indonesia. It’s not just many ancient kingdom that use batik clothing as the royal clothes, but, there’re many areas and island in Indonesia that also has this fashion art. Therefore, the opinion that says that this art was brought by merchant form India and Sri Lanka can’t be true. The first batik pattern that has been found and named was “gringsing” pattern. It was found in Kediri in 12th century. Then the Europe knows about Batik for the first time in 1817. It was promoted by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles with his book “History of Java” that published in London. Batik also brought to other country by Javanese immigrant. They introduce this artwork in 1920 in eastern coast of Malaysia. Today, this art grow in that country. And then, batik has become known world-wide, when Dutch and English trader brought it to the Africa in 19th century. In 1970, batik was introduced to aboriginal community in Australia. And today, bajubatik and batik art become one of world heritage and known as the original art from Indonesia.

The growth of batik fashion art was decreasing in earlier 90’s. It’s because most of people in Indonesia prefer to choose western style clothes. So, the traditional batik almost became extinct at that time. Many batik industries closed down their business because there’re no demands. But, now, the industry has recovered and reaches its rapid growth. It’s all because, many fashion designer from Indonesia aware about the batik art value and try to protect it by apply it on their design, such as kaos batik and pakaian batik, which is t-shirt with batik pattern that many teenager love. And we can gladly say that now, batik is safe for the future.