Letros ceremonial cloth (tais)

The easternmost large island in the Lesser Sunda archipelago, Timor is divided politically between Indonesia and the independent nation of East Timor. Like many Indonesian textiles, Timorese textiles incorporate diverse artistic influences. The fundamental organization of the composition into a series of horizontal bands is typical of Lesser Sunda Island textiles and likely represents an indigenous aesthetic. The women of Timor however are known for their bold use of color in textiles and were among the first Indonesian weavers to widely adopt the brightly colored aniline dyes introduced by European traders and Timorese textiles are notable for their harmonious blending of diverse decorative techniques within a single fabric. The tubular women’s skirts in particular combine a variety of complex geometric patterning with a flourish of remarkably executed raised designs that are created by weft wrapping in silk or metallic thread.

This rare letros ceremonial cloth (tais) is a tubular garment, folded and stitched along one vertical edge to form a skirt. Women’s ceremonial skirts such as this were worn for important religious rituals and social occasions. The central field of this example consists of a series of narrow, alternating bands of a dark and light red color, divided in the center by a single strip of blue. At each end, a pair of blocks of black (with white and orange geometric designs) alternate with a white square with raised blue and gold designs executed in supplementary warp. A single block, which repeats the interlocking designs of the pair to the side, is set in the middle of this band. Four long rows of woven geometric designs in these same colorways extend out to form a series of bands, finished along each edge in red and blue. This design system is repeated at the other end creating a pleasing and symmetrical overall design. Each of the outer sections of the skirt consist of broad bands of solid red into which a series of finely executed, reptilian ancestor figures are integrated, creating a bold cosmological design statement at each outer border. Ancestral spirits pervade Indonesian life. Textiles, almost all of which are made in the region by women, play a critical role in maintaining harmony and balance between spirits and humans and in marking important transitions through life. Throughout the Indonesian archipelago people are constantly concerned with the position they hold in a middle space between an upper world of deified ancestors and gods and a watery underworld of crocodiles and lizards, that relates to of earth and fertility. Each of the highly abstracted four-legged reptilian figures in this textile has a solid rectangular body framed by two pairs of legs with finely delineated claws, that reach forward as if steadily marching around the border of the textile. A single line perpendicular to another gives subtle reference to a tail. This highly distinctive border design of dynamic ancestor figures in reptilian guise protects the outer border of the garment and attest to the vital ceremonial role of textiles in the region.