Sarita (ceremonial textile)

Among the Toraja people of Sulawesi in Indonesia, each family owns a variety of sacred textiles. One of the most versatile types is the sarita, a long, narrow cloth used in diverse ways, depending on ritual context and local tradition. During some rites, the Sa'dan Toraja, in the northern highlands, hang sarita from the gables of the ancestral clan house (tongkonan) as ceremonial banners. The Sa'dan and the Mamasa Toraja, in the eastern part of the district, use sarita in rituals connected both with the east (associated with life, vitality, and fertility) and the west (associated with death and funerary rites). In one fertility rite, a circle of eight women are united physically and supernaturally by a sarita draped around their shoulders. At funerals, sarita can be worn as headcloths by prominent people, placed on the dead, or used to dress the tau-tau, a wooden effigy representing the deceased. In the Kulawi area, sarita serve as festive garments, worn as waistcloths by men or stitched together to form voluminous women's skirts.



Sarita are either resist dyed using a batik technique and blue indigo ink (see: 2009.501.6) or, as in this example, hand painted with mud-based brown dyes. The painted motifs include flowing tendrils of plants; geometric spirals and concentric circles; and more figurative, domestic scenes of Toraja houses, water buffalo, and humans digging fields. The square at the very center of the banner bears a design of a radiating sun, with toothed concentric circles. This, along with the matched feathered crosses at each end, are symbols of noble status. On either side of the central panels are distinct botanical and agricultural scenes indicating fertility and abundance.



Some Toraja say that sarita originated from ancestors who descended from the sky. They also bear combined design influence from imported Indian textiles coming from India and patterns of Austronesian painted bark cloths. Many surviving examples of sarita were made in the Netherlands and imported to Sulewesi where they were dyed and painted.