Dabble in the True Colours of Jogjakarta City

Known as the gateway to Central Java, this city located at the smallest province of Indonesia is also proudly recognized as the City of Art and Culture not only by the locals, but also internationally. With the testimony of seeing several passing reigns of ancient kingdoms, Jogjakarta City had absorbed the rich variety of cultures left by each these kingdom, making it the place to truly immerse oneself in learning about olden civilization, traditions, heritage, ethnicity, customs, ceremonies, and the ways of life in a totally new dimension.

Mystical temples at Borobudur

So when one visits this colourful vibrant city of culture, it is simply a not a choice to avoid seeing magnificent temples, palace ruins, crumbling monasteries, and other unique architecture of the past. There’s the Borobudur, Sewu Temple, Prambanam Temple, and the list goes on. Just head on to a tourism centre and grab a map; it’ll lead you on a time-traveling journey into the past of the ancient kingdoms at these places.

However, today I’m not going to go on a long-winded story telling session with you on the historical tales of 16th and 17th centuries Javanese empire of Mataram, the 8th-10th centuries era of ancient Mataram Kingdom, nor the Sultanate Ngayogyokarto from the mid of 18th Century until now. We’re skipping this cultural aspect of these famous landmarks, and explore one of the true colours that made Jogjakarta City known as the City of Art and Culture- Batik.

Traditional Handmade Batik -by Peter Loud

The beautiful batik prints has captivated me since long ago. From my own understanding, batik has a long history in recording the art style of one culture, interpreting and incorporating these elements into beautiful patterns, creating a whole new plane in the art culture. Batik is created by painting on plain fabrics such as cotton or silk, using paraffin. Several techniques can be used to create these fine-looking cloth pieces such as handwrite, stamping, painting, or a combination of these techniques.

Traditional 'becak' (rickshaws) at Malioboro Street

If you just want to buy one or more of these fabrics as a souveniers, Malioboro Street is just the place to go with rows and batik shops and stalls filled with neat stacks of these fabrics. Just remember that they are priced to be bargained. However, to see how batik is traditionally made, Taman Sari Complex will be your destination.

The stacks of mass-produced batik prints

It is an amazing experience as you study how these works of art are made. Batik painters do not really make a very good living as many of them have to struggle to pay for the expensive fabric and paraffin (the good quality ones). But the ones who are left at Taman Sari Complex, preserves the skilled craft of handmade batik rather than the factory mass-produced ones. A batik painter would first sketch out the design in pencil, then trace over the lines by using hot paraffin. Natural colour dye would then be filled into the design to form the colourful picture. When everything is dried, the washing process will follow to melt away the paraffin on the cloth. Many of these batik painters have proof of their experience shown on their permanently dyed hands, showing you how real traditional batik is suppose to be made.

Jogja Batik Designs

Seeing how Batik is made can get more interesting and hands-on as quite a few shops at Taman Sari offer Batik making lessons. You can choose to learn the classical batik designs or apply some of your own art ideas to create modern batik through batik painting. It will be an unforgettable experience as nothing can beat the creative thrill of art creation combining your own ideas using traditional art applications. And at the end of it, you would get an authentic piece of handmade souvenir to take home to show off. Have fun and do share your work of art with us when you’ve done it!