The talk by architect-designer Edric Ong on ‘Iban Textiles of Malaysian Borneo: the Indian connection’ at Apparao Galleries was insightful for the fact that he tried to draw the similarities in the Iban textiles and the indigenous textiles that we have in the Southern part of the country.
The trade routes, and history, being the sole reason for the influences, he threw light on the ancient links and influences of textile motifs such as ‘patola’, ‘dancing figures’ and also possible Hindu influences from Srivijaya and Majaphahit.
One would be amazed to see that a culture so distinct and far, bears resemblance to the words such as Kalinga, ‘cheent’ and others, which the Iban weavers use. The curled patterns that one sees in the cloth, he says, have got to be smaller than the size of a thumb and the traditional backstrap loom must be handled with great care, as it is attached to posts in the wall.
Edric, also a member of World Crafts Council, Asia Pacific Region says, “A lot of textiles from the Coromandel coast were exported to South East Asia and block printed textiles from Masulipatnam to Thailand. What was interesting about the Kalamkari cloth is that they were used by many royals and treasured.”
Talking about the similarities in the textile tradition, he says that the links have been there from time immemorial.
The talk became a platform for story telling about the indigenous weaving culture, the commonality in motifs such as the ‘royal prince’, among many others and the myths that girdled them. One of the Iban weavers, Karama Dampa, who has a wedding textile business, has even woven an Iban princess marrying an Indian prince.
He went on to talk about the poetry or the story that goes behind weaving each of these fabrics by the indigenous weavers. One of them being the legend of Tangga Beji — which was the story of a man who wanted to weave leather up to the sky, only to realise that his work was eaten by ants and it came crumbling down.
As he winds up, Edric says that these treasures have to be preserved and kept thriving by making people educated and aware about their significance.