The Language of Cloth

Most of my time in Indonesia is spent working on batik, but at last I was able to get away for 10 days of rest and relaxation, this time to a part of Indonesia that I have not seen before, the Alor archiplago.

 Not many people venture east of Bali, or the next island eastward, Lombok. There are however many interesting islands further east. The larger islands such as  Sumbawa, Flores, Solor, and Lomblen all have smaller islands around them. An Indonesian friend recently recommended Alor for it’s pristine coral reefs and abundant sea life.

 It is a fairly small island with a capitol city, Kalibashi, of only about 20,000 inhabitants. It can be reached by boat from Flores, or by air from Kupang, Timor. At one time it was densely forested with sandalwood trees, but they were long ago depleted by the Dutch. Most of the inhabitants are rural subsistence farmers, growing corn on steep mountain sides.  It is one of the poorest provinces in all of Indonesia where the per capita income is less than $100. The population is divided equally between Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants, who seem  get along very well.

Bahasa Alor is the predominant language spoken, although most younger people can speak Bahasa Indonesia. There are many subdialects of Bahasa Alor, some spoken by as few as 750 people.

There is a tradition of weaving on the islands, especially the island of Ternate which can be reached by baot from Alor. A coarse thread is hand spun from locally grown cottn and dyed with indigo and other natural dyes made from local ingredients. The threads are tied and dyed before the are woven on sinple back-styrap looms, to produce the traditional turtle, squid, butterfly, and lizard designs on sarongs.