Colorful lights and the thumping rhythms of traditional music accompanied the dancers who emerged onstage. Moments later, 27 young people appeared and mingled with the dancers, and Balai Kartini’s Convention Hall was filled with boisterous applause. And, as far as the eye could see, people were clad in batik in various shades and colors.

This was the opening act of the final night of the selection of Putra-Putri Batik Nusantara (PPBN) 2012. The event was organized to coincide with National Batik Day, which is celebrated every year on Oct. 2.

Batik is part of Indonesia’s cultural heritage and was recognized by UNESCO as a “masterpiece of the oral and intangible cultural heritage of humanity” on Oct. 2, 2009.

Tantie Koestantia, who is serving as PPBN chair for the second time, said the finalists selected for the final night of judging not only hailed from the island of Java but also from Medan in North Sumatra, Riau, Bali and even Central Kalimantan. She said she hoped that the selection of PPBN 2012 could be a vehicle for the finalists to become “batik ambassadors” in their respective hometowns.

“I thought, ‘why don’t we introduce batik to the youth, Indonesia’s future generation?’” Tantie said.

Starting from a desire to involve young people in the preservation of batik, Tantie, along with Ikatan Pecinta Batik Nusantara (IPBN), initiated PPBN. This year, the group also received support from the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry.

But, batik is not only Indonesian. Several countries in the world, including some in Africa, have their own varieties of batik. “Indonesian batik is recognized by UNESCO because of its uniqueness.

In the process of making batik, the batik makers use canting [a small dipper used to apply wax in the batik process], malam [hot liquid wax], and draw motifs that have social value,” said Muhammad Suhada, the winner of PPBN 2011, during a press conference a few hours before PPBN 2012 began.

When asked about batik imported from China, which is cheaper than batik from Indonesia, Suhada responded that China printed batik or created textiles with batik motifs. They are not using canting and malam in the manufacturing process and there is no philosophical value in it like batik from our country, he said.

“In terms of quantity, in this second year of the selection of Putra-Putri Batik Nusantara, the number of applicants who participated decreased, from 600 to 300 applicants, due to constraints such as infrastructure and [the event] clashed with the Idul Fitri holiday. However, the quality has increased,” said Tantie.

There is a proverb that says “tak kenal maka tak sayang” or “you can’t love if you don’t know”. In that sense, one can’t truly appreciate batik if one doesn’t understand batik. Therefore one of the ways to assist a public with a lack of knowledge of Indonesian batik is to introduce batik to them, and introducing people to batik and educating them about it are the key aims of PPBN.

Regarding her PPBN win last year, Purnama Sheila Bulan, stressed that the event is not about who knows the most about batik. “The important thing is how much we want to push ourselves to learn about our own culture and are willing to contribute to preserving the legacy,” said Sheila.

The announcement of the winners of PPBN 2012 was the peak of the evening. At the same time, Sheila and Suhada’s positions as Putra and Putri Batik Nusantara were formally over.

Indah Anggraini from Bandung and Muhammad Ihsan Pribadi from Jakarta were crowned 2012’s Putri and Putra Batik Nusantara and will serve as national batik emissaries.

Both Indah and Ihsan agreed that making batik is not an easy process and can take a long time. This is why batik has a high value and that is why we have to respect and preserve it.

As to collecting batik, Ihsan said he has a variety of motifs and colors of batik, such as parang (one of the most powerful batik motifs with strong parallel diagonal lines that the Javanese call “tongue of fire”), ceplok (which includes a wide range of geometric designs, often based on circular rosettes, stars or other small shapes forming an overall symmetric pattern on the cloth), pinggiran (batik that comes from certain areas such as Kudus, Demak, Banyumas, Tuban and Rembang) and several others. Indah’s batik collection consists of the megamendung (rain cloud) and batik garut (with lighter and brighter colors compared to Javanese court batik), among others.

Every batik motif has a different value and philosophical meaning, and Indah and Ihsan both said that batik can be a personal statement. It is like praying for yourself to become closer to the philosophy of the batik that you wear, Ihsan said.

“It’s like looking into the mirror and seeing one’s own reflection; the reflection we want others to see, ” added Indah. Hopefully, that same reflection can be captured and appreciated by other Indonesian youth out there.

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