TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
It's batik party time in Jakarta
On Friday, lecturer Dini Valdiani usually sees some people in batik in her Jakarta-Bogor train
Change Size
O
n Friday, lecturer Dini Valdiani usually sees some people in batik in her Jakarta-Bogor train. This Friday, people wearing batik filled up the train carriage. “Almost everyone was wearing batik,” she said.
The capital’s business district and governmental area turned into a sea of batik Friday as office workers and civil servants donned batik clothes to celebrate the art form being recognized as an Indonesian cultural heritage for the world.
UNESCO has officially declared Indonesia’s batik — a traditional wax-resistant dyeing technique used on textiles — as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage in its session in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates.
President Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for the public to wear batik on Oct. 2 to celebrate.
“There’s a euphoric feeling of togetherness seeing everyone wearing batik,” office worker Riska Lavinia said Friday.
Shopping malls and museums took advantage to create batik events. Restaurants gave discounts for batik-wearing customers. City museums such as the Jakarta History Museum and the Art and Ceramics museum gave free entrance for people wearing batik.
The Bike-to-Work Indonesia community held a cycling rally wearing batik Friday afternoon from fX Sudirman to City Hall. At the Hotel Indonesia roundabout, Putri Indonesia winner Zivanna Letisha handed out batik hand fans.
In Kemang, the Eastern Promise gallery opened an exhibition titled beyond batik, displaying unusual artworks by a Yogyakarta artist. Owner of Eastern Promise Lens ter Wee said the US embassy ordered a batik painting of President Obama.
Jakarta markets buzzed with office workers looking for Batik day. Not everyone was prepared though.
Many came to the office without wearing batik, including many working in the informal sector.
Dave Seta, who works at Gedung GKBI in Sudirman said that he was glad that batik has been internationally acclaimed as a world heritage.
However, he said that the batik frenzy in his office represented more of a show off.
“Jakartans tend to follow what’s hip,” he said. “People just don’t want to be left behind the trend.”
He said that a lot of the batik people wore in his building still had the fold marks of newly bought clothes.
However, he said this was good for the economy as more people had purchased locally made batik.
Magazine editor Grace Silaban however, said she was genuinely excited with Friday’s batik wearing day. She said that the recognition of Batik by UNESCO showed the governments seriousness in appreciating Indonesia’s cultural heritage.
She said that she was proud of the batik wearing movement.
Indonesian students in Melbourne also took part of the batik day party. Anis Hamidati said that she and her friends posed in her campus for photos to be uploaded on Facebook until security guards reprimanded them for taking pictures without permission on the campus grounds.
