JP/Stevie EmiliaThe book’s title – Five Centuries of Indonesian Textiles – is enough to raise curiosity and make people pick it up and read.

Through its pages, the book takes readers on a colorful journey into the country’s rich textile-culture traditions.

The book serves as a window, opening up textile traditions rarely seen outside the museum because they are considered precious heirlooms, not something left out in the open for the public to appreciate.

With most books on Indonesian textiles mainly showcasing different fabrics from across the country, the author — a textile expert who is a collector herself — did not only manage to get her hands on rare fabrics of outstanding quality such as ceremonial garments, she also approached them from the perspective of both art and history.

This is not the first book by Mary Hunt Kahlenberg, who currentl...