Benang Bintik , Batik of Central Borneo | Central Borneo Tourism Information
Friday October 20th 2017

Benang Bintik , Batik of Central Borneo

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Although rarely heard, in Central Kalimantan there is also a batik handicraft: Batik Benang Bintik.

Maybe you often heard  batik crafts, and many other types of batik that you know, such as batik tulis, printed batik, but this one is definitely you rarely hear, the batik Benang Bintik.

The Certifications for batik as an Indonesian native cultural products issued by the United Nations agency UNESCO is an important moment for the development of batik art in the country.

Batik positive image in the international community continues in the country when the President of the Republic of Indonesia (RI) set the date of October 2, 2009 as National Batik Day. The condition is a positive impact on businesses and artisans batik cloth in various regions in Indonesia, not to mention Central Kalimantan with batik motifs “Benang Bintik” as  Typical Dayak tribe’s Batik in Central Kalimantan.

Some time ago, the use of Benang Bintik is still limited to formal activities such as school and office uniforms. As a result, the impression of Batik Benang Bintik then better known as a fashion and formal wear for the ceremony or ceremonial occasions such as weddings.Now, Batik Benang Bintik is increasingly recognized, the variety of clothing from Benang Bintik are often used in activities such as festivals, cultural activities and other arts activities.

Batik Benang Bintik is a unique batik linen in Central Kalimantan. “Benang” in the local language means a strand of white linen, while the “Bintik” means the design or spots that engraved on the “Benang”. The peculiarity lies in the batik motifs that reflect the culture of the Dayak tribe, the indigenous of the area. Motives outlined in batik linen taken from the paintings or carvings used by the Dayak people in ancient rituals or ceremonies.

Motifs in Batik Benang Bintik are also affected by the beliefs of the Dayak called Kaharingan. Although now most of the Dayak people have embraced the official religion in Indonesia, such as Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, but they do not leave ancestral beliefs called Kaharingan. This belief evolved through symbols, whether in the form of natural objects in space, the earth, and in human beings. One manifestation of these beliefs are symbols Batang Garing or the Tree of Life that represents a vertical relationship between the man with the Lord (Raying Hatala) and horizontal relationships between humans and other creatures on earth.

Kaharingan tree was later to be the main characteristic of Batik motifs in Benang Bintik alongside another typical motifs, like motif tuyan Kawit, jars, spears, shields, balain nihing, and so on. Although sometimes there are other motifs that adorn Batik linen Benang Bintik, but the motive is simply an additional form of variation of the craftsmen. Until now, Batik Benang Bintik has been patented by the UNESCO as the work of the Indonesian nation.

In terms of types, Benang Bintik classified into different motif, including the motive Batang Garing, Huma Betang motif,  carvings motifs, motifs of weapons, dragon motifs, Balanga motives, mixed motives and other motives. For the base color, Benang Bintik have bolder colors like red maroon, blue, red, yellow and green. There is also a darker material like black and brown. Raw material for Benang Bintik generally use silk  type, semi-silk linen and cotton linen.

The distinction

Batik Benang Bintik is one of the  invaluable cultural assets of the people of Central Kalimantan. This Batik is not only contain a high artistic value, but also has a very distinctive character that becomes the identity of Central Kalimantan, especially the Dayak tribe. The character of these batik motifs seen in typical ethnic that also become distinguishing feature from other batik. In addition, the Dayak handicrafts also has a great selection of patterns and models that are relevant to the needs of the times. If at first batik was only worn at ceremonies or weddings, Batik Benang Bintik is now often used in a variety of important events such as art festivals and cultural events.

Creating a high quality and high artistic merit of Batik Benang Bintik is not an easy job. Plus, the tools used by the craftsmen are still very simple so that influential in terms of the timeliness of the completion of each unit of production. But for the craftsmen, the amount of production is not a benchmark but rather on the quality and value of art.

As with other batik, the making process of Benang Bintik also have to go through several stages. The first phase starts from setting up equipment and raw materials such as linen dobi, rayon flowers, patterned silk, plain silk, dye, wax, and soda. Raw materials are generally imported from Java. The next stage is a tasting or providing motif on plain fabric using a canting, followed by pencoletan or giving color to the motif. After that, the fabric then has been given a basic color pattern consisting of the neptol color or cent colors  (commonly referred as penjegeran).

The next stage is plorotan or boiling to clean wax attached to the fabric pattern. Fabric that has been boiled then washed thoroughly and dried. For the fabrics that colored with cent color should not be exposed to direct sunlight, but enough aerated for 12 hours while inverted so the color will  evenly distributed. Once dry, Batik Benang Bintik is ready to ship, either in the form of cloth or in the form of clothing like skirts, gloves, pajamas, shirts, and scarves.

Batik Benang Bintik  is sold at varying prices depending on the fabric used. For semi-silk linen sold at Rp. 50,000 per meter.

Gallery of Benang Bintik

a-model-pose-with-benang-bintik-as-her-costume batik-benang-bintik batik-benang-bintik-central-kalimantan batik-benang-bintik-with-batang-garing-motif batik-benang-bintik-with-shield-motif benang-bintik-1 kalimantanbenangbintik thumbs_batik-benang-bintik-with-belanga-as-motif

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