Types of Batik

Indonesian batik originally carried from India or Srilanka, but the technique originated from Egypt or Sumerian in ancient times. Each region has its own unique traditional batik pattern. In this article, we will discuss types of batik in Indonesia.

Javanese Batik

Inland Batik or Keraton Batik is the oldest pattern of batik in Java. The Inland batik uses earthy colors, such as brown, black, and indigo. They’re also limited patterns that can only be used by royal Keraton courts members. The base of Inland batik productions is in Solo and Yogyakarta.

Coastal Batik mostly produced in the northern region of Java and Madura. They had the same pattern as Inland batik, but their colors are more contrast, vibrant, and brighter than Inland. Because of the effect of maritime trading, coastal batik has a lot of culture fusion than Inland. These culture-fusion variations indicated by patterns of European flower bouquets, Persian peacocks, and Chinese phoenix. The base of coastal batik productions is in Madura, Tuban, Cirebon, Pekalongan, and Lasem.

Parahyangan Batik is a batik pattern from Western Java and Banten. Parahyangan batik uses a wider range of colors of indigo as their variants. Indigo dyes were made from Indigofera flower plants.

Sumatran Batik

Pintu Air Batik is one of the most famous batik patterns in Aceh. They had bright colors, such as red, green, yellow, and light red. The motif illustrated as a door of Aceh’s traditional house. This indicates that Aceh is easy to accept diversities.

Batik Tabir is a pattern of batik from Riau that uses the writing and cap methods of batik with a lot of leaves and flowers that symbolized Melayu culture. This batik is the most favorite art of batik in The Sultanate of Siak because of their bright colors in red, yellow, and green.

Batik Tana Liek is a pattern of batik of Minangkabau with Hong birds and seahorse motifs. The process of this batik soaked with clay. This batik mostly are only used by Datuk. The color of this batik is brown because of the clay.

As a summary, batik in Indonesia is various. They have their own uniqueness based on the regions they came from. Inland or Keraton batik uses earthy dark colors, while Coastal has brighter colors and show a lot of more than one culture. While most of Sumatra have brighter colors and unique methods like Batik Tana Liek which use clay as their soaking media.