Ikats of Central Asia Unification Through Textiles
Laura James Dr. Jane Rehl 11/20/14
Ikat is a resist dye technique that formed independently, in many cultures around the world at similar times. For most people who practiced weaving, ikat was introduced through trade and travel. During my research I have come to find that ikat cloth holds many similar values in it’s meaning, as well as the process of making ikat; to many different cultures regardless of the original introduction. There are differences in use of ikat cloth around the world, but the physical creativity and immense labor that is involved with this technique embodies a spiritual and historical importance to its creator. Due to the amount of sheer labor and education that goes into the making of the ikat cloth, it is considered an important process and the weaver is usually looked upon in high regards.
In this research paper I intend to look into the history and production of ikat cloth in Central Asia during the first the quarters of the nineteenth century, which was the height of the production and technique. Ancient textile research is problematic due to the fact that much of what is being written about has not survived. Using scholarly texts I will delve into ikat history as far back as possible, but in Central Asia there is not a vast amount of information to learn from, prior to the nineteenth century.
Central Asia was, and still, is area of great conflict. The design and making of Ikat cloth was a way that Jewish dyers and silk traders, and Muslim weavers and political leaders came together with a unified goal. The production of ikat also made it necessary for the nomadic, agricultural people of the steppe to work in unison with the city dwellers of Bukhara and Samarkand. Central Asia stretches south to include present day
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Afghanistan and north to the plains of Kazakhstan1. This area was a land of contrast, low laying dry desert surrounded by mountain peaks. This contrast was reflected in the climate with scorching hot summers and freezing winters. City life was, in many ways the easier path to be born into, in this bleak, dry and extremely harsh land, which lay in the middle of a trade route between China and the Mediterranean Sea.
We are not aware of ikat production again until the nineteenth century when we know that ikat production in nineteenth century Central Asia was a craft, which was practiced both in the household and in the artist guilds, which were so dominant at that time. It is known that women played the most important role at the beginning of the life of an ikat cloth as they raised the larvae of the silk moth in their homes. The eggs were encased in little cotton bags that women wore underneath their clothing, next to their skin, which acted as an incubator for the silkworms to hatch. Once the worms were removed from the cotton satchels they were sustained with Mulberry leaves. This process is one of the most spiritual inclusions of a female to the “birth” of a cloth. These Central Asian women acted as incubators for the animals that produced the silk to become the ikat cloth.2
The word ikat stems from a Malay-Indonesian verb mengikat, which means “to bind, tie or wind around.”3 This ancient technique of resist dyeing is accomplished by 1 Lucien de Guise, Abrbandi: Ikats of Central Asia, (Kuala Lumpur: The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2006), 8. 2 Kate Fitz Gibbons and Andrew Hale, IKAT, (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Boston), 24. 3 Lucien de Guise, Abrbandi: Ikats of Central Asia, (Kuala Lumpur: The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2006), 8.
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the binding of the warp or weft fibers where the yarn is tightly wrapped or bound in sections, to resist or not absorb the dye. Either cotton or wax-coated cotton was used as the resist in Central Asia. Central Asian Ikat was always warp faced weaving, which was made on a warp-weighted loom. This process of binding the yarn and dyeing it is carried out prior to the weaving process. The warp that has been tied to resist dye, will be submerged in a dye bath, numerous times. The amount of colors in the ikat design will dictate how many times the ikat will be dyed. With each dye color the warp will be untied and a new resist area will bind the warp. The pattern that has been created by the binding of areas of the thread will display itself in full beauty during and after the weaving process.
Since the nineteenth century the ikat technique has become increasingly popular and recognized all over the world but the beginnings of this dye resist technique are based in Central Asia, Indonesia and Southeast Asia, India and Japan. As the name for the dye resist technique derives from an Indonesian word, one would assume that ikat was invented in Indonesia but with all research of textiles it is wise to keep an open mind as new discoveries are made, if not everyday, every year.
It is most likely that the ikat technique appeared and progressed independently in different areas of the globe and spread through trade with its areas of formation. In their own way each Ikat fabric creates its own world and systems to which it adheres, different countries represent different symbols and motifs on their ikat cloth. The world which the fabric represents can be surmised through the visual language of the
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communication of the colors spaces and stylistic elements that make up the weaving Ikat is one of the most well known resist dye technique in the world. There is just as much of one’s thought, soul, spirit and physicality that were imbibed into the thread before the weaving process even began when creating an ikat fabric. In Central Asia the process of creating the cloth was spiritual and the motifs represented were not represented as idols to be worshipped but as smaller pieces of a whole. The Central Asians Muslims equated utopia or heaven with a garden and the motifs and saturated colors that made up their ikat cloths mimicked an abstract garden.
Until a recent find of a four to five square inches cloth fragment, resembling an ikat, with a wood grain-like pattern in silvery gray and beige from the fourth-to ninthcentury site of Astana in Xinjiang Province, China the oldest Central Asian ikat fragment had previously been discovered in Japan.4 It is known that the fragment was imported and it has been theorized that this fragment made it to Japan via China, during the Asuka Period (AD 552 - 644). This fragment has been generally been regarded as the earliest known (published) Central Asian (possible) ikat.5 The Central Asian cities that were most instrumental in ikat production included Bukhara and Samarkand. These cities were thriving metropolises in the nineteenth century, filled with bazaars. The cities occupants trade generally made up neighborhoods demographics. 4 Kate Fitz Gibbons and Andrew Hale, IKAT, (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts Boston), 24. “The fragment was identified by Dr. Irene Good and Dr. Elizabeth Barber, on a recent trip to Xinjiang. It was displayed at the local archeological museum in Turfan, without identification except for the site” 5 Carl Schuster, “Remarks on the Design of Early Ikat Textile in Japan” in Festschrift Alfred Buhler, Pharos - Verlag Hansrudolph Schwabe AG, Basel, 1965, pp.339 - 40, plate 87.
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Ikat fabrics and cloths served many roles in Central Asia but the most prominent roles were, clothing(robes) for both sexes, and decorative uses in the home as well as ceremonies. Central Asian ikats were extremely vibrant in color and saturation and were a beautiful juxtaposition to the bleak and beige steppe terrain of Central Asia. In Central Asia, Ikat robes were a sign of wealth and often a person would wear more than one robe, only enhancing their image as a person of wealth and superior status.6 The below passage tells of this tradition. “After this I was allowed to go, being nearly stifled, from having to wear three heavy robes, one above the other, the gift of the king this afternoon; such is the custom of the country. I forgot to say that when I entered, the king wished me “Moobarak” (or happy) on putting on the new robes.” -
Robert Shaw, on receiving gifts of robes of honor from the ruler Yacub Beg in Kashgar, 18687
The robes were made of silk warp and cotton weft and were worn by both men and women. There was little differentiation between the robes for the men and the women. There was one dress that had opening the length of the front that was strictly for women. There were robes where both the warp and the weft were silk, but those robes were reserved for the very wealthy or royalty. The colors of the robes worn by younger women were usually reserved for those of brighter or more saturated colors. The juxtapositions of colors in the robe as identified the region that the wearer was from. Ikat robes of Central 6 Megan Jacobs and Olivia Goldfine, “Ikats of Central Asia” (paper presented for the Nothampton Silk Project: Circa 1840, Smith College, Northampton, MA, April 12, 2002). 7 Fitz Gibbons and Hale, 146.
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Asia served to let the world know of your wealth as well as where you were from. Different trends have been mentioned in different cities, for instance in Bukhara the men were said to dress as “dandies” and wear robes that were traditionally reserved for women.8 All Central Asian ikat is warp ikat and the warp was always silk. Silk was most commonly used to make robes and wall hangings. As the warp was always made of silk, it was the weft that was made of cotton. Outwardly the cloth looked like pure silk, as it was a warp faced cloth.
Central Asian Ikat cloth was also used for decoration of the home and ceremonial use. There are many examples of nineteenth century wall hangings that exist in collections and museums and we know that these wall hangings display wealth and made one’s home beautiful; but there is little written about the placement of them in the home due to strict Muslim rule. Only very closely related males were allowed into ones home and women were not allowed to talk to strangers or even leave their home. The wall hangings brought color and vibrancy to otherwise bleak desert homes.
Ikat was also used ceremoniously, as a gift, a dowry, to cover a marriage bed and there are accounts of ikat cloth being laid over a corpse prior to burial.9 Ikat cloth hung on walls and made up tents for festival, ikat cloths were given as political gifts, essentially the cloth was one of the most important aspects of life to the people of Central Asia during the nineteenth century.
8 Ibid, 156. 9 Fitz Gibbon and Hale, 136.
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The most popular Central Asian Ikat Motifs include abstracted images of the tambourine, amulet, ram’s horn, tree-of-life, pomegranate, flowers in a vase and bowl, combs, watermelon and pears, among others.10 I many cases these motifs are unrecognizable to the untrained eye as they have been so abstracted by the designer and weaver and perhaps have been turned upside down due to the fact that the selvedge’s of ikat cloth in Central Asia were so narrow that they were laid next to each other, horizontally, with the warp still travelling north-to-south. It often happened that the motif in the design was popular in one area of Central Asia and not in another. This is the case with the “Boteh” which is a dominant design in Iran and India, it is believed to be inspired by a pinecone but also a bending cypress tree has also been referenced in its storied history.11 The practice of weaving was the spiritual aspect to the people of Central Asia, as stated in the following quote. When starching the warps on the looms they would say the following prayer, “In God’s good heaven there are always flowering gardens, and in them eternal streams. God is pleased with them and they are for God’s Sake. This is for he who fears his God.”12
Guilds and workshops in the home were the areas where Central Asian Ikat’s were woven. The weavers were always men and the Jewish men were the silk traders, cloth dyers and sometimes spinners, but it was always the Muslim men that were the weavers. Moving up through the ranks of the guild system was the most highly respected 10 Lucien de Guise, Abrbandi: Ikats of Central Asia, from the connection with the exhibition “Arbandi: Ikats of Central Asia,” held at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, April 1-July 1, 2006, (Kuala Lumpur: The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2006), 52–53. 11 De Guise, 51. 12 Fitz Gibbons and Hale, 126.
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way of becoming a weaver. The workshops were often at home and the weavers were not as skilled as a weaver that had come up through the ranks of the guild.13 This place of trade was one of the very few areas where Muslim and Jewish men worked together; the ikat cloth brought the people of the two opposing religions together.
It was the third quarter of the nineteenth century when traditional ikat production ceased to exist in Central Asia, due to the influx of Russian influence, entrepreneurs, and actions. Central Asia change, as did much of the world, just before the turn of the twentieth century. Russian influence over the area which is now known as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan led ikat production down a road of machine made cloth and synthetic chemicals. The focus became profits and robes and wall hangings were in high demand to be sold at the bazaar for a quick profit. The nineteenth century had been the “golden age” for ikat production in Central Asia but that changed in the final quarter of the nineteenth century.
Central Asia is an area of the world that has always been tumultuous, as Russia, China and Europe have always been vying for power of the region due to its geographic position within the world. The ikat that the people of Central Asia created in the nineteenth century are some of the most beautiful due fabrics in existence due to their colors, abstraction of nature and immensely skilled dyeing and weaving techniques. The men who created the wall hangings and the robes that are currently becoming known to
13 Ibid, 61.
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the western world due to the increasing appreciation and exhibition of these beautiful textiles. It was due to the fact that men of different religions that came together to tie, dye and weave these ikat fabrics together, that we are able to appreciate their great beauty now.
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Bibliography Crill, Rosemary. Indian Ikat Textiles. London: V. & A. Publications, 1998. This book is based on the collection of 10,000 South Asian textiles held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Rosemary Crill is a widely known specialist in the field and provides an abundance of information in this text. There are many useful images in this text. Desai, Chelna. Ikat Textiles of India. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1988. This book comprises of about seventy five percent images which are very useful as comparative images to compare and contrast ikat from the different regions that I am looking at. There are also some useful maps and history that is very useful in regards to data. The map images and visual ikat comparisons are the most helpful part of this book. Fitz Gibbon, Kate. “Steppe Guide: Ikat.” Steppe Magazine 6, (2011): 6. This is a great article by Kate Fitz Gibbons, one of the preeminent scholars in the area of Central Asian Ikat Textiles. It is less focused on straight history and dates than most of the other texts I have found and really looks at meaning, space and negative space within the textiles and pattern. Fitz Gibbon, Kate, and Andrew Hale. Ikat. Produced in conjunction with a touring exhibition of the Guido Goldman Collection of ikats. London: Laurence King Publishing, 1997. This is an extremely extensive text produced in conjunction with the touring exhibition of the Guido Goldman Collection of Ikats. In my research this book is the most in depth study of ikat in Central Asia. This text was of great value to my research and paper and also provided wonderful historical images. Guise, Lucien de. Abrbandi: Ikats of Central Asia. From the connection with the exhibition “Arbandi: Ikats of Central Asia,” held at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, April 1-July 1, 2006. Kuala Lumpur: The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, 2006. This exhibition catalogue was produced in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name at the Islamic Arts Museum in Kuala Lumpur in 2006. The exhibition catalogue is divided into two main parts; the first part being text and the second part has three sections of ikat images, ikat motifs, one color ikat, two color ikat and multi-color ikats. The text provides useful information in regards to both the making and use of ikat. The images are some of the best that I have found and are bright, vivid and also explain motifs in ikat. Gordon, Beverly. Textiles: The Whole Story, Uses, Meaning, Significance. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2011. This book provides an overview of the history of textiles in the world and mentions ikat in a few places which I was able to reference.
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Puranananda, Jane. The Secrets of Southeast Asian Textiles: Myth, Status and the Supernatural. The James H W Thompson Foundation Symposium Papers. Bangkok: River Books. The James H W Thompson Foundation, 2007. In this text the ideas of myth, status and the supernatural in regards to Southeast Asian Textiles is looked at. The text is widely varied and includes much information that is not relevant to the study of ikat but it does reiterate the importance of the supernatural powers that textiles were believed to hold in this region of the world. Sarabhai, Mrinalini. Patolas and Resist-Dyed Fabrics of India. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition “The Voyage of a Cloth,” held at Bank Duta, Jakarta from January 27 - February 2, 1988. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing, 1988. This text begins with a brief history of dye resist fabrics in India and goes into explanations of the different visual and historical attributes of Patola from India. This text is helpful to draw divisions between the different areas of India and the Patola style that was regional to each. Stack, Lotus. Patterned Threads Ikat Traditions and Inspirations. Produced in conjunction with the exhibition “Patterned Threads: Ikat Traditions and Inspirations,” held at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 27 June-6 September 1987. Minneapolis: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1987. This exhibition catalogue breaks down the study of ikat into geographical areas, which are the ones that I am looking at. It is very helpful as a brief overview and one of the most helpful parts of the text is the glossary in the back which has many key terms that are frequently used when looking at ikat production, history and use. Weiss, Wendy. “Gujarati Warp Ikat Resist Method: A Practitioner’s Record and Translation into Cloth.” Journal of Textile Design Research and Practice 2, no. 1 (2014): 7-33. This article is written by a Fulbright Scholar who travelled to Gujarat, India to study warp resist binding by a master weaver. This text was helpful with first hand information that was given to the author or which the author surmised.
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