A Piece of Javanese Heritage in Museum

(This Paper is dedicated as the Final Exam of Creative Writing Class)

Batik has become a part of indonesian culture especially for the Javanese.  Batik is fabric dyeing method which uses wax to create patterns and designs.  The variant in pattern makes batik a unique to each region.  In Yogyakarta, a museum for batik which located at Jl. Dr. Sutomo No. 13 A is dedicated itself to educate the visitor to batik.

 The museum atmosphere is thick with the Javanese ethnic which makes it perfect to educate the visitor about the Javanese culture.  Entering the first room near the entrance, we can see a lot of batik which hanged in frames. Various patterning and coloring makes the batik look different with each other.  This spectacle left a deep impression about the richness of Javanese culture and creativity.  Satisfied after sightseeing the museum, you can buy a souvenir or batik in the second room.

Sadly the museum looks deserted due to the lacks of visitor. A family which consists of 5 persons can be seen sightseeing the museum. They came to introduce the batik to their children. The lack of visitor to the museum is probably because the lack of enthusiasm from the local to batik museum, because batik is used daily and it can be found easily around the city. They forgot about the value of ancient batik that gives color in the Javanese culture. The bombardment of foreign culture also one of the reason for people not interest in ancient batik value.

 Another reason for traditional batik decline is technology advancement.  With technology advancement in textile industries, it can be mass produced in short time. This printed batik slowly kills the traditional batik maker which use “tulis” method because they cannot compete in terms of speed and price. This situation also makes people to reluctant to learn about traditional batik making due to its limited market. Darmi, a museum attendant from Tuban said that, a piece of batik tulis can take 2 months to complete and the price can reach hundreds of thousand rupiah.

The declining number of people who learn batik is unfortunate because batik is a cultural heritage to Indonesian people especially for the Javanese.  It important for Indonesian people especially Javanese to forget about batik because it is their cultural heritage. Batik pattern can be interpreted as rule to use it. For example,  kawung  pattern can only be used as a mattress for baby to sleep. It is important to know how to Javanese interpret the pattern as a rule so we won’t make mistake when we wear it and the museum is built for that purpose: educate the mass about batik usage.