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Ceremonial Hanging (palepai)

Large rectangle of fabric, geometric shapes depicting ship and people, in red, blue and yellow.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • Large rectangle of fabric, geometric shapes depicting ship and people, in red, blue and yellow.

Date:

19th century

Artist:

Paminggir people
Indonesia, South Sumatra, Lampung area, Kalianda

About this artwork

The Paminggir aristocracy employed a type of ritual hanging commonly known as a ship cloth, a name that refers to one of the principal motifs of such textiles. These hangings display a very limited repertoire of patterns, including one or two red ships, a single blue ship, tree images, buildings, and rows of stylized anthropomorphic figures. The indigenous name for textiles of this type, palepai, probably goes back to the old Javanese word lepih, which means “to fold” or “to double.” Palepai served as markers of status and perhaps even denoted descent. Indeed, title, claim to leadership, and certain other privileges accompanied the possession of palepai. These textiles were also important requisites during rites of passage, such as marriage, death, or accession to a higher rank—events that were thought to be unstable moments fraught with danger. The ship images that appear on this palepai would have indicated an appropriate agent of safe conduct from one stage of life to another. The red vessels are also understood to represent the upper world, the abode of the ancestors, which can be reached by the ship of death. Since the Lampung economy was based on sea trade, ships served as symbols of wealth and power as well.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Textiles

Culture

Paminggir

Title

Ceremonial Hanging (palepai)

Place

Indonesia (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1801–1900

Medium

Cotton, silk, and silver-leaf-over-lacquered-paper-strip-wrapped bast fiber (probably ramie), plain weave with supplementary patterning and brocading wefts, main warp fringe

Dimensions

290.2 × 66 cm (114 1/4 × 26 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of E. M. Bakwin Indonesian Textile Collection

Reference Number

2002.914

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/180298/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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