Ceremonial Hanging (palepai)

Textiles

c. 1900

Paminggir people
Indonesia, South Sumatra, Lampung area

Known as “ship cloths,” ceremonial hangings like this one typically feature sailing ships and related imagery. In this composition, the large geometric designs depict stylized trees and mark an unusual departure from earlier, more traditional ship designs. Up until the end of the 19th century, these ceremonial textiles—called palepai—were important features in the Lampung province of Indonesia during rites of passage, such as marriage, death, or accession to a higher social rank. Such transitional moments were considered to be fraught with danger, and the palepai hanging served as a special form of protection.

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 1890–1910
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: 220 × 68.8 cm (86 5/8 × 25 1/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of E. M. Bakwin Indonesian Textile Collection
Reference Number: 2002.919
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/180303/manifest.json

Brigette Khan Majlis, The Art of Indonesian Textiles: The E. M. Bakwin Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 33, 2 (2007): 35, cat. 6.

Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Asia rotation, Alsdorf Gallery 142, Nov.6, 2024-May 2, 2025.

E.M. (Pete) Bakwin, Chicago, IL, by Jan. 22, 2002 [E.M. Bakwin Collection of Indonesian Textiles, inventory EMB-5453-T; incoming receipt RX23940, Jan. 22, 2003; copy in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2002.

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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.

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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.

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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.