Javanese Circumcision Sarong Holder

Muslim Boy’s Circumcision Iron Sarong Clip with Gold Overlay

This elegant clip is of cast iron shaped as a bird, and with finely cast and incised decoration, including borders of stylised bamboo shoot motifs overlaid with gold. The form is of an ‘S’ shape rising away from a flattened flange that is drilled with two small holes. The head of the bird is solid cast and with a fine, curved beak, two eyes, and a curled neck feather.

Such clips were used in central Java to be hooked over the waist fold of a boy’s sarong. Bamboo sticks were attached to the holes in the rear flange and these projected forwards to hold the sarong away from the wound of a newly circumcised boy.

See Ibbitson Jessup (1990, p. 263) and Bennett (2005, p. 269) for related examples.

Bennett, J., et al., Crescent Moon: Islamic Art & Civilisation in Southeast Asia, Art Gallery of South Australia, 2005.

Ibbitson Jessup, H.,

Court Arts of Indonesia, The Asia Society Galleries/Harry N. Abrams, 1990.

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