Lampung Woman’s Ceremonial Skirt (Tapis Limar Sekebar)

This tapis  (ceremonial skirt) is from the people of North Lampung in South Sumatra. It remains closed along the seam and sewn as a skirt (rather than having been opened for display purposes). The patterns and amount of gold thread used suggest it was once owned by a noble woman.

It comprises silk-cotton dyed with indigo, brick red, pink, and grey dyes and is densely embroidered with metallic thread wrapped in gold in geometric patterns including triangular pucuk rebang (bamboo shoot) and eight-pointed star motifs.

The extraordinary use of gold-wrapped thread makes the skirt heavy – almost too heavy to be worn comfortably, and so such skirts were worn for only brief periods and for ceremonial occasions. Indeed, among such skirts, this example is unusually densely embellished with gold to the point whereby the underlying base cloth no longer is visible and instead is covered in a wall of gold-wrapped thread.

The upper section of the cloth remains unadorned with metallic thread to facilitate the right wrapping of the textile around the waist.

See Totton (2009, p. 38) for a related example.

One name given to this genre of cloths – tapis tua – literally means ‘ancient skirt’ (Maxwell, R., 2003, p, 184.)

This spectacular use of gold-wrapped thread confirms the skirt’s origins from among the people of Lampung. Noblewomen wore such cylindrical skirts on ceremonial occasions.  The wealth for such ostentations displays was afforded by the lucrative pepper trade with which the south of Sumatra became associated during the colonial era, and which benefited the Lampung people directly.

The skirt is in fine condition. There are minor losses and loose threads, but overall, the textile is largely intact and stable.