LITMIR.BIZ

      Preface

      The title of this book succinctly intimates what it is all about—textiles in Bali. It is concerned pre-eminently with the manufacture, use and significance of various textiles which reflect the island's great cultural richness and diversity. We have never ceased to be fascinated by the way in which tangible objects here—namely cloths and textiles of every kind—can become infused with a life of their own. Nor have we ceased to be intrigued by a manner of handling such textiles which, while using their materiality as a medium, never makes it an end in itself. Nevertheless this book has material origins, without which it would never have come into being, namely the renowned collection of Balinese textiles in the Basel Museum of Ethnography, where two of the three authors are curators.

      The genesis of this collection goes back to the years immediately preceding and following the Second World War, but there are certain pieces which date from the turn of the century. The criteria observed in its composition are not antiquity, (Western) aesthetics or sumptuous quality. Rather, since it is a collection based on scientific principles, importance has been attached primarily to obtaining a broad variety of examples of the textile craft, with reference to the materials and techniques employed as well as to their regional origins and to their functions and meanings.

      For these collections we are indebted primarily to the Basel ethnologist Paul Wirz (1892-1955), the ethnologist and textile specialist Alfred Bühler (1900-1981), and the painter Theo Meier (1908-1982). This "Bali tradition" has continued to flourish at the Museum of Ethnography and the University of Basel down to today. The present volume is a testimony to this.

      We have documented these textiles during several visits to the island, and have done so in terms of "textiles in Bali." Urs Ramseyer made a study of geringsing cloths such as are produced only in Tenganan, most of his work being done in 1972-74. All other textiles presented in this book were documented by the three authors between 1988 and 1990.

      The book is divided into chapters according to the most important categories of textiles, although these admittedly make up only a cross-section—albeit a representative one—of what is actually a far richer textile life in Bali.

      If, as previously mentioned, the collection of the Basel Museum of Ethnography forms the material basis for this book, it does so more especially in the sense that it was the starting point for intensive research. The book represents an initial summing up of this documentary work. It shows how textiles are embedded in the cultural matrix of Bali, and tells by whom and under what conditions textiles are made as well as when, where and how such cloths are used. It shows clearly how the weaving techniques, patterns, dyes and materials used form the "raw material" from which is spun a fine network of cultural significations and interrelated contexts of meaning. Our attempt is to direct the reader's attention from the

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