LITMIR.BIZ

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adorned and arrayed in festive apparel; the procession itself is led by banner carriers whose flags and pennants—textiles secured to poles—announce from afar the extraordinary significance of such a procession. Over the floral symbols of gods and the carved anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures of deities clad in specific textiles (Fig. 1.11) is a textile firmament of ceremonial parasols (Figs. 1.15 and 7.5).

      It is also quite common to witness processions, especially to and from a Brahman house compound, in which the women form a long line, each carrying a white cloth of the same length over her head. Cloths are also spread out on the ground to maintain the ritual purity of those stepping over it and to prevent them from direct contact with the soil, which represents the chthonic or earthly (as opposed to the uranian or heavenly) principle (Fig. 7.14).

      Figure 1.12: A sanctuary is invested with an aura for an annual festival: shrines and halls are draped with textiles. Sanur.

      Figure 1.13: At certain temple festivals the pemangku ritually dress in sacred fabrics, Their form and materials (coir fiber trimmed with red, black or green fabric) are handed down from the past. South Bali.

      Figure 1.14: Holy water vessels wrapped round with colored yarn. Colors correspond to the cardinal directions. Pura Leluhur, Uluwatu.

      The customary appearance of Balinese temple sanctuaries, with their offering stelae, shrines and open pavilions, is gray, forlorn and lonely. For the annual festival when the deities are invited to descend, however, these sites are transformed. The individual abodes of the gods, the shrines and the pavilions, are all made ready for the arrival of the gods and are dressed on the same principle as the human body (Fig. 1.12). Two wraparounds, one representing the upper hip cloth and one the cloth beneath, are draped around the pillar on which a small shrine stands; both are secured with a sash. Above the offering niche, the structure is adorned with a headband modeled after a man's headcloth. The niches themselves, at least in south Bali, are lined with plaited mats, with a lamak hanging down. The walls of the pavilions for offerings are draped with textile hangings,, and the places for the divine figures and for the brahman priest (pedanda) are adorned additionally with a white canopy (white being the symbol of ritual purity). Among the offerings presented to the gods are carefully folded cloths used solely for this purpose, usually placed on offering dishes next to the divine figures. In Nusa Penida such cloths are sometimes piled into high "offering towers" (Fig. 1.9). Sacrificial animals are also clad in cloth, and even the wooden cremation bull which serves as a sarcophagus for the those of high social status is fitted with an integument of fine white cloth which transforms it into a divine escort for the soul of the deceased (Fig. 1.15).

      It is the textile itself, the woven object, that betokens divinity—but colors, material and pattern more precisely define its character. In this connection we might mention the rose of the winds and the gods and colors correlated with it in Balinese cosmology (cf. p. 60). One can tell from the color used for, say, the veiled abode of a god, what type of deity must be involved. Red cloths are used for an altar to Brahma (god of fire and blacksmiths; his cardinal direction is south), whereas black cloths betoken Wisnu, and so forth. The same is true of the cloths tied on the backs of sacrificial animals; their color indicates the gods to which they are dedicated. Offerings placed in small earthenware dishes are also arranged on the principle of the cardinal directions, with their particular gods and meanings, this being indicated by the dyed yarns with which the holy water vessels are wrapped (Fig. 1.14).

      Today preference is shown for certain colors: white and yellow, which symbolize the divine generally (Fig. 1.4). The combination of various colors in the same cloth, and the way in which they are combined, may signify ambivalence, danger and, at the same time, protection and defense (see Chapters 7, 8 and 9)—for gods and their attendants are not only celestially pure and benevolent, but may also be dark, dangerous and minatory.

      Figure 1.15: "Cremation bull" draped in white cloth, gold paper adornments and palm-leaf lamak, accompanied by two ceremonial parasols. Amlapura.

      Finally, certain categories of textiles supply information relating not only to the gods, but to the social aspects of humans, their characteristics and the relations between them. For the individual, cloths of a special kind such as bebali and wangsul (see Chapter 5), mark various stages of human life and are used to protect the individual in ceremonies of transition. Certain textiles formerly expressed the highly stratified social hierarchy of traditional Bali. Such materials as bebali and wangsul were produced and controlled by the gria or brahmanical houses, while at the same time being indispensible in the performance of rites of passage for members of all social classes.

      The uses of specific types of textiles are detailed in lontar palm-leaf manuscripts, also preserved in gria, These concern various categories of rituals—for gods, humans, the deceased, demons, etc. Because of the religious leadership exercised by the intellectual and spiritual elite of brah-mans, a system of textile standards became operative throughout Bali, This contrasted with local traditions and brought about certain uniformities where previously there were no doubt more specific differences.

      Exceptional socio-religious status also attaches to the aU-white apparel of the pemangkuy who ministers in the temple service, and to the black-and-white clothing of the pedanda or brahman priest. Attire of this type contains elements—such as the red or black miter-like headdress (Fig, 3.7)—that are forbidden to all other members of society. Social functions were previously distinguished by clothing on a much greater scale than today. Various dignitaries within the court hierarchy, and also warriors, wore special garments that indicated their status.

      In the past, endek and songkèt cloths were generally the prerogative of the princely courts and aristocratic families (see Chapters 2 and 3) with regard to both production and use. These cloths have since undergone a process of democratization, so that personal distinctions can no longer be made on the basis of textiles alone. It seems, however, that clues are

      Whereas endek and songkèt are social badges recognized in every part of Bali, other textiles are characteristic of relatively closed social groups typical for particular regions. Thus, for example, the geringsing cloths of Tenganan in eastern Bali are the prerogative of the village aristocracy, so that anyone wearing or using such a ritual cloth there identifies himself as one of its members. In a similar way, keling cloths (see Chapter 6) were formerly worn in Nusa Penida only by women, and were therefore the badge of a gender-specific group.

      In the course of time and through the socio-cultural changes of the past decades, these marks of social distinction have begun to blur. The greatest difference betokened by clothing today is no longer that between social classes, but between everyday and holy day. Daily clothing makes people out

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