Blend with the Natural Beauty, Dayak's Traditional Clothes.


Hundreds of years ago the Dayak ethnic made clothes made from bark called nyamu bark. The bark of the tree is forged with a hammer like a wooden hammer to become limp like cloth. After being considered smooth, nyamu bark was cut to make clothes and pants.

The fashion model is very simple and solely just to cover the body. This clothes are an unisex vest without any decoration. This simple vest in Ngaju is called sangkarut. The pants are loincloths, which when worn on the front, are covered with sheets of rectangular cloth, called ewah. The color is light brown (the original color of wood), not decorated, nor is it colored so that it feels very natural.

But the grooming instinct, which is said to have risen to the hearts of every human being since thousands of years ago, disturbs the desire of the Dayak Ngaju people's to "beautify" their appearance. Then the simple wooden leather dress was then equipped with headband accessories (salutup hatue for men and salutup bawi for women), earrings (suwang), necklaces, bracelets, tattoo (rajah) on certain body parts which are also collected from the surrounding environment. Grains, shells, teeth and fangs of animals are arranged into necklaces, bracelets made from bones of hunted animals, studs from hardwoods, and various other accessories that come from their daily waste. The simplicity of the bark clothes then emits the essence of beauty because of the colorful additions of flora and fauna that are added as a complement to fashion.

In the subsequent development of the Dayak Ngaju people's began to put decorative colors and patterns on their clothes. The coloring material is creatively processed from the nature around them. For example, the black color of soot, the white color of white soil mixed with water, the yellow color of turmeric and the red color of rattan. The decorative patterns depicted in clothing are also inspired by what they see in the natural surroundings. Then the forms of flora and fauna, flowers, leaves, tree roots, birds, root tigers, and so on are the features of their traditional clothing. Beliefs and mythological realms also inspired the creation of a variety of traditional fashion designs so that the images, besides appearing artistic, also had symbolic meaning. The influence of Hinduism on the original beliefs of the Ngaju people's who tended to be animistic, for example, gave birth to what became known as the Hindu Kaharingan's religion. Syncretism gave birth to various beliefs and mythology and inspired the emergence of decorative patterns of dragons, humans, and so on which were very philosophical.

One of the mythologies of the famous Dayak Ngaju people's is about the creation of a natural birth symbolizing the "tree of life" or "tree of life" in the form of ornamental patterns known as the batang garing. This decorative pattern is very meaningful for the Dayak Ngaju people's so that traditional dress for important ceremonies. For example tiwah ceremonies (in Kaharingan's belief, to deliver human souls who died to their rest), ceremonies requesting rain, medicinal ceremonies to buy drugs are required to wear traditional clothes with decorative patterns of batang garing. In addition, it is also regulated the use of traditional dress patterns that are different for women and men and also for group leaders, traditional elders, warlords, tribal chiefs and medical experts

The most significant innovation in the fashion design of the Dayak people's is the mastery of the skill of braiding natural fibers. Weaving techniques, it is said, were introduced to the Ngaju people by Bugis people. Then the bark which was originally only forged into sheets of "cloth", is now processed with techniques that require patience and high concentration. From the mashed bark they make fibers that are dyed by natural dyes so that non-single threads are produced. They then created a braiding device to "string" fiber by fiber into a stretch of clothing for clothes, pants, headbands, and other items.

Exploration continues to be done to look for other materials that can be made yarn. Then they glanced at the rattan, grass grass, plant roots, so that the "cloth" produced became diverse. The design and function of clothing also developed. Clothing that is made is no longer just for the most basic functions, namely clothes and pants to protect body parts that are considered to be the most important, but expanded for other purposes. For example, just a warfare cage made of rattan (sangkarut perang) for stabbing arrows, chopsticks and spears.



Then, when the Chinese and Indians came to Borneo, they introduced beads made of metal, ceramics so that they complement what had previously been made by the Ngaju people's made of grains, wood, and bones. In addition to accessories, beads are also then applied to fashion decorations. So the Ngaju clothing will become more ornamental and colorful. However, the decoration still expresses their familiarity with nature. Its decorative patterns still display the nature of flora, fauna and mythology. And now bamboo shoots, hornbills, snakes, tiger roots, humans, clouds, batang garing, also appear in other expressions. The new discoveries were later creatively developed again by the Ngaju community fashion designers. The result is a fashion that combines bark, natural fiber braids, decorated with natural coloring images, and application of beads and arguci. The types of clothing like this now can still be made for various purposes, for example, for dance costumes, museum collections or souvenirs.

The traditional clothing of the Ngaju people's currently circulating is almost entirely made from fine woven cotton or silk fibers. Initially Gujarat traders from India who came to the archipelago brought fine woven fabrics as merchandise. The fabrics are woven from cotton or silk fibers. The Ngaju people, especially those living in the coastal and central areas of the kingdom, gave a positive appreciation of clothing materials which were not previously available in the repertoire of their woven works. Then adapted the technique of weaving fine cloth and the creativity of the Ngaju people's weavers and gave birth to fine woven fabrics. Why not, because it turns out that the rich nature of Nusatara also provides cotton and silk. Therefore, bridal wear, custom events, dance costumes are mostly made of velvet, satin or silk. But the decorative pattern and the model do not shift far from the original shape. The traditional clothing of the Ngaju people, now considered as the regional dress of Central Kalimantan in various traditional ceremonies, is the development of traditional clothing of the past.

Women's clothing consists of long or short sleeves, satin or velvet, which at the bottom are decorated with stylized forms of flora or fauna. The combination of a long skirt limited to a calf, called salui, from the same cloth which is also given a decorative pattern in the form of a form of flora or fauna. The hair is bun in the form of a bun or is left unraveled with a headband, lawung bawi, from a cloth that is colored with a shirt with a harness feather tucked into the back headband. And the accessories he wears are beads necklaces and earrings (suwang).



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