By Sukino Harisumarto Sep 11, 2007, 9:38 GMT
Solo, Indonesia - The ancient Central Java city Solo is a quaint city that remains famous for Javanese batik and other fabrics, despite being considered a hotbed for regional terrorism.
The former capital of the powerful Surakarta principality under the Dutch, who during the 18th century controlled a significant part of Java, has recently been associated with radical Islam and the Indonesian terrorist network known as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which has killed hundreds of Westerners in hotel and nightclub bombings.
But Solo is actually a stronghold of peaceful, time-honoured Javanese beliefs and a site where foreign influences and eclectic local elements have become one.
In the city centre lies the traditional batik production district of Laweyan, where during the early 1970s, up to 90 per cent of its 2,500 residents were batik makers.
'Laweyan at once became a 'batik master,' and achieved its glorious era in early 1970s,' said Achmad Sulaiman, a leading batik maker.
In Javanese, batik means 'to dot.' It is a traditional textile working process involving the use of wax to cover fabric in patterns, thus controlling the areas affected by dying. The multi-coloured textiles are used to make traditional clothing including shirts and dresses, artwork and drapery.
Traditionally, hand-painted batik is made by women, using wax that is a combination of paraffin, bees-wax and resins. During the process, locally known as 'batik tulis,' hot wax is applied with incredible patience and skill with 'canting,' a wooden pen fitted with a small reservoir.
Gunawan Muhammad Nizar, another traditional batik maker, claims the art of hand-made batik all but died after the emergence of mass production machine manufacturing in the mid-1970s.
'We cannot compete with the print batik industry,' Gunawan told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in an interview, explaining that the industry produces quicker and cheaper products, and sells them cheaper than traditional hand-painted batik.
'To make the best quality hand-painted batik, it may take weeks and even two months,' Gunawan explains.
At his batik workshop, circles of women sit working on cloth draped over frames, periodically replenishing their supply of wax by dipping their canting into a central vat. Several middle-aged men use a metal stamp to apply wax patterns to cloth to produce 'batik cap,' or batik stamp - a faster and easier process.
Unlike ordinary markets and street-front shops, Laweyan's batik makers are unique in that they use their living rooms or verandas as batik showrooms.
Due to sluggish business, however, only about 20 per cent of the traditional batik makers from the 1980s still run shops, while most others have tried other businesses to survive.
'Also, our business activity was seriously damaged when the country was hit by the (Asian Economic Crisis) in 1997,' Gunawan said.
Like the capital Jakarta, Solo witnessed violence and chaos during political, social and economic unrest that triggered the downfall of authoritarian President Suharto in 1998. Dozens of buildings and shops in Solo were torched during days of rioting.
Nevertheless, the business climate has slightly improved since 2003, when the city's administration inaugurated Laweyan sub-district as a culture heritage site and new tourist destination, Gunawan said.
'In the past few years, there have been very frequent visits by foreign tourists to our showrooms. There are now around 40 households that have resumed as batik makers throughout Laweyan,' he said.
Solo, with a population of 550,000, is the hometown of hard-line Islamic cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who Western countries claim is the spiritual leader of the JI terrorist network and approved the attack on Bali's nightclubs in 2002.
Ba'asyir runs an Islamic boarding school or pesantren, in Ngruki, just outside Solo's city centre. Some of its graduates have been involved in a string of terrorist attacks against foreign targets in Indonesia, with up to 250 killed.
Also known as Surakarta, Solo was once the heart of an ancient kingdom in Java. Solo's cultural history includes mythological beginnings, tumultuous early centuries when the empire of Mataram lorded over the land of Java, and years of Dutch colonial rule in the 17th century.
'We have a plenty of attractions to offer,' said Solo's tourism marketing director, who identified herself only as Eni. 'We have something very different and unique to offer our guests.'
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