CRAFTS IN MALAYSIA: TEXTILES, DAGGERS, WOOD

CRAFTS IN MALAYSIA

19th century Iban carving of a hornbill.

Malaysia boasts a delightful variety of traditional handicrafts. Choices range from priceless authentic antiques to exquisite modern hand-made crafts. As most artisans are Muslims, Malaysian handicraft designs are heavily influenced by Islam. The religion prohibits the depiction of the human form in art. Hence, most designs are based on natural elements such as the interlacing of leaves or vines, flowers and animals. [Source: Malaysian Government Tourism]

The Malays are renowned for their refined and delicate wood carvings. These artistic creations can be seen adorning their fishing boats, house panels, and walls. Historically, the Malays were dependent on the sea for food and livelihood. Boats were built for fishing and long sea journeys. These boats were decorated with ornamental embellishments, not only for elegance, but also to fulfil the Malays' aesthetic needs and imbue the boats with spiritual power. Traditional Malay houses feature rich decorations and carvings, primarily on doors, windows and wall panels. [Source: P. Bala “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” Cengage Learning, 2009]

Malaysia’s 2013 National Craft Day attracted more than 450 participants representing five categories: forest-based products, textiles, earthen-based (hasil tanah) crafts, metal craft and an assortment of handicraft. There were hundreds of participants from Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. The masters of traditional crafts came mostly from Sarawak, Sabah, Kedah, Pahang, Perak, Kelantan, Johor, Negri Sembilan and Selangor. To make the national craft event more interesting, there were live demonstrations of sculpturing wood, rattan and paper weaving, traditional musical instruments, keris-making, stone-carving and kumbu and bamboo weaving. Like previous years, there are remarkable collections of costume accessories, souvenirs, keychains, batik paintings, traditional clothes, pendants, earthen pots, wooden frames and gifts and myriad decorative products to thrill your senses. [Source: Lin Zhen Yuan, March 8, 2013]

Types of Crafts Found in Malaysia

Malayan kris knife with carved wooden handle, bird's head with gilt details, and wooden sheath, was a gift to New Zealand Prime Minister Walter Nash on his trip to Malaya in the 1950s.

Earthenware and Ceramics: Popular items of traditional design include Perak's labu sayong, geluk, belanga, Chinese dragon kiln ceramics and Sarawakian tribal motif pottery. Contemporary items include vases, flower pots, decorative pottery, sculpture and kitchenware. Labu Sayong is a black-coloured gourd-shaped clay jar typically used to store and cool water. The state of Perak is renowned for this type of pottery. Found in many rural Malaysian homes, the belanga is often characterised by a round base and wide rim. It is often used to cook curries, as it is believed that its round base allows heat to be distributed more evenly. This angular-shaped jar is popularly used for storing water in the states of Pahang and Terengganu. It has a concave neck and a convex body. [Source: Malaysian Government Tourism]

Wood Crafts: Blessed with an abundance of timber in boundless tropical forests, Malaysia is renowned for an assortment of distinctive wood crafts. Traditionally, whole houses were built from elaborate hand-carved timber. Today, antique Malay-styled engraved panels, keris dagger handles, Chinese containers, unique Orang Asli spirit sculptures, intricate walking sticks, kitchen utensils and carved scented woods are among the wide range of exotic decorative items found in Malaysia.

Metal Crafts: Popular since the early days, traditional brass casting and bronze working are still used to make an array of utensils. More recently in the 19th century, with the discovery of tin in Malaysia, pewter has become increasingly popular. Metal craft products include modern decorative items, kitchen ware and traditional artifacts like tepak sireh sets, rose-water instruments and keris blades.

Hand-woven Crafts: Marvel at the creative hand-woven crafts of Malaysia. Local plant fibres and parts from bamboo, rattan, pandan and mengkuang leaves are coiled, plaited, twined and woven to produce items such as bags, baskets, mats, hats, tudung saji and sepak raga balls.

Textiles in Malaysia

Peranakan tas manik (ceremonial purse) with velvet weave and Peranakan glass cut beads.

Varieties of Malaysia's traditional textiles include batik, songket, pua kumbuand tekat. These textiles are made into all sorts of decorative items, from haute couture clothes to shoes, colourful curtains and delicate bed linen. [Source: Malaysian Government Tourism]

Batik: Referring to the process of dyeing fabric by making use of a resistant technique; covering areas of cloth with wax to prevent it absorbing colours. The colours in batik are much more resistant to wear than those of painted or printed fabrics because the cloth is completely immersed in dye.

Songket: Utilising an intricate supplementary weft technique where gold threads are woven in between the longitudinal silk threads of the background cloth. In the past, this rich and luxurious fabric demonstrated the social status of the Malay elite.

Pua Kumbu: Made from individually dyed threads on a back strap loom. Its supernatural motifs are inspired by dreams and ancient animist beliefs. The patterns that emerge are a fusion of the real and surreal. And each weave is distinctive of its maker's hand.

Tekat: The art of embroidering golden thread onto a base material, generally velvet, was traditionally used to decorate traditional Malay weddings regalia.

Malaysian Batik Cloth

Batik is a technique of dying fabric using wax to create patterns. It originated more than 2,000 years ago in India. In Malaysia commercial production of batik started around 1930 on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula following the introduction of a technique using screen printing stencils that allowed the work to be done fast and cheaply. Malaysian batik is not as famous as Indonesian batik but became fashionable in the early 2000s. Among those who were wearing it were Endon Mahmood, a Muslim feminist and wife of Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Batik is used in making shirts, sarongs, skirts, dresses and almost any other item of clothing in many parts of the world. Batik is an old Javanese word that means “to dot” or "to stipple". The word batik is thought to be derived from the word 'ambatik' which translated means 'a cloth with little dots'. The suffix 'tik' means little dot, drop, point or to make dots. Batik may also originate from the Javanese word 'tritik' which describes a resist process for dying where the patterns are reserved on the textiles by tying and sewing areas prior to dying, similar to tie dye techniques. Another Javanese phase for the mystical experience of making batik is “mbatik manah” which means “drawing a batik design on the heart”. [Source: expat.or.id ]

Unlike Indonesia batik, which features traditional patterns and colors, Malaysian batik is known fro its free-flowing designs, mostly large floral motifs and vibrant in colouring. Malaysians claim their batik is better because it uses brighter hues and has more varied patterns. Even so it is worn less and less at home and is worn mainly by government officials and old ladies in formal occasions.

Terengganu songket, the Limar Songket Bertabur cloth from the 19th century, the collection of Textile Museum, George Washington University

Malaysian is associated most with the east coast of Malaysia (Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang). The most popular motifs are leaves and flowers. Malaysian batik depicting humans or animals are rare because Islam norms forbid animal images as decoration. However, the butterfly theme is a common exception. The Malaysian batik is also famous for its geometrical designs, such as spirals. The method of Malaysian batik making is also quite different from those of Indonesian Javanese batik, the pattern is larger and simpler, it seldom or never uses canting to create intricate patterns and rely heavily on brush painting method to apply colours on fabrics. The colours also tend to be lighter and more vibrant than deep coloured Javanese batik. [Source: Wikipedia]

In line with the 1Malaysia concept, the Malaysian government is now endorsing Malaysian batik as a national dress to every level of the general population, by having local designers to create new batik designs which reflect the 1Malaysia idea.

History of Malaysian Batik

The origin of batik production in Malaysia is not easy to trace. Few historical artifacts exist, but it is known trade relations between the Melayu Kingdom in Jambi and Javanese coastal cities have thrived since the 13th century, the northern coastal batik producing areas of Java (Cirebon, Lasem, Tuban, and Madura) has influenced Jambi batik. This Jambi (Sumatran) batik, as well as Javanese batik, has influenced the batik craft in the Malay peninsula. [Source: Wikipedia]

Batik was mentioned in the 17th century Malay Annals. The legend goes when Laksamana Hang Nadim was ordered by Sultan Mahmud to sail to India to get 140 pieces of serasah cloth (batik) with 40 types of flowers depicted on each. Unable to find any that fulfilled the requirements explained to him, he made up his own. On his return unfortunately, his ship sank and he only managed to bring four pieces, earning displeasure from the Sultan.

According to the Museum of Cultural History of Oslo, it is known for certain that the Javanese influenced Malay batik-making technically as well as in the development of designs. At an early stage the Malaysians used wooden blocks in order to produce batik-like textiles. As late as the 1920s Javanese batik makers introduced the use of wax and copper blocks on Malaysia's east coast. The production of hand drawn batik in Malaysia is of recent date and is related to the Javanese batik tulis.

Commercial production started in the 1960s. This craft has developed its own particular aesthetic and design, peculiar to Malaysia. The new Malaysian batik is clearly different from the Javanese tradition of hand-painted batiks. Malaysian batik can be found on the east coast of Malaysia such as Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, while batik in Johor clearly shows Javanese and Sumatran influences since there are a large number of Javanese and Sumatran immigrants in southern Malaysia.

Songket

Songket is silk cloth with gold or silver threads woven into it, although these days imitation silver or gold and cotton is often used. Songket is most commonly found in peninsular Malaysia West Sumatra, but can be seen in parts of Borneo. Other places produce hand-woven cloths of gold and silver threads, silks or cottons with intricate designs. Gold threads are also used in embroidery in the more Islamics areas [Source: Sue Potter, expat.or.id ]

Songket is made from yarn — formerly silk, but nowadays usually cotton — and is woven using a wooden shaft treadle loom. This loom measures approximately 2.5 metres (8 feet) in length and 1.5 metres (5 feet) in height. The production of songket fabric involves seven long and complicated stages. These are the preparation of the yarn (spooling), the warping process, winding the warp thread onto the warping board, threading the warp thread through the reed, creating string loops for the wooden rods known as heddles, creating the songket pattern and weaving. [Source: P. Bala “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life,” Cengage Learning, 2009]

Jewelry and Costume Accessories in Malaysia

Jewelry and costume accessories from Malaysia include leather-crafted goods, beadwork necklaces from Borneo or finely made gold and silver jewellery adorned with gems.

Kerongsang: A three-piece brooch set traditionally used to pin the lapels of the baju kebaya together. Kerongsang usually comes in sets of three. The typical three-piece set comprises of a kerongsang ibu (mother piece) which is larger and heavier. The other two are called the kerongsang anak (child pieces) and are worn below the kerongsang ibu.

Cucuk Sanggul: A traditional hairpin used to secure hair in a bun at the back of women's heads. Typically made of gold or silver, these hairpins are normally worn in graduated sets of three, five or seven by brides and traditional dancers.

Pending: A large, intricately ornamented belt buckle worn around the sampin, a skirt-like cloth worn by men, to complement their baju melayu, the traditional attire for men. Traditionally, the pending is a sign of wealth and status for men.

Malay Kris (Traditional Malay Dagger)

The kris or keris is a distinctive, asymmetrical dagger from Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei. Both weapon and spiritual object, the kris is considered to possess magical powers. Since time immemorial no weapon has been made renowned and revered in the Malay world as the kris. With its razor-sharp blade, which is usually wavy, the kris was in former times the favourite weapons of royalty and commoner alike. In the hands of a skilful exponent of pancak silat, the Malay art of self-defence, it was, and can still be, a deadly weapon in close combat. As recent as the beginning of the century, no man felt safe and secure leaving home without one tucked in his waistband, ready for the unexpected. Such confidence in the kris was a tradition made antiquated only by the passage of time. [Source: Brunei Today, Information Department, 1994]

Clearly the kris is very unlike other daggers or knives in origin and appearance. Almost all krises have lok or waves, the total of which has always been an odd number. Another unique feature is the widening of the blade just below the hilt, and one side of this part is usually found a small ornament that may take the form of an elephant's trunk, a snake's tongue or other objects according to the preference of the kris-maker.

The blade is normally covered by a damascened pattern called pamur or kuran depending on the composition of the metal used to fabricate the patterns. The ris maker believes that the pattern stengthens the blade and make it more lethal. Some krises like Kris Sula, which was used in the old royal courts to execute wrongdoers, or Kris Palembang are without the lok. The hilt of such a kris, however, is more often than not still resembles a bird's head.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 5: East/Southeast Asia:” edited by Paul Hockings; 1993; New York Times; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times; Smithsonian magazine; Encyclopedia.com; National Geographic; Live Science; Malaysia Tourism websites; Malaysia government websites; UNESCO; Metropolitan Museum of Art; Natural History magazine; Times of London; Library of Congress; The Conversation; The New Yorker; Time; BBC; CNN; Reuters; Associated Press; AFP; Lonely Planet Guides; Google AI; Wikipedia; The Guardian and various websites; books and other publications.

Last updated May 2026