Tohpati is widely known as the center of handmade Balinese batik with various colors and shapes. Here the visitors will be exhib...
Tohpati is widely known as the center of handmade Balinese batik with various colors and shapes. Here the visitors will be exhibited the Batik making and hand weaving process. Finally you can buy some to bring home. The specialties of Balinese Batik can be seen from the strong Javanese motifs; some of modern Batik applies the paintings objects, such as Balinese culture, ceremonies, beautiful sites, or mythological figures. Batik is one of the most beautiful wearable art and the approach to the other side of Balinese rich culture. any of famous person in the world such as Nelson Mandela, the South African president love wearing batik shirt. please feel free to ask the staff to paint on your cloth with any motif for free.
History of Batik :
Evidence of early examples of batik have been found in the Far East, Middle East, Central Asia and India from over 2000 years ago. It is conceivable that these areas developed independently, without the influence from trade or cultural exchanges. However, it is more likely that the craft spread from Asia to the islands of the Malay Archipelago and west to the Middle East through the caravan route. Batik was practised in China as early as the Sui Dynasty (AD 581-618). These were silk batiks and these have also been discovered in Nara, Japan in the form of screens and ascribed to the Nara period (AD 710-794). It is probable that these were made by Chinese artists. They are decorated with trees, animals, flute players, hunting scenes and stylised mountains.
No evidence of very old cotton batiks have been found in India but frescoes in the Ajunta caves depict head wraps and garments which could well have been batiks. In Java and Bali temple ruins contain figures whose garments are patterned in a manner suggestive of batik. By 1677 there is evidence of a considerable export trade, mostly on silk from China to Java, Sumatra, Persia and Hindustan. In Egypt linen and occasionally woollen fabrics have been excavated bearing white patterns on a blue ground and are the oldest known and date from the 5th century A.D. They were made in Egypt, possibly Syria. In central Africa resist dyeing using cassava and rice paste has existed for centuries in the Yoruba tribe of Southern Nigeria and Senegal.
