Unesco Lists Batik As Indonesian Cultural Heritage

Do you ever know the name of 'BATIK'? My husband and I, also my parent and my brother and sisters in Indonesia love wearing Batik.

Batik is regarded as a cultural icon with its own uniqueness. It contains symbols and deep philosophy of the human life cycle -- and it was submitted by Indonesia as a non-material element of cultural heritage.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has added BATIK - Indonesia's traditional dyeing technique to its intangible Cultural Heritage list. The listing gives the age-old batik tradition some degree of protection under the UNESCO charter, now it is making official at an event in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between September 28 and October 2, 2009.


"Getting batik to be recognized by UNESCO had been a long and complex journey. The Indonesian government had to produce extensive academic research on batik to make their case." Indroyono Soesilo, Secretary to the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, as quoted by state news agency Antara on Tuesday, Sept 29, 2009.


I am very sure the Indonesians around the world must be grateful that the work of their (my) ancestors has been acknowledged by the world.

So far, Indonesia has registered nine of its places and practices with the UN's educational, scientific and cultural guardian. Two other cultural heritages are wayang puppetry and the kris. World heritages sites include natural ones such as Komodo National Park, Tropical Rainforest of Sumatra, and historic sites such as the Borobudur and Prambanan temple compounds and the Sangiran Early Man archeological site.

I ever learned how to make Batik when I was at the first year in Junior High School. I was so excited learning how made it on a small size of fabric (handkerchief) by using a method of hand-printing on it and covering with removable wax the parts that will not be dyed. Due to modern advances in textile industry, the technique is also used for fabric incorporating traditional batik patterns that are not necessarily produced using traditional batik techniques.

One day I would love to have a simple tool kit of making Batik. I wish one day when we visit my country, we will come back to USA and bring it. I'm sure my three daughters will be excited to practice making it. It will be fun.

My husband and I have some collections of Batik, either we bought them ourselves or getting presents from family and friends. We both also ever gave Christmas presents to our daughters, Sissy and Mimi in 2002, and in our special day when we got married, we wore Batik, as you see a picture below.

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