Batik textiles are such an integral part of Jawanese culture that it is difficult to imagine a time when the Jawanese dit not possess them. Yet the batik process, as we know it, may not be very old. Scholars debate wether or not the wax-resist dyeing process was brought to Jawa from India, where it has been known for centuries. Although names for various batik motifs have been traced to Jawanese literary works datimg from the 12th ecntury, in fact, the terms batik and tulis (as applied to textile design) do not appear in Jawanese court records until the Islamic period, when Indian traders where alread active in the archipelago.
No one disputes, however, that Jawanese batik is by far the finest in the world. There developped in Jawa, possibly in the 17th or 18th century, a tool known as the canting, a pen used to apply molten wax to cloth and capable of executing very detailed designs. A complex technology of wax and resin compounding, dye preparation and fixing, and a whole repertoire of elaborate motifs developed.

Starting with patience

Batik is produced on Sumatera, Sulawesi and Balu, but none can really compare with that of Jawa. The reason is quite simple: fine batik requires extraordinary patience. Beginning with a white silk or cotton cloth, the first step in handmade batik is to sketch a design. Areas that are not to be colored in the first dyeung must then be covered with wax. This can take hundreds of hours of painstaking labo. The cloth is the immersed in a prepared dye solution and dried. (When natural dyes were used, repeated immersions and dryings were used, and a single dyeing would take months.)
Next, the cloth must be re-waxed in preparation for the second dyeing. Sometimes this is accomplished by boiling out all the wax and rewaxing the entire cloth, but sometimes it involves scraping certain areas and adding wax to others. The dyeing and re-waxing process is then repeated as many times as is necessary to produce the number of colors required.
Dragons and clouds: At one time, the designs catalogued numbered over 1,000, and the regional styles numbered more than 20, primarily in central Jawa (Yogya and Solo) and along the northern coast. In central Jawa, batik-making was the preserve of aristocratic women, whereas on the north coast, it was an industry pursued by Chinese, Arab and even by Dutch artisans.
The differences in coloring and design were considerable. In central Jawa, certain motifs where set aside exclusively for the court and members of the aristocracy. There included kawung (large ovals arranged in fours like leaves of a clover), ceplok (an eight-pointed flower motif deriving from the Indian patola), sawit or garuda wings (of a mythical Hindu bird), and the parang rusak barong, or broken sword motif, that consists of diagonal rows of interlocking scrolls.
Two primary colors were used, indigo and soga, a brown dye obtained from the bark of a tree. These came in many shades, and elaborate dye recipes called for the addition of substances like palm sugar, bananas, fermented cassava and chicken meat.
On the north coast, yellows, mauves, ochres, greens and pale blues were more popular, showing Chinese, European, and Islamic influence. In Cirebon, a Chinese clouds motif that symbolizes mythical energy was incorporated in all of the courty batik designs. In one of the most famous motifs, the mega mendung, or menacing rain clouds, they appear in bright contrasting shades of red, blue, pink or green, like some supernatural storm. Chinese dragons and phoenixes appeared together with Hindu naga and elephants and European lions, and some central Jawanese motifs where executed in uncharacteristically bright colors. The most popular designs were of European origin, however: bouquets of flowers with hovering hummingbirds, or elegant, long-legged storks and herons.
It is fair to say that at the turn of the century, everyone in Jawa wore batik. The advent of batik cap (batik produced with the use of a stamp, the cap) revitalized the industry during the 1890's as even the peasants were then able to afford this cruder, mass-produced product. Batik was also widely exported from Jawa to other islands.