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Three ethnic groups in Sumateras southern province - the Peminggir along the southern coast, the Abung in the north and the Pubian in the central part- together form the Lampung. They are famous because of their special tissues with as dominating object a ship. These tissues are currently named 'ship tissues'. The remarkable towels are not being made for over 100 years and have become rare by now. They form a rememberance to the time that the region flourished because of the good pepper trade. The collapse of this caused a period of poverty and cause the halt of the production of the special towels.
The towels were devided into two groups after shape and use: tampan and palepai. The first are relatively small and square with sides that are never longer than one metre. Papelai are more rectangular, on average three metres long and half a metre wide. The decorations are just as different as their sizes. Tampan often have very refined, sometimes more abstract shapes, while the palepai often wear robust, clearly recognisable things. The decorational style of both types shows features from the Dongson culture.
Tampan and palepai are often made from cotton and woven following identical techniques. For decorational patterns, a colored tissue was added to the weaving. Peminggir women produced palepai as well as tampan; Pubian and Abung woman only tampan;
Use, motives and symbolism
The Peminggir are, as well as the Pudian and Abung, organised in patrilineaire groups of descendande, suku. Four or more of these suku form a so called marga. These know a number of titles with as most important the penyimbang. Carriers of this title are direct descendants from the founder of a suku or marga. They represent the aristocratic class which has the right to own palepai.
The several metre long towels are used at every interchange rite: birth, circumstantion, marriage and death. A special interchange rite is reaching a higher status inside an extended status system. During these rites the palepai represent the status of the suku inside a marga. Traditionally there are 'strong' and 'weak' suku, classifications which are based on relative age, wealth and the size of the groups of descendance. At one wall where the rituals take place are the palepai from the aristocratic families following the position of each suku in the marga. Tampan are also used during interchange rite, but different than the palepai their possession is not meant for one class. Above all the towels are used as packaging material of ceremonial food which is exchanged between the involved suku. Especially the quantity is important: the more tampan is given, the more status the husband gets. While the palepai are always owned by the same suku and are a symbol of the ruling class, the tampan circulate between different groups of descendance in all groups of the population.
On the palepai you can often see several different small objects on deck of the ship which is shown, a few of them are houses, humans and animals. Following the color and the style of th towel, it is put into one of the two kinds, the red or the blue one. On very rare palepai are only rows of people without ship.
The designs of tampan are much more varied and are hard to classify. The ship motive is, like the palepai sometimes not shown. Sometimes birds are shown, sometimes on a ship or a tree, a ship with humans or an abstract shape. Simpel rows of humans are also known on tampan.
On all motives of tampan and palepai, the ships are the most important. A ship symbolises movement but also structure, important for the interchange. A person who is about to undergo a ritual is placed outside the structure of the society for a short period of time. He is guided by very structured ceremonies, in which the Lampung society can be showed as a ship itself. During the ceremony of marriage there always is a procession in the shape of a ship, in which all suku from a marga have their own position. The pair in fact is moved from an uncertain position outside the structure into the safer environment inside it.
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