Life Cycle ceremonies

In the batik-making villages across the river from the Jambi cspitsl,vtextiles also have an important part to play in all stages of the life cycle. Ceremonial gift exchanges at marriage ceremonies in Jambi always involve textiles. A week or so before the wedding itself, a delegation from the groom's family goes in procession from his family's house of the bride's family, carrying twelve Trays of gifts. Most important are the trays of betel chew igredient and money Carried at the front of the procession, but these are followed by many more on which textiles, folded into the shapes of fruits, flowers, a fan , a goose (sometimes with two heads ) and a boat. These last two items recall Orang Kayo Hitam's marriage to Princess Mayang Mengurai , and his journey dowsteram to found the new kingdom in Tanah Pilih. Unlike the situation in many others parts of Indonesia,the bride's family does not make a precisely reciprocal exchange : the groom has to buy his way into the bride's family. The twelve large cakes returned to the groom's family are more in the nature of a polite formality ; there is no pretence of equivalence in the exchange. At the wedding ceremony itself, the groom sits in front of a wall hung with a carpet decorated with flowers and gauze. A pile of folded batik sarongs arranged into the shape of a sun flowers is frovided for him to sit on, with each individual sarung forming one petal. Nowadays , there would be eight cloths making up the flower shape , But in the past there would have been fifty-six, in seven layers.The significance of this Sunflower shape and the shapes into which the gifts are folded have been lost, but the practice continues and every groom, rich or poor, goes through this ritual.

Some days or perhaps even weeks after the day of the wedding the marriage feast takes place, when a great many guests, sometimes numbering several hundred, are invinited to witness the couple sitting in state on a heavily ornamented thorene, surrounded by embroidered hangings and rich gold-couched cushions.The night before the feast, a bufallo is brought to the house , sometimes draped in a red cloth, and slaughtered to provide food for the guests. On the day itself, the groom and his contingent arrive in procession at the bride's house, preceded by pencak silat dancers dressed in black and wearing folded batik headcloths.Immediately in front of the grooms are two rows of men beating drums and chanting, and a yellow umberella to shade him from the sun.Once he has arrived at the bride's house, the groom must hand over a ring before he is allowed to see the bride and her friends in a private chamber. The two then emerge to sit on the ornate throne. For this occasion the bridal couple are dressed in royal costume, red velvet jackets embroidered with gold thread, and for the woman a sarung and selendang in Songket. From the woman's belt hangs a silk selendang jumputan in tririk and pelangi, nowadays Imported from Palembang, but in the past locally produced (Ahmad Yunus 1989 ).

Another important rite of passage in the Jambi life cycle is the haircutting ceremony which takes place when a baby reach the age of forty days.The ceremony, known as a "syukuran " , is sometimes perfomed at home with only close family members present , but if the family can afford it, hundreds of guests will be invinitid and ceremony is performed in the mosque.The baby is dressed in royal attire and laid on A matters which is decorsted with embroidery and covered with batik and songket cloths.The fatner carries the child in the procession to the mosque, with a songket cloth held above the baby's head for protections.There seven respected guests in turn Dab the baby's head with a rice -paste mixture as symbolic purification ,and then snip off a lock of the child 's hair.This is then placed inside a green coconut , thus ensuring that the child wiil grow up a useful member of society, and with a cool head. The seven honoured guests receive a special flower in the return, and paper flowers and coloured eggs are distributed to the rest of the guests. A drink of water coloured red from steeping in sappan wood is also traditional.

Cloths are used at other ceremonies, such as circumcision and funerals.Before the circumsion ceremony,the boy is dressed in red velvet royal costume with gold embroidery ,and receives presents from guests.Later, he lies in a chamber draved with cloths and decorated with flowers. Above the bed , a kain panjang , or long cloth,usually of Javanese design, is suspended tent - like over his body.

Burials take place within a few hours of death,and there is little time for great ceremony. The body is prepared at home, where it is washed with great care and ritual, using infusions of flowers and special leaves, sweet-scented woods and incense.A piece of cloth is then held above by four people, one at each corner, while the body is washed again in a solution of chamhor. The body is wrapped, in the Muslim way , in a 15 metre long white shround. A mattress is then placed on a ringgo- ringgo , a bamboo frame which will be used to carry it to the graveside .On the mattress are placed seven cloths, which must be of different designs and wich must not depict, birds on them. This not , as might be imagined , because of the Muslim prohibition of the defiction of living creatures, but because It is believed that the bird might steal the soul of the departed and takeit as its own. Over the top of the frame three kainpanjang are placed, and then two white cloths,which are usually embroidered with holy texts from the Qur'an is laid. At the end of the ringgo Ringgo a scarf is tied to indicate whether the deceased is a man or a woman. For a man,a checked Arab scarf from Mecca is used; for a woman, a plain white scarft , perhaps with a narrow coloured border. The batiks, the green cloth and the top two cloths are not buried.

Taken from the book of Fiona Kerlogue " Scattered Flowers "

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