Gringsing Fabric as Spatial Cosmology and Relation-making
Abstracts in English and Bahasa Indonesia
Gringsing Fabric as Spatial Cosmology and Relation-making
This article is based on an extensive study of the textile-making culture of Tenganan Pagringsingan, a village located in the region of Karangasem in the southeastern part of Bali island in Indonesia. In this village, a type of double-ikat woven textile called Gringsing has been produced for generations by the Bali Aga (the indigenous Balinese). It is believed to be a sacred healer and is highly sanctified by both the producing community and the rest of the Balinese Hindu community. Gringsing is used by the Bali Aga in various individual and communal rituals as offerings and ceremonial costumes to ward off sickness, guarding both humankind and the land against calamity and defilement. Through ethnographic and literature research, this paper explores how Tenganan producers innovate the sacrality of double-ikat Gringsing by embodying a set of spiritual, cosmological and environmental perspectives and values, within a complex socio-religious framework. I propose that Gringsing textile is a subject-object ecology that binds people with their lands, identity, space and memory, and that through textile usage in customized socio-religious settings, creates shared cultural knowledge for generations ahead.
Kain Gringsing sebagai Kosmologi Ruang dan Penciptaan Relasi
Artikel ini berdasarkan pada studi ekstensif tentang budaya pembuatan tekstil di Tenganan Pagringsingan, sebuah desa yang terletak di wilayah Karangasem di bagian tenggara pulau Bali di Indonesia. Di desa ini, jenis tenun ikat ganda (double-ikat) yang disebut Gringsing telah diproduksi secara turun-temurun oleh Bali Aga (penduduk asli Bali). Gringsing diyakini sebagai penyembuh suci dan sangat disakralkan oleh masyarakat pengrajin dan masyarakat Hindu Bali lainnya. Gringsing digunakan oleh Bali Aga di berbagai ritual individu dan komunal sebagai persembahan dan pakaian upacara untuk menangkal penyakit, menjaga umat manusia dan lingkungan kehidupan dari bencana dan kekotoran metafisik. Melalui penelitian etnografi dan literatur, makalah ini mengeksplorasi bagaimana para pengrajin Tenganan berinovasi menciptakan sakralitas tenun double-ikat Gringsing dengan mewujudkan seperangkat perspektif dan nilai spiritual, kosmologis dan ekologis, dalam kerangka sosio-religius yang kompleks. Saya mengusulkan bahwa melalui kain Gringsing kita dapat memahami ekologi subjek-objek yang mengikat manusia dengan lingkungan kehidupan, identitas, ruang dan memori mereka, dan bahwa melalui penggunaan kain dalam pengaturan sosio-relijius yang disesuaikan, menciptakan pengetahuan budaya bersama untuk generasi mendatang.
Citation: Utami, Lira A. “Gringsing Fabric as Spatial Cosmology and Relation-making” The Jugaad Project, 5 April 2022, www.thejugaadproject.pub/gringsing-fabric [date of access]
Introduction
Traditional textiles play an important role in Indonesian culture. They give shape to social processes, linking a person to his/her environment, ancestral customs, and belief systems, and ultimately represent the community as a whole. A piece of woven textile in indigenous Indonesian communities is perceived not only as a tool to cover or protect a person, but as a medium through which people express their worldview and their status within a society. It is within this social and physical environment that their spiritual ideology comes to be materialized. Textiles as traditional material cultural products express cultural values symbolic and exemplary of a certain time for certain members of a society (Shweder and LeVine 1984: 88). One of the ways in which a textile may be incorporated into a religious practice is to use it in a specific ritual scheme as a form of connection and communication between the ‘human’, the ‘natural’ and the ‘divine’. In itself, the process of making fabric (as seen in many parts of Indonesia) is ritualistic and imbued with many obligations and taboos. Even if the textile in question is singular, it could contain valuable information on how everything operates within the community, how relationships came/come to be, and how ideas are expressed as well as helping define the intricacies of the cultural framework.
This article explores the sacred double-ikat textile known as Gringsing made in a village called Tenganan Pagringsingan where two-thirds of the approximately 250 residents are known to be descended from the Bali Aga or the indigenous Balinese (Balinese Culture Office 1997). These small communities are few in number across the island of Bali. The Bali Aga of Tenganan Pagringsingan is a spiritual community who spends most of their life performing religious responsibilities for the protection of communal and individual life and land purification, where objects of worship, apart from Hindu deities, include ancestors and powerful forces/elements of nature. Their spirituality revolves around worshipping in a meticulous ritual cycle to carry out duties in the service of the deities. In a sense, religious duties are collective efforts towards gaining environmental consciousness and spiritual awakening. Gringsing textile was solely created for religious purposes and over time it became widely known and used by the rest of the Balinese [Majapahit-descended (1)] as well as being commodified in modern times.
In local Bali Aga tongue, the textile’s name is derived from the words, ‘gering’ and ‘sing’. The former means ‘sickness’ and the latter means ‘no’—together the word means ‘not sick’. Indeed, the word geringsing/grinsing is contained within the name of the village. Many speculations have been made by scholars of craft and textile and the Bali Aga of Tenganan about the origin of the textile. Nevertheless, a common belief is shared and firmly internalized: Gringsing is a ‘magic’ textile made to protect and heal its wearer from sickness and defilement.
Gringsing textile is made in three colors (black, white and red) and the motifs, woven in the pattern of crosses and squares, are believed to embody and express the protective quality. The production process has been retained through generations and involves ritual codes of conduct where the working space and time is appointed (Widya, 2013). The making of the textile is considered similar to ‘giving birth to a child’ and the making process symbolizes the ‘journey of life’. Today, Gringsing is produced in as many as 26 different motifs. The influence of Patola fabrics from India on some of the Gringsing motifs is self-evident and indicates a cultural exchange between the community and the Hindu priests and merchants whom they refer to as ‘Juru Keling’ (In Indonesian language, ‘juru’ means ‘master’, while ‘Keling’ indicates an ethnic group coming from Indian). However, it is the way of life of the Bali Aga and their relation-making and spatial cosmology that is embodied in the craft of Gringsing. Synthesized within Balinese-Hindu culture and developed endogenously Gringsing has eventually been encapsulated with its own myth and magic. Gringsing also developed from peoples’ ability to live creatively with their lived environment. To grow, be observant and explore natural phenomena, each Gringsing motif is designed to bear a specific name. It may express the effort the Tenganan Pagringsingan community makes to maintain vertical and horizontal relationships, i.e. relationship with the land and other living beings and relationship with the divine and the underworld. By looking into certain practices and the socio-religious spatial system of Tenganan Pagringsingan people, this article summarizes how the craft of Gringsing is shaped through the community’s relationships with their lived environment. That is, how an ethos and aesthetics translated from indigenous relation-making within social spaces signifies the cycle of birth, growth and death in Gringsing. This is a process that transcends the life experiences of the people, and conceives the textile as a material expression that binds communities inter-generationally with their lands, spaces, and cultural identity.
Bali Aga of Tenganan Pagringsingan as a spiritual community
The village of Tenganan Pagringsingan is home to the Bali Aga, a small ethnic community of Austronesian-descent (Reuter, 2018) who used to live socially, culturally and economically separated from the rest of Bali (religious life is still exclusive to Tenganan people) . The village is deeply seated in the valley formed by two parallel mountain ridges, the eastern hill (Bukit Kangin) and the western hill (Bukit Kauh). These hills are densely covered by forests, both wild and cultivated. These dense forests are protected by traditional customs (Adat)—a part of the village’s ecological, cultural and economic conservation system that all people abide to. The village constitution (written customary law of Awig-awig) declares no private ownership and no leasing of property is to be permitted in the village. Due to a unique directional orientation towards the pre-eminent volcanic mountain Agung and the sea, the map of the village settlements looks like a geometrical grid divided by three major crossways, where each of the centrals point inbetween the residential blocks serves as a place towards which all ritual activities are orientated (Ramseyer, 1984). The traditional buildings in the central pathways are filled with temples (Pura), sacred long pavilions (Bale) or rice barns (Lumbung) where daily encounters between the villagers take place.
Though the real ancestry of Bali Aga people is still a mystery, the myth that has been passed down for generations and recorded in the palm-leaf manuscript ‘Usana Bali Pulina’(dating back to 11th century AD) is that they are descended of a spiritual community who called themselves “Wong Paneges” or the People of Paneges. The parents of Wong Paneges were the ancestral couple ‘Kaung’ (male) and ‘Keling’ (female), created by the Hindu god Indra through meditative exercise and later tasked with procreating generations between themselves, bringing cosmological order and purity to the land by means of sacred rituals and cosmic bonds.
Figure 1. The sacred swinging ceremony and girls adorned in their best Gringsing (within ritual processions of the 5th month, Usaba Sambah) symbolizing the cyclical rhythm of life and sacred duty. Tenganan Pagringsingan, 2018. Photo by Author.
Georges Breguet, a Swiss bio-anthropologist took around 200 blood samples to study the origin of the Bali Aga and discovered the presence of genetic divergence within 20 samples similar to that of people from the eastern coast of India (Breguet 1981: 77-78). There is evidence in Sembiran in northern Bali, (an area with a Bali Aga community) of trade between India and Indonesia somewhere in the 6th century AD (Ardika and Bellwood 1991), DNA analysis of a tooth found on the site (Lansing et al. 2004) support the theory that similar cultural contact had occurred in Tenganan Pagringsingan by means of ancient seafaring activities. A small piece of evidence can also be found in Tenganan Pagringsingan’s socio-religious formation, in the development of Patola-inspired Gringsing patterns and the term ‘Keling’ that they use to refer to Indians or things related to Indians. In a religious festival held during the ritual procession of the 7th Month, the community members commemorate the ancestors that came from the sea where they fashion a boat-shaped offering and sing a song. A similar commemorative festival called Bali Yatra (a voyage to Bali) is held in Odisha, India, around the end of October and November to bear testimony of the rich maritime legacy of the ancient Odisha. It is worth noting that the eastern coastal of India was home to the Kalinga people native to the East Indian state of Odisha where the ancient Sadhabas or the Kalinga marine merchants once set sail to the distant lands of Bali, Java, Sumatra and Borneo for trade and cultural expansion (Singaravelu, 1986). The term Keling that translates to ‘dark-skinned’ and ‘boat’ in Indonesian language is believed to have come from the word ‘Kalinga’. In addition, the original handspun cotton used for making cotton thread (Benang Bali) for an older kind of Gringsing is known as ‘Kapas Keling’ (kapas: cotton), which come from a species of Tree Cotton (Gossypium arboreum), although nowadays they use different types of cotton thread.
In the design of Gringsing textile, the pattern reflects a deep spiritual, cosmological and environmental engagement which carries historical evidence. Through environmental ‘dwelling’ the craft of Gringsing produces an awareness of living and livelihood rooted in the mind-heart-body engagement between persons and their environment. This also reflects the generational re-growing of skills (Ingold, 2000). The use of shapes, colors and language gives us a sense of image and meaning in relation to the spiritual ideologies or specific life concepts used by the community. Incorporation of complex ideas and values through decorative and physical properties of Gringsing allows the Tenganan Bali Aga to develop cosmological and customary knowledge for generations ahead.
God-human-nature relationship as ecological concept
An environment is shaped by situations and events. Within our interaction with the environment, the influx of information that we are required to deal with is inevitable. In order to understand and make sense of the environment, we have to perceive it in a simplified and familiar manner. When we reconstruct the reality of our environment through representational forms, the way we first perceived it would be influenced by images offered by the group of people of whom we are a part. In the course of time, we experience, learn, communicate and exchange this information in our everyday life while at the same time acquiring and transmitting knowledge, beliefs, and values which allow a common conception of things to be shared.
The life of Bali Aga of Tenganan Pagringsingan is dedicated to performing religious rites at an individual and community level. In the core of their spirituality lies the celebration of the birth-life-death cycle. Within their lives, human beings construct their reality based on the knowledge brought forth by birth and experience of other transitional phases before finally returning to the divine in death. These three elements, birth-life-death, are sacred and are taught firsthand by one’s closest family members through rites of passage such as cleansing rituals at birth, early childhood, marriage and death. The projection of cyclical birth, life and death becomes the major theme of any rite of passage ritual. The sacred elements (fire, air, and water) and the divine forces of Hindu deities that govern are symbolized by three sacred colors, white, red and black, called Tridatu. The cycle also represented by a spatial cosmology called ‘Tapak Dara’. Tapak Dara is regarded by the community of Tenganan Pagringsingan as the sacred concept of space from which the ecology-based spirituality derived. Tapak Dara is familiar to the people simply because the cross sign can be seen and physically incorporated in everyday things related to rituals. This symbol narrates the concept of cosmos (spatial layout) and is one that governs the life philosophy of Tri Hita Karana or three causes of well-being.
Figure 2. Tapak dara symbol on an offering. Tenganan Pagringsingan, 2015. Photo by Aoki Hironobu.
Textile motif as spatial concept and symbol of human relation-making
Traditional Gringsing and its making helps convey ‘the journey of life’ and establishes a relation with nature, with fellow humans, and God. The built environment, in which the people interact and perform their everyday ritual activities, is tightly linked to their spiritual ideology. Tapak Dara, signified by the cross sign (+) projects a spatial orientation of mountain-ward and sea-ward and the flow of energy moving through the cyclical rhythm of birth, life and death. The energy flows from a point in the center and circulates bringing life towards the entire cosmos and coming back into the center. The horizontal and the vertical lines express respectively the interaction of society with the environment, worship of the mountain where the ancestors and gods reside, and the sea where the spirits of nature and demons reside. This distribution of cosmic energy is done through performing complex ritual cycles.
The cross symbol becomes a mandala (a diagram of the cosmos) that is represented in the spatial arrangement of Tenganan, and the community uses it as a protective symbol, drawing it on or within every sacred object, offering and in rituals associated with land purification. In Gringsing, Tapak Dara can be seen as cross sign (+) that is generated into different motifs as well as layout, signifying the embodiment of this spatial cosmology that relates to the concept of divine protection. The residential unit is also characterized by the Tapak Dara principle concerning the spatial arrangement that divides the environment into three living and relation-making spaces. It embodies the belief of the universe as divided between the profane, the sacred and the world inbetween. The spatial orientation in Tapak Dara cosmology is a simple framework of how people experienced the surrounding environment in relation to the idea of divinity vs. profanity. The same ideas are reflected in spatial divisions in residential units that articulate the relation in terms of social life and experiences consisting of daily activities and craft-making. As it is, the built environment is known in a trilateral spatial organization of Teba (natural space) – Madya Mandala (social space) – Merajan (sacred space).
Figure 3. Manifestation of Tapak Dara cosmology as symmetrical layout, as decorative motifs within both pattern designs (Gringsing Wayang Putri and Gringsing Cemplong) and on the edge called 'motifs of ritual use'. Tenganan Pagringsingan, 2014. Photo by Author.
To the people, the private residential space that they first live in are the micro-universes that permeate to the larger social environment. Within both the private residential compound and the larger social space, the sacred and the profane are clearly divided, and people who are in an unclean state are strictly prohibited from entering the sacred area. The space within these structures is especially arranged with a mountainward (Kaja/North) - seaward (Kelod/South) orientation, with mountainward orientation as the revered position within any sacred space. Sacred buildings such as the communal longhouses (bale) are highly revered and people need to be in their ritual attire to enter. Here, as far as the sitting arrangements are concerned, the most revered village priest is seated at the top of mountain-ward side of the bale followed by the village chiefs, the senior members and down to the sea-ward side where the newly married members are seated. The seats of the upper realm gods are always orientated to be mountainward, and therefore in the rituals, the main offering for these gods are placed here.
Figure 4. The seating position of male members of Kerama Desa (Married Citizen Association) during ritual coordination meeting (facing mountainward and the elders on the top). Tenganan Pagringsingan, 2015. Photo by Author.
The buildings inside a residential compound are designed according to its intended functions and are erected in a designated spatial frame that symbolizes the profane, the sacred, and the world inbetween. These spaces and the buildings inside are intended for birth, life, and the return to the divine world after death, creating a narrative known to local people as the journey of life. The profane ground (Teba) consists of an open backyard where the family raises sacrificial animals (pigs and chickens); the washrooms and the kitchen (Paon); and the half part of the Bale Tengah, intended as the birth quarter. The middle space (Tengah), which symbolizes the world inbetween where human beings reside and interact (Madya Mandala), consists of the couple’s sleeping quarter (Bale Meten), the passageway where most living activities take place and circulate, and the other half part of the Bale Tengah, which is intended as the death quarter where the deceased will be placed during the death ritual and covered by Gringsing before the burial procession. The sacred front (the Merajan) consists of the altar of origin (Sanggah Kemulan) located in the seaward direction, the mountainward shrine (Sanggah Pesimpangan), and the seat of the ancestors (Pabuan). Bale Buga is the sacred familial longhouse where offerings are placed during certain rituals and divided into three sections according to the spatial hierarchy found in other sacred longhouses of the village. The Merajan is therefore a space inside the housing compound that permeates towards the street and orients to the sacred buildings placed at the centre of the street; therefore the entrance to a residential unit is just a gate that divides the communal and the private spaces that belong to the sacred realm. The characteristic of architectural buildings in Tenganan Pagringsingan is that no building there would stand for it alone. As one of the symbolic elements designated in each of the spatial frame, all of the architecture situated in the area is designed and constructed to serve a defined function.
Figure 5. A map/diagram of the residential compound. Diagram by Author.
A person who is born in Tenganan Pagringsingan will have to participate in the enculturation process to learn about his/her status, familial line, socio-environmental responsibility and importantly the spiritual assignment through a series of initiation rites until he/she is ready to step forward and be accepted into Kerama Desa (the association of married citizens). These initiation rites are done in specific areas constituted in the trilateral spatial organization. The first stages of initiation are done close to the nature inside the residential unit and around it. The second stages of initiation are done in a wider social ground that marks the introduction towards the village life where a member needs to participate in many social activities, and the last stage of initiation brings a member into his/her position in the ‘central stage’ where he/she is ready to take the main role as the participant that directly performs the ritual cycles. The symbolism of this socio-spiritual journey is one of progressing through spatial divisions within the macrocosmic environment of the central village and its periphery and is therefore mapped within the microcosmic residential unit in the same order through the three-levelled spatial arrangement in the symbolic journey reflected by the Gringsing production process.
Similarly, Bali Aga acknowledge the three kinds of mutual interactions assigned in the aforementioned spatial division. They are - realm of Nature (the interaction of human being with the environmental aspect Pelemahan), human (the interaction of human being with the social aspect, Pawongan) and Gods (the interaction of human being with the spiritual aspect, Parahyangan). The process of creating Gringsing is a female responsibility and reflects the movement of life that progress within these spaces, accompanied by ritual codes of conduct. These codes help familiarize the makers with the actual initiation processes that takes place in a person’s stages of life.
In the past, the production of Gringsing had to follow the strict prescription of praying rituals, material-gathering and making style, as well as the use of an associated working space. The first stage of making Gringsing is performed in the Teba towards the Madya Mandala territory, except for the ritual of yarn-spinning (Ngantih) which is considered as a sacred act of creation, performed in the front sacred territory (Merajan). Teba associates with the space of delivering life (sprouting life) as the birth quarter; the half structure of Bale Tengah is located on this side of space. Bali Aga consider birth as the initial profane state that a person is being born into. The new-born is not a part of the human realm since its feet have yet to touch the ground. Human beings spend the first days and weeks of their life here. A woman who is about to give birth traditionally stays in the backside of the house and when she finally delivers, she and the new-born baby are prohibited from stepping onto the divine realm (Merajan) due to the impure state they are in. Therefore, the mother must wait in the period of Kekambuhan, a 42 days-long postnatal period until the cleansing ritual can be performed, and must restrict her movement to the backside of the house. The first stage of Gringsing-making, that is submerging the yarns in a mixture of candlenut oil and ash-water (cleansing and fixating the fibres for colour absorption), is performed in the same manner in the Teba for the yarns are considered unclean. Like the new-born baby, cotton yarns are submerged for 42 days in the ‘postnatal’ Kekambuhan period. After the yarns’ fixation process is completed, they are dried in the Teba where praying rituals are held for a successful fixation process. Afterward, the artisan takes them into the middle space of the house (Madya Mandala) for the next stage. In a person’s life, this is where a child moves into the first self-cleansing ritual (Ngekehin) and the house-cleansing ritual. This happens when the family has become clean from the impurity of birth and the child can be brought into the wider social space, represented by taking a step into the middle space (Madya Mandala) where social interactions will take place. Teba is also a place where woven Gringsing that has become degraded through the course of time would be thrown away and left to decompose.
The next process took place in the middle space that served as the working space of the women and the young girls who made Gringsing. This is also the social space of deciding which motif design to follow, and where a choice was made through discussion and consultation with the elders. This is where they fit the yarns into warp and weft frames to produce the warp threads and weft threads (Ngerengang and Ngelim Bengan), and prepare the framed weft and warp threads for pattern making (Nyuntagi and Nyipat) and the tying of pattern (Medbed). Entering the Madya Mandala prepares one for transitioning into society, where a child in the early months after the birth is initiated by the ritual Ngupahin that is held in this territory. The child is given a name and its first accessories (golden or silver anklets and bracelets) and permitted to step on the ground for the first time. A few years later, the ritual Ngetus Jambot is performed where the child’s hair is cut and cleansed, indicating that the child is permitted into the sacred temples and can touch the sanctified ritual items.
Figure 6. A Gringsing artisan processes cotton yarns after being incubated in the yellow dye-bath at the backside of the house (near kitchen area). Tenganan Pagringsingan, 2014. Photo by Author.
Figure 7. A Gringsing artisan warps thread at a space in the central zone of the house (on Bale Tengah). Tenganan Pagringsingan, 2015. Photo by Author.
Next, the yarns which are tied are brought to a different village for indigo-dyeing for several weeks before being returned to the artisan for the most time-consuming process and the final stage of red-dyeing (Mengamah), which traditionally took place at the intersection of the middle space and the sacred front-space (Merajan). The final stage is done together with the “sleeping” or thread incubation. Traditionally, the dyeing and 1-2 months of incubating took place iteratively until the preferred red hue was achieved which could take up to a year. In the case of failure, the whole process was repeated. After months of dyeing, the last incubation process usually took years for the colour to fix and mature. The next stage that took place was the weaving process (Nenun), done traditionally either on the Bale Buga (the familial longhouse) or on a wooden table used for keeping offerings during a religious occasion. Some artisans mentioned that the weaving process could also be performed in the small space next to the death chamber, extending from the structure of Bale Tengah. This cornered space is fitted for the artisan and her loom, and is called ‘dulun dinding’ in Tenganan-Balinese language which literally translates into ‘above the borderline’. That small space with which the word ‘borderline’ is concerned is precisely an elevated structure at the edge of the Bale Tengah that is literally between the middle and the sanctified front ground. The phrase ‘above the borderline’ for the little weaving corner, indicates the progressing of the making process and spatial transition from the middle realm (Madya Mandala) towards the sacred realm (Merajan). Weaving is the last stage of crafting Gringsing before it is assigned its divine duty. This process symbolizes a person’s physical and psychological growth as one who enters the society is ‘fixed’ and ‘prepared’ for collective religious activity in their schools (Seka Daha for girls and Seka Teruna for boys) and the working space also advances closer to the sacred front-space (Merajan). In this philosophical journey, the weaving of Gringsing and assignment of divine duty (between textile offering or ritual clothing) symbolizes the initiation rites of Menek Kelih (Tuun Medaha for the girls and Metruna Nyoman for the boys) to signify the next stage of maturity where they get to know more about their culture, traditional customs, and their spiritual responsibility. They also learn about the relationships the village has with other peripheral villages through full participation in the cyclical village rituals, and finally join the married citizens (Kerama Desa) to become ritual facilitators.
On collaborative actions that produce Gringsing
Gringsing, among other offerings, is also considered as the embodiment of a symbiotic relationship between the humans and gods, humans and fellow humans, and the humans with the nature. Making Gringsing is not a one-person task. It is a collaborative practice from preparing the tools to acquiring raw materials and processes of making. The female artisan from a household remains the main supervisor for the whole production process; from producing the yarns, ensuring the colouring process, and binding the threads to weaving. Each of the stages of production involves a number of people and skilled artisans such as the tool maker, dye-master, bind-master, or weaving master, according to the needs of the main supervisor.
In one household, the husband or male members aid in the preparation process such as obtaining raw materials, making or repairing the production tools and similarly in the processing stages such as dividing the threads. Some of these practices are lost. Social cooperation among the artisans of the core village can also be seen during the stage of tying the resist pattern (Medbed). The female children are traditionally trained in the knowledge of sacred textile-making (not just Gringsing) by helping to bind the threads or to open the bindings, as the artisan goes about their own chores. Traditionally, the girls of age 7-9 years are trained to make Gringsing by their mother or grandmother, and by other female relatives who master the crafting of Gringsing. The girls begin their training for ritual responsibility by participating in the Medbed ritual (tying the pattern onto the threads) in their custom school. The main artisan seeks help from another artisan (Juru Ikat) in the core village who is highly skilled in tying and goes to the village outside during the stage of dyeing the blue, indigo colour. The artisan seeks help from weaving masters (Juru Tenun) to weave their yarns. In the making of Gringsing, an artisan calculates their yarns so that the production yields 4 to 6 to 8 woven textiles depending on the size and the intricacy of the pattern. In the past, 1 or 2 best cloths would be given to the tying and weaving masters as payment based on the number of pieces they helped produce. Nowadays however, money is preferred as compensation.
Figure 8. Gringsing Tali Dandan (the guide thread) projecting the responsibility of elders to guide the younger generation. Motifs generated from the cross sign also decorate the cloth. Tenganan Pagringsingan, 2015. Photo by Author.
Such cooperation in making Gringsing expresses the social philosophy of Tri Hita Karana, or the three causes of happiness achieved through maintaining the harmonious relationships between man to man, man to nature, and man to god. The concept consists of three social realms: (1) Pawongan or the symbiotic relationship between mankind, stressing that a human being is a social creature that tends to group and cooperate in order to achieve both individual or communal causes and relies on all forms of communication to converse, to express, to relate, to bond, to connect, to understand, etc. (2) Palemahan or the symbiotic relationship between man and the natural environment, stressing that a human being leads life that essentially depends on natural resources and should take care of these resources. (3) Parahyangan or the relationship with the divine, stressing that the role of spirituality is to keep humans humble, not to corrupt or be corrupted, and be thoughtful of the other two relationships as ultimately taking care is one’s duty to God.
Conclusion: The placement of Gringsing in the Tenganan socio-spiritual framework
The concept of territorial, bodily and spiritual purity and integrity plays a significant part in Bali Aga’s socio-spiritual framework. Ritual activities consist of the purification of self, society, and the territory and extends equally to every individual within both familial and communal circles. Purification is important since it relates to the sacrality of materials and spaces. It is only when one’s ‘temple’ is kept pure and clean that the gods would come down to protect the land and oneself from any sort of defilement and disease brought by demons or spirits. Corresponding purificatory rituals for women are important since Gringsing cloth is a ritual paraphernalia, and its time-consuming production is overseen by the women of Tenganan Pagringsingan.
Gringsing is a sign and embodiment of metaphysical awareness for the community. Profound spiritual perceptions, the living environment and life experiences are projected and shared within the making process and usage of Gringsing. The production of Gringsing is sanctified, following a prescribed manner as well as assigned working space as the whole aim of producing the textile is to enact the human experience of birth, life and death into a sacred journey filled with experiences and spiritual enlightenment that a person needs to achieve through social interaction. The process of ‘birth’, symbolized in thread cleansing and fixation (dyeing yellow), where the threads should be incubated for 42 days refers to a postnatal period where the mother and her newborn abstain from leaving the house for 42 days until they are cleansed. The process of growing into life is symbolized in tying the threads (iteratively dyed dark blue and red and incubated for years) as well as weaving and duty assignment. The materials from which Gringsing is made expresses how close the people are with their spatial environment and through it the social, spiritual and natural aspects of life. The use of ritual clothing enables them to feel temporarily separated from profane things, to be present in the ‘other’ world where the gods would recognize them and endow them with protection, and (when used as an offering ritual cloths) mediate their prayers. It is via the usage of Gringsing as clothing and ritual offerings that the community reconstitutes all of their social representations and cultural values to identify themselves as a Bali Aga member of Tenganan Pagringsingan.
The constant religious practices, worshipping and offering in meticulous ceremonial cycles—taking place for days every month, half-year, as well as annually, biannually, triennially, and in every fifty or hundred years—are carried out to appease the deities and spirits of nature, respectively, to bring about cosmic harmony and protection. In a sense, a Gringsing textile is a part of life that results from the people’s collective efforts towards gaining spiritual awakening and environmental consciousness.
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