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DECODING THE FORBIDDEN DESIGNS IN RAFFLES’ BATIK COLLECTION – TAASA Review March 2013

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This article was originally found in the March 2013 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 22, Issue 1, Page 16).

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Thienny Lee T his paper examines two important batik textiles held by the British Museum (BM).

The most famous of the carefully guarded Central Javanese Royal batik Parang designs are found on these batiks collected by Sir Stamford Raffles, who was Lieutenant Governor of Java and the Dependencies for the duration of the brief British interregnum from 1811 to 1816.

During this time, Raffles sent home a number of batik pieces, unfortunately destroyed when the ship that carried them burned at sea...