Javanese life and Spirit melted in Batik Motifs

Batik is the technique to be used for decorating woven cloth with colored patterns and the cloth decorated in this way as well. Recently batik has become synonymous with Indonesia and a cultural icon to represent Indonesia. UNESCO inscribed Indonesian batik on the representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity on the 2nd of October 2009. Batik used to be a Javanese culture but now it is glorified by Indonesians as a national icon and a fixed part of the national identity. In oder to investigate how batik has turned into a national symbol from a Javanese dyeing method, the article focuses on what kind of roles batik played in Javanese society as well as on the cultural value of batik. In Javanese society batik was used as medium to express the archipelago s flora and fauna, Javanese daily lives, thoughts and spiritual realm. The finding of this research proposes that the main driving forces of making batik a national symbol of Indonesia are the reinterpretation and reinvention of traditional culture done by the Javanese through regarding their batik as the pinacle of batik in the world and one of high-brow cultures, and the fact that batik was directly involved in Javanese rite of passage.