the art of batik tulis

The ancient tradition of batik tulis could not be more alive in Indonesia- just visit any of the active workshops in Yogyakarta, the acknowledged center of the art, or its neighboring city Solo (Surakarta). Nothing much has changed really as the process remains as tedious as it was centuries ago.

Batik tulis, literally “written batik”, starts with drawing the design, often of ancient symbols and motifs, on fabric such as cotton or silk.




Melted wax, usually a mixture of beeswax and paraffin, is poured finely using the canting, a wood-handled copper funnel with a narrow tubing at the end.




The cloth is dipped in a vat of dye which colors the portions not covered with wax and then the fabric is allowed to dry. Wax is subsequently removed by immersing the cloth in solvent, hot water or by ironing between absorbent paper.



The process is repeated several times as only one color can be used at a single dip. The more colors there are in the print, the more likely that this is the same number of times that the cloth is waxed and dyed.




According to the factory manager, old women are mostly the expert artisans that can make the most elaborately original and deliriously wild batik. However, we did see several young apprentices. The survival of the art rests on the interests of the young to find sustainable work.




A typical 4-meter silk piece takes about three months to complete, which in 2005, goes for about $300. Obviously, the 17 meter bolt of silk being finished by the lady below, said to be destined for a kimono shop in Japan, should cost at least $1,200.


at Batik Plentong, Jl Tirtodipuran, Yogyakarta, Central Java, Indonesia
Canon PowerShot S40, 4/5s, f/3.5, 7.1mm


Designs can also be applied using a brush or carved blocks made of wood. Nowadays, most stamps, called cap (pronounced “chop”), are made of copper. Often though, the batik cap patterns are too uniform and perfect as compared to the traditional batik tulis which are more nuanced in its imperfections and blurs.





rows of copper cap stamps in the workshop
Canon PowerShot S40, 1.0s, f/4, 14.7mm, +1/3EV


Unsurprisingly, even batik tulis cotton handkerchiefs command as much as $7-10 in the malls. At the shop, I skipped them for they were too expensive. Instead, a friend helped me bargain to buy a 50-year old decommissioned cap stamp which now joins my canting collection at home. Over the years, I have collected my fair share of batik tulis. Guess what, I can never get enough of it.

Winning the Canon Smile 7107 Photo Contest- Nightscapes Category (Philippines, 2007)

I have to admit it. It is this week’s win in the 2007 Canon Smile 7107 Photo Contest which prompted me to start my blog after years of deliberate procrastination.

The stars simply aligned when the judges chose my picture as the 1st prize winner in the Nightscapes category. I would have thought that a picture of well-lit urban skylines will grab the plum award but lo and behold, my photo of a traditional candlelight procession in old and rustic Bantayan Island got the nod.

The dream: conceptualizing the photo
I have always enjoyed my experiments with slow shutter speed even before I bought my dSLR. I think my best attempt of producing the quintessential colored traffic lines using my old yet trusty pocket camera (Canon Powershot S40) is this photo that I took in Jalan Malioboro, Jogjakarta, Indonesia.


An exposure of 8 seconds, f/8

Suddenly it struck me, why not capture a moving religious candlelight procession? I knew exactly where I should be. I have be above street level so as to overlook the moving processional. The place must be in a street corner so that light lines would come out as curves. To top it all, I wanted the locale in view to be rustic and a step out of time to impress the universality of the religious rite.

The chance: making it happen
Then came the opportunity. On April 2006, we decided to join the famed Holy Week celebration of Bantayan Island, north of Cebu. As I have a friend who worked as an assistant bank manager in Bantayan, I knew he must be acquainted with somebody who had a house that can afford me the view that I wanted. The house he led me to was perfect! Shamelessly and sheepishly, we squeezed ourselves in the balcony already crammed with the homeowner’s relatives and friends (including nuns I should add). Bantayanons, like most Filipinos, are hospitable and accommodating folks.

The challenges: initial attempts
The early shots of the procession presented to me issues that I did not anticipate. When I tried to include the carroza or processional cart in the frame, I cannot extend the exposure beyond the planned 20 seconds as the carroza just became an indistinct smudge of light. Even when I chanced on a moment that the carroza stopped, the people did not really move along and just hovered around.


Exposure of 0.8s, when the carroza of San Pedro (St. Peter) came to a halt

I then tried to shoot scenes of the moving candle-bearing crowd in-between carrozas, after all there was probably more than 15 on Good Friday. Unfortunately, most carrozas moved too slow and there was not enough movement to capture in the long exposure. Also, the carrozas are either bunched too close together, creating a mess of lights or there were interruptions when the stream of people would just disappear.


An exposure of 3.2 seconds, taken when the processional crowd was still thin

The moment of capture
There appeared to be only one last chance for me. As a procession follower all my life – without fail I always join at least one religious procession once a year – I know that the climax of the Good Friday procession would be the Santo Entierro. Majority of people would always join the Holy Body of Christ, being the most important tableau in any Holy Week procession. With this knowledge, I know that immediately after the Santo Entierro would be a multitude of candle-bearing people. I readied my camera settings and focused the lens on the house across us. My first 20 second shot of the throng following the Santo Entierro was passable but something was off with the composition. I quickly took another shot, this time showing more foreground of the river of light.

This proved to be my winning shot.




There were still a few more carrozas after the Santo Entierro but the crowd was beginning to become sparse and the subsequent photos were just denouement.

To date, this picture is still the most favorited and most commented picture in my flickr photostream. It still is the photo which defined my photographic conviction, until of course the next one that may still be waiting around the corner.