Gringsing Fabric, A Special Double Ikat Weaving From Bali

Illustration of gringsing woven fabric (Photo source: Kemendikbud Spice Line)

JAKARTA – Fabric fibers, especially in gringsing weaving, are made with double ties. Derived from the words gring which means 'sick' and sing which means 'no', gringsing is used to reject reinforcements. Technically, gringsing fabric is very special.

Starting from the thread material from single seed cotton, how to tie the thread into a piece of cloth, and coloring using natural materials. Uniquely, gringsing cloth generally has three color compositions, including bone white, red, and black.

Reported by the Spice Line page of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Wednesday, September 29, the gringsing fabric was made by the people of Tenganan Pegringsingan Village, Manggis District, Karangasem Regency, Bali Province. The technique of making this ikat takes a long time, up to five years for a piece of cloth.

While the natural coloring process, utilizing special materials. For bone white color, the thread needs to be soaked with candlenut oil. Noni bark for red and tarum leaves for black.

Due to the long process, done manually or with non-machine looms, environmentally friendly coloring, and having a philosophy through colors and motifs, the price of gringsing cloth is not cheap.

But shouldn't high quality be paid equally? Each sheet with a different size, gringsing cloth price ranges from Rp. 700,000 to Rp. 16,000,000.

The cotton used to make fabric fibers or yarn is taken from Nusa Penida. After the cotton is rolled, it is spun with traditional tools shaped like a mill and turned manually. Three dyeing processes are carried out on the yarn. Each coloring takes approximately 40 days.

The gringsing cloth loom is known as cag-cag. This tool is also used to make Bebali cloth. Well, the use of this cloth is also special. In addition to being used during worship, gringsing cloth is also used according to the awig-awig rules or customary rules.

Quoted from The Textile Map, the gringsing cloth in the legend of the Tenganan community is a relic of Dewa Indra, the god who protects humans in Hinduism. In this belief, it affects symbolic motifs and colors.

The motifs of gringsing cloth, initially there were 20 kinds and 27 motifs registered on the patent. But until now, around 7 motifs are widely used and produced, including batun tuung, cecempakaan, cemplong, gringsing contents, lubeng, sanan empeg, and wayang.