Bearing The Stamp Of Tradition

Yogyakarta -Yogyakarta craftsman Hadi Wiyono has been making cap batik for 55 years, with a passion and dedication undeterred by regime changes, economic crises, terrorism and falling demand.

The craft of making cap batik — copper stamps used to stamp batik designs on the cloth, rather than draw each motif individually — is such a part of his culture and identity that the 76-year-old insists he will keep on doing it until the day he dies.

Hadi`s pride in his culture is so strong that he has turned down lucrative offers because they did not fit with his beliefs. In 2005, he was offered a position making cap batik in Germany, where he would have all the materials he needed and a handsome salary.

“I didn`t want to go,” says Hadi. “If I want to buy batik stamps they must be bought here because this is a tradition that belongs here in Indonesia, and the stamps must be made here.”

Even after an earthquake brought down part of his production workshop and a foreign investor asked him to move to Bali to produce the stamps for upscale tourists, Hadi felt obliged to turn down the request.

For the father of 10, tradition is more important than money.

It is, perhaps, a noble stance, for, as Hadi confesses, he gains little profit from his craft these days. Each stamp needs about one kilogram of copper, which costs Rp 110,000 (US$9), and takes Hadi about week to make, with the help of his 70-year-old assistant, Tugiyo. He sells the stamps for Rp 400,000 each.

“As a financial return it isn`t enough,” says Tugiyo who has worked with Hadi for more than 20 years. “If it was all about making money, who would make and preserve batik stamps?”

It was not always thus. Hadi recalls that from 1955 to 1965, his 20 employees could make a total of at least three cap batik. He sold them at a profit of nearly 50 percent.

The 1960s selling price of Rp 750 might not sound like much in today`s money, and neither does a profit of Rp 300, but it was a fair amount. Consider that rice at the time was about Rp 3 per kilogram, whereas now it is between Rp 5,000 and 6,000 per kilogram.

Even after all these years, Hadi cannot explain why he loves the craft of making cap batik so much, but it is a business he has been in since his early teens.

“Every time I met a good batik stamp worker I asked him to teach me,” he says. “And I kept learning for more than five years from the many batik stamp workers in Yogyakarta.”

By 1960, Hadi felt he had enough knowledge to make batik stamps on his own, so he tried his luck by adventuring to Purwokerto in Central Java, chosen because the batik-making industry was thriving there, but no one there made batik stamps.

Within six months, the batik makers of Purwokerto trusted Hadi and his soft, detailed products.

The orders began to pour in. Hadi returned to Yogyakarta to continue his business from there.

“The orders to make batik stamps came from Kebumen, Purbalingga, Pekalongan and areas outside Java like Sulawesi,” Hadi says.

“I couldn`t take a holiday because the orders kept coming. To fill the orders I had about 20 employees.”

This golden period for making batik stamps ended in 1965, with the military coup that ended Sukarno`s reign, to Hadi`s dismay – he remains a fan of the republic`s first president to this day.

With the political changes, the economy fell into disorder and consumer purchasing power dropped. Many of the major batik manufacturers fled or disappeared because of their alleged involvement with the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party).

The large batik shops such as Semar Batik and Keris Batik were then taken over by the New Order government. They used their monopoly position to develop the printed batik industry.

The introduction of mass-produced printed batik pushed aside batik stamp making and other traditions.

The traditional batik industry simply couldn`t compete.

“One person in one day can make at most 15 lengths of batik using batik stamps,” Hadi says.

“But when batik is being printed, in one day one person can make 2,000 meters.”

Under the onslaught of this competition, one by one traditional batik businesses collapsed. The large houses used for batik production in Prawirotaman were changed into boarding houses or hotels.

But the tradition of making batik stamps never went away completely. Ever innovative and resourceful, Hadi started to make wall decorations using batik stamp motifs. With his leftover copper, Hadi made a variety of miniature batik stamps in various shapes, including butterfly motifs or puppet characters.

Mounted and framed, these miniature cap batik became attractive house decorations, drawing to Hadi`s house a steady stream of foreign tourists in search of souvenirs.

Hadi also had regular orders from Bali and Germany and “orders from Holland came every year”.

Despite his success with his new venture, Hadi didn`t forget batik stamps. He and Tugiyo, one of the few employees who stayed with him, kept on making batik stamps and served the struggling industry by repairing damaged stamps.

But no period of stability lasted long.

“Disorder returned with the Bali bomb,” Hadi says. “Foreign tourists stayed away and the sales of miniature batik stamps also died.”

His dedication to the tradition has not gone completely unnoticed. In October 2003, he received an award from the Indonesian Batik Foundation, signed by the head of the foundation Mrs Ginanjar Kartasasmita. He also received an award from the National Craft Council (Dekranas) in September 2005.

Hadi and Tugiyo remain dedicated to their craft. Hadi firmly believes that one day batik will rise again because, he says, it is an integral part of the national identity.

“Like the proverb, the period today is the crazy period. People forget their own identity,” he says.

“When the time comes, batik will return in triumph because people will remember their own identity and tradition.” Slamet Susanto

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com (17 April 2009)

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