The Environment and Forestry Ministry organized a batik-making session for the 2022 G20 Environment Deputies Meeting and Climate Sustainability Working Group (EDM-CSWG) delegates at the Giriloyo Batik Center, Bantul district, Yogyakarta, on Thursday.
In two batik ‘joglo’ (Yogyakarta traditional houses), several groups comprising two or three G20 EDM-CSWG delegates were guided by batik craftspersons on creating the traditional clothes, starting from filling the ‘malam’ (wax) liquid into the ‘canting’ (a pen-like tool) to form a batik pattern.
“We hope that the G20 EDM-CSWG delegates can share the experience (of making batik) in their respective countries,” head of the Giriloyo Bantul Batik Association, Nur Ahmadi, said in the midst of the activity.
The Giriloyo Batik Center is one of the centers for traditional hand-drawn batik in Bantul district, which uses natural dyes.
The batik association head said that in addition to producing traditional clothes at the center, the association also welcomes visitors who want to learn batik to preserve the craft, which has become Indonesia’s cultural heritage.
“(We want to show) that in Indonesia, especially in Giriloyo village, Bantul district, there is a prominent culture, which is hand-drawn batik,” he remarked.
The visit to the batik center was part of a series of activities held under Indonesia’s 2022 G20 Presidency in Yogyakarta from March 22 to 24, 2022.
The ministry coordinated the cultural activity as the chair of the working group.
According to the ministry’s public relations staff, earlier, the delegates visited the Borobudur Temple—the world’s largest Buddhist temple — in Magelang district, Central Java province, as well as the Yogyakarta Palace, Yogyakarta city, Yogyakarta province.
After visiting the batik center, they headed to Prambanan Temple in Sleman district, Yogyakarta province, to tour the largest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia and to enjoy a Ramayana dance-drama performance in the complex yard.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had acknowledged batik as a “Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity” on October 2, 2009.
Source: Antara News