Rattan Microcosmos: Lampit from South Sumatra
Rattan Microcosmos
Lampit from South Sumatra
by Steven G. Alpert
Wherever one goes in Indonesia, one encounters the budaya, or cultural traditions, embedded in and often referred to as adat istiadat — the dictates or ways of one's ancestors. These values, which have been enshrined over many generations, are often still incorporated into current social and religious practices. This sort of syncretism, one that retains knowledge and respect for the past, while fully embracing one's present belief system, has continually informed, shaped, and reshaped Indonesia's rich tapestry of diverse traditions. Today, Indonesia is a vast country of more than 280 million souls spread across an array of some 17,000 islands. Somewhere around 700 living languages are still spoken there on a daily basis.
The country's national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, 'Unity in Diversity,' is not simply a contemporary appellation or aspiration. Actually, this well-known phrase first appears in the 14th-century epic poem, Kakawin Sutasoma. Farsighted and sagacious, the line still resonates. It was written by Mpu Tantular, a famous Javanese poet and scholar who lived during the golden age of the Majapahit Empire. The motto, according to modern scholars, was a direct appeal made more than eight centuries ago to encourage tolerance between the adherents of the Hindu and Buddhist faiths. Today, Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation (87%) with the remaining thirteen percent of the population arrayed between five major world belief systems in addition to local animistic or traditional practices.
For this month, while trying to think of a singular object, or a category of items, that might in some way reflect the sentiment of the country's motto and the syncretism of its ancient and well-layered history, it seemed that it might be appropriate to feature the artistic virtuosity and multiple uses of a beautifully decorated ceremonial mat or lampit from South Sumatra.
Writing from an island in Canada amid a wintry mist on the cusp of the lunar New Year, I am also reminded of the warmth, patience, and politeness that visitors experience in Indonesia. Most cultures pride themselves on how they receive guests. Indonesia is no exception, from the humblest and most remote village settings to affluent urban locales, a guest is always honored. So, in turn, is the house that hosts them. Before the introduction of Western-style furniture, fine mats (tikar) were used to receive visitors and dignitaries. A fine mat might also reflect the host's largesse and hierarchical standing, as well as indicating who the principal persons were attending an important gathering or ceremonial event. Mats were also hung or centrally placed during such events as part of the ritual paraphernalia and cloth that was displayed to both beautify and create a center or axis mundi by inviting in spiritual or ancestral forces. In more traditional times, this was done to 'witness' events in order to further protect their participants and to assist in ensuring positive outcomes.
The prime focus of our feature this month is illustrated by a multi-purpose ceremonial mat, known as a lampit, from the Paminggir people of Lampung in South Sumatra, which is stewarded and conserved by the Dallas Museum of Art. Such mats were fashioned from finely split sections of rattan cane that were pierced, threaded, and then tightly lashed together. On some mats, a heated stylus was used to boldly draw or outline designs. The interior of a broad motif was further enhanced by applying glowing embers to darken the cane's surface. While women made the mats, pyrographic embellishment was traditionally applied by their menfolk, and this practice is unique to Lampung mats in Indonesia. The designs represented on these mats range from age-old animistic notions to motifs drawn from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. The latter, displaying calligraphic symbols, flourishes, or verses derived from Arabic, and similar in many ways to the scriptural flourishes or protective designs on a sub-genre of batik whose production was largely centered in Bengkulu, Sumatra, referred to as batik besurek.
Surprisingly, a considerable number of old Lampung mats have survived in private collections and in the public domain. Included below are examples from such diverse sources as the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Yale University Art Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the National Gallery of Australia (see below). It is likely that most of these mats were created in the 19th-early 20th centuries, with the most timeworn ones perhaps dating to the 18th century. Older mats have a deep, well-worn patina and boast cane hues akin to warm amber-dark honey. Some of the split cane is often lost or damaged. Later pieces tend to be more yellow in color and less worn, with designs that tend to be simpler or sparser, stiffer, and more formulaic, though this could also reflect where they were made and how well they were kept. Since the 1970's, a good number of plain antique cane mats have had new pyrographic designs applied to them to attract buyers.
Although the usage of these mats appears to have varied from one area to another in South Lampung, detailed knowledge about them remains fragmentary. We do know that lampit were sometimes paired with the woven squares (in plain weave of undyed cotton and decorated with supplementary weft yarns of dyed cotton or silk) known as tampan, which were used in ritual exchanges and rites of passage ceremonies. (See Lampung Gallery) In marriage processions, a rolled mat placed on a tampan, or a tampan wrapped around a mat, was carried together on a pahar or high-stemmed platter. Lampit were also used by brides during prenuptial ritual baths and again as seats during the marriage ceremony.
There is a similarity here to another ritual act — that of tying a tampan to a spear or wrapping it around a wooden staff. The binding or placement of a lampit together with a tampan would seem to symbolize or reaffirm, in simple yet profound form, the principles of male and female duality that are part of most rite-of-passage rituals and displays throughout Indonesia. This relationship is said to be likened to that of a pillow and a sleeping mat. Together, they signify a change of state, an affirmation of ties, and the transitioning into another state of being. In death, lampit were placed under the body of the deceased during burial preparations as relatives were required to provide them to the bereaved.
One of the other uses of lampit was recorded ca. 1970 by the late scholar Mattiebelle Gittinger. She wrote that village leaders (raja) within a marga (a clan composed of multiple kinship groups) would annually gather to promulgate laws, discuss the dispensation of titles, and address any problems affecting their community. In the Liwa area of West Lampung, the raja who was selected as the gathering's leader sat on a lampit. In Kalianda, South Lampung, the local ruler (ratu) and his 'four princes' (pangeran) once met in the community house (sesat), where a lampit mat was displayed during their discussions.
The Dallas Museum of Art's lampit is artistically perhaps the finest example of this genre known. Its sunburst center is surrounded by eight birds and four demonstrative ships whose prows curl in classic Kalianda-area style. Each boat carries animated passengers and has a symbolic tree arising from the center of its hull. Added to this lampit's solar-lunar arrangement is a swirling galaxy of florettes and starbursts that incorporate upper- and lower-world animals. These include birds, roosters, buffalo, and a curious creature that visually approximates a crustacean or perhaps a scorpion.
Many lampit, including this particular one, display complex designs built around a celestial or circular center, which is, in turn, surrounded by four orbs or crescent moons at each of their cardinal corners. These compositions may reflect a long-standing hierarchical order existing between kings and princely aristocrats, which is expressed and underscored by the echoing of such cosmological imagery. An ancient principle associated with the leadership of clans, customary order, and rulership on the Pasemah plateau (famous for its archaeological sites and megalithic stones, and situated just north of Lampung) is known as lampik empat, mardike due. Lampik empat can be understood here as "four mats or four layers." Mardike, due translates as "free persons" living within an orbit or organization of customary principles.
The positioning of these designs and the significance of their repetition in quantities of four or eight also seem to correspond to Buddhist numerology within a mandala, the sacred circular symbol of the universe. The mat's decorative border of tendrils and corner rosettes also serves as a 'frame' to contain its potent designs. Far more than just a mat or a seat, lampit reflected order and supernatural protection, the presence of the ancestors, and an aristocrat's alignment within the universe.
— Steven G. Alpert, founder of Art of the Ancestors
Colophon
Author | Steven G. Alpert
Date of Publication | February 28, 2026
Publication Website | www.artoftheancestors.com