Woman’s shoulder cloth (selendang) or headcloth (tengkuluk)

Sumatra is known as the isle of gold, and nowhere is gold more visible than in the textiles of the Minangkabau peoples of West Sumatra. Using a technique called songket, Minang women weave supplementary gold-wrapped threads into textiles that can become family heirlooms and markers of status. Clothes worn for ceremonial occasions are particularly ornate and include both shoulder cloths and lengths of fabric folded into large headdresses. The women of isolated villages around the slopes of Mount Marapi developed distinctive textiles as well as ways of arranging these into headdresses, each signaling the wearer’s home village.

This cloth features a pattern called balah kacang (broken peanut). According to Minang weavers, the pattern symbolizes the fair treatment a leader should have toward people. The triangular patterns at the textile’s ends refer to the shape of bamboo shoots, a symbol of usefulness.