Girl’s Breast Cloth (kemben) with Design of Polka-Dotted Central Field and Border of “Broken Dagger” (parang rusak) Motif

The wide rectangle at the center of this cloth was tie-dyed in purple using tritik, meaning “dotted,” a stitch-resist technique. Using a needle and thread, the artist stitched and then pulled taut areas intended to resist certain dye colors. The borders feature the hand-drawn, wax-resist parang rusak (broken dagger) pattern. The purple, brown, and black colors come from synthetic dyes. Its relatively small size suggests that it may have been worn by a young girl or left in the ocean as a sacrificial offering to Ratu Kidul, Goddess of the South Sea.