CULTURE: JAKARTA- National Batik Day 2020

National Batik Da / y has always been celebrated regularly for 11 years in Indonesia since UNESCO designated batik as a Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on October 2, 2009. However, different from previous years, the pandemic COVID-19 forces two batik workshops in Jakarta, namely Batik Betawi Terogong and Rumah Batik Palbatu to postpone the celebration of National Batik Day this year.

Batik Betawi Terogong workshop still produces wax-stamped and hand-drawn batik on National Batik Day which falls on Friday (02/10) Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, two batik artisans gather in a hut in Jalan Terogong, Cilandak, South Jakarta to produce various motifs of batik such as batik pengantin and batik ondel-ondel despite a very few order from their customers.

Meanwhile Batik House Palbatu in Tebet, South Jakarta invite people with hearing loss to celebrates the day. The mentors teach them in sign language the hand-drawn batik technique and encourage them to use their own imagination. In the end, it doesn’t matter what the result looks like as long as they can combine imagination with various traditional batik motifs.