Ulos

What is Ulos?

Ulos is a tenun, a handwoven cloth, made by the Batak people who live in North Sumatra, Indonesia. The name covers many different cloths, each with a job of its own: some cover the head, some carry a baby, some tie at the hip, and a few, like ragidup and sibolang, wrap the torso. Weavers work cotton, with silk as a second fibre, on a manual loom, keeping dye water in earthenware pots. A Batak saying counts three things that keep people warm: the sun, fire, and this cloth. It is usually draped over one or both shoulders.

Where does Ulos come from?

Batak tradition holds that people draw warmth from three places: the sun, fire, and ulos. Weavers first made it as plain clothing, and believed it could give men bravery and help women who had trouble bearing children. In time it grew past everyday use into a token of love and a required part of ceremony. Modernisation has taken a toll: the cloth lost much of the importance it once held in Batak life.

How is Ulos made?

The work starts before the loom. A spinner called the sorha turns cotton into thread. Colour is kept in a palabuan, an earthenware pot, which holds the dye water for the yarn. Cotton is the main fibre, and silk is used as well. The weaving itself is done on a manual loom, by hand, and the many named kinds each follow their own pattern and purpose.

Colours, motifs and borders

Each cloth carries a name that tells where it sits on the wearer. On a man, the upper part is the ande-ande, the lower the singkot, and the piece on his head the tali-tali or bulang-bulang. On a woman, the bottom is the haen and the back the hoba-hoba; the same cloth becomes an ampe-ampe as a scarf, a saong as a head cover, or a parompa for carrying a baby. Jugja, Sadum, Ragidup and Runjat are kept for certain occasions.

How Ulos is worn

Most often the cloth rests over one shoulder or both. Women wear it with a long black dress and a head cover. Batak custom sorts the cloths into three groups: siabithonon pieces wrap the torso, such as ragidup, sibolang, runjat and jobit; sihadanghononton pieces cover the head, such as sirara, sumbat, bolean, mangiring, surisuri and sadum; and sitalitalihononton pieces tie at the hip, such as tumtuman, mangiring and padangrusa.

When Ulos is worn

Weddings are the great moment for ulos. A cloth may be wrapped so that it binds bride and groom together, and the bride's parents hand a pargomgom ulos to the groom's mother. Giving cloth, called mangulosi, marks love for the receiver, but only within rules of kinship and standing: elders may give to those younger or lower in status, so parents give to children and never the reverse. A couple with their first child receive a ragidup sinagok, and an honoured guest a ragidup silingo.

Styles of Ulos

The named kinds divide by use more than by looks. Some wrap the torso, some cover the head, some tie at the hip, and others serve as a scarf, a baby carrier or a shawl for a guest. Jugja, Sadum, Ragidup and Runjat are held back for select occasions. A kind can move between roles: mangiring appears both among the head covers and the hip ties, and sadum is both a head cloth and one of the occasion-only pieces.

What Ulos means

Within Batak life the cloth carries meaning well past dress. People count it with the sun and fire as a giver of warmth, and credit it with courage for men and strength in childbearing for women. To give a piece, mangulosi, is to give love, and the rules about who may give to whom trace the lines of family and rank. As modern life has moved in, the cloth's standing has weakened, though weddings still call for it.

Questions people ask about Ulos

Good reading and sources

• Ulos on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data