EXPLORING KAUMAN VILLAGE

​In the heyday of the Surakarta Palace, Kauman was the home of the palace's scholars and batik masters, who also worked as courtiers. The expertise in making batik, which has been inherited since about two centuries ago, allows the residents there to easily and quickly produce batik motifs that are often used by the royal family.

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Until now, there are more than 30 cottage industries that routinely produce batik every day. One of them is Batik Domas. This business has been running for three generations. There are three types of batik made here, namely batik tulis (hand-drawn batik), batik cap (stamped batik), and a combination of hand-stamped. When we arrive, we will be presented with the atmosphere of the activities of the craftsmen who process dozens of white mori into batik cloth. The skillful hands of the craftsmen nimbly stamp and color the fabric without the slightest mistake. They do it casually. Jokes are often thrown at fellow craftsmen in between work.

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The process itself is quite complicated, starting from waxing the fabric, coloring, washing and removing the wax to drying the fabric to dry. In a day, they can produce about more than 50 fabrics. The batik they make has even been exported to several parts of the world such as Myanmar, Japan and Italy.