Batik Quran fuses religion and tradition

THE JAKARTA POST
By Ade Rizal

Up close: A batik-inspired Quran is being created by a group of batik craftspeople in Laweyan, Surakarta, in Central Java. (JP/Ade Rizal)

SURAKATA---Sarwono was gently stroking hot wax from a canting (spouted pot) on a sheet of white cloth measuring 90 cm by 70 cm. “Unless [the wax] fully penetrates, the batik designs won’t appear perfectly,” he said while working at the Batik Mahkota Workshop in Laweyan village, a tourist zone in Surakarta, Central Java, known for producing batik. The 62-year-old, better known as Nono, was not drawing the traditional batik motifs of Surakarta or other regions of Java. Instead, he was completing a batik-inspired Quran that is being created by a group of batik craftspeople based in Laweyan. Verse by verse, he scribed the Islamic holy book using the Kudus khat (calligraphy) system, which is more difficult than the Uthmani method. [More]