Textile trade provides a multidisciplinary avenue to examine flows in material culture, performances of power, and ultimately changes in the perception of the self. This article focuses on pre-Islamic contacts between the Malay World, Java, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Subcontinent. 

Abstract

We refute the established view that stitched elements of garment were introduced into Maritime Southeast Asia in the wake of increased contact with (proselytizing) Muslim communities. Rather, we argue that these sartorial innovations predate the introduction and spread of Islam in the region, in some instances by centuries. We support this claim by analysing in detail the term baju or vaju, of ultimate Persian origins, which has been adopted and adapted throughout the archipelago. First attested in 10th-century Java, it referred to a spiritually powerful jacket, but also – by semantic extension – to the magico-ritually anointed upper torso of a warrior. The second textile-related term examined here is cavəli. We demonstrate that it denoted an extra-fine cotton fabric imported from India. It was considered a distinct luxury available only to the most affluent customers, and as such much sought-after by self-aggrandizing local elites. We conclude by positing that trans-archipelagic commerce in fabrics and other textile products reflects an increasingly connected Indian Ocean World in which imported items of material culture came to be essential to the performance of status and competitive ritual. Across Maritime Southeast Asia, the introduction of these items went hand-in-hand with notions of spiritual potency.

Authors

Tom Hoogervorst, Jiří Jákl

Website

Art of the Ancestors

03-10-2025

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