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Dyes and dyeing

From Munshipedia, the MBRAS digital historical encyclopedia

Dyes and dyeing

In the early twentieth century, the dyeing of silk and cotton thread by Malay communities across the Straits Settlements and the Malay States represented a sophisticated indigenous textile technology, drawing on a wide repertoire of vegetable and mineral sources to produce a full spectrum of colours. The practice was documented most comprehensively by W. W. Skeat in 1902, who recorded the processes in use in Kelantan, Patani, and Selangor at a moment when imported aniline dyes from Singapore were rapidly displacing native vegetable dyes [1, p. 123]. The significance of this record lies not only in its technical detail but in its timing: it captures a tradition in active decline, preserving knowledge that commercial modernisation was erasing [1]. A later, briefer contribution by R. Braddell in 1951 touched on a related metallurgical colouring process, the sepoh treatment of gold, which, while distinct from textile dyeing, illustrates the broader cultural preoccupation with achieving specific hues through chemical means [2, p. 157].

Vegetable and Mineral Dye Sources

The raw materials for traditional Malay dyeing were drawn almost entirely from the local flora, supplemented in some cases by imported substances. In Kelantan and Patani, the most commonly used dyes were blue (biru) and purple (umu), with occasional green (ijau or empo) and a little yellow (kuning or tula); red, though much admired, was not commonly used owing to the difficulty of making it fast [1, p. 123]. The red dye, known as chelu mala (or in standard Malay, chelup malau), was produced from ten to fifteen fruits of the asam gelugor, two or three common tamarinds, and a quantity of alum “as much as will cover the nail of the fourth finger” per kati of silk [1, p. 123]. Orange, called kuning pinæ masak (“ripe betel-nut yellow”), was obtained either by reusing the spent red dye or by a fresh solution to which were added the fruits of kasoma klin (kasumba kling) and belimbing masam (also called buah k’rih in Kelantan and Patani, from its use in cleaning k’ris blades), with alum as a mordant [1, p. 124]. Dark orange was derived from chips of the heartwood of the jackfruit (nangka) tree [1, p. 124].

Yellow was obtained from turmeric or curcuma, pounded in a small specially made mortar and squeezed by hand to extract the juice, to which tamarinds, asam gelugor, and alum were added in the same proportions as for the red process [1, p. 125]. A critical distinction was that yellow, unlike orange, required exposure to sunlight to develop the full tint [1, p. 125]. Yellow-green, green, and blue-green were achieved by adding increasing proportions of a decoction made from the root and heartwood of the poko’ kedræ tree to the turmeric base; blue-green required the process to be repeated twice, while full blue substituted a decoction of indigo leaves for the turmeric and was repeated two or three times until the requisite tint was obtained [1, p. 125].

Indigo itself was the most important single dye source. Four distinct local varieties were identified in Kelantan and Patani: tarung kechil, tarung gelanggang, tarung Siam, and tarung akar (or tarung utae) [1, p. 125]. The indigo dyeing process involved gathering the leaves and placing them in a large earthenware jar called a tepayæ (standard Malay tempayan), together with the bark of young coconut-palm shoots or fruit-spikes—one fruit-spike per jar on average—and a lump of lime “as thick as a man’s arm” [1, p. 125]. The silk was steeped in the resulting decoction until the desired shade was achieved [1, p. 125].

Violet was produced by first applying the light red (mala) dye and then steeping the silk in fermented coconut milk, with the critical caveat that the silk must be removed promptly, as over-exposure would turn it a rusty black [1, p. 126]. Purple could be obtained either from an infusion of tengar bark or by combining the mala process with indigo; dark purple came from the sera kayu (Selangor kenundang), a tree with small red edible fruits, with alum and asam gelugor [1, p. 126]. White was achieved by steeping silk in a decoction of burnt durian skin [1, p. 126]. Black was obtained from an infusion of tengar bark, by repeated steepings in indigo, or by burying in the soil of the gurah tree yarn already dyed yellow-green or dark purple; dark black required still further repeated dyeing with indigo or fermented coconut milk [1, p. 126]. Grey was produced by dipping in indigo, while the various browns were obtained from mundu bark, with or without the addition of alum, tamarinds, or indigo [1, p. 126].

In Raman, an inland province of Patani, the dyeing palette was somewhat narrower. Both blue and black were obtained from either the wild or cultivated variety of indigo (tarung utae or tarung kapon), the yarn being steeped in an infusion coloured by the young shoots until the requisite tint was reached; black was therefore merely the deepest achievable shade of blue, confirming a single-source colour system [1, p. 126]. Red was obtained from Brazil-wood (sepang) mixed with an equal proportion of chips from the heartwood of the kedrang tree, the heartwood being steeped in water until the infusion became sufficiently deep red [1, p. 126]. Green was made by mixing old indigo leaves with the juice of young coconut fruit pounded small (ayer mumbang di-tumboh) [1, p. 126]. Yellow was obtained from equal proportions of turmeric (kunyit) and lime (kapor), mixed and allowed to ferment (di-rapai jadi ragi) [1, p. 126]. Purple was made by dipping red-dyed yarn in indigo [1, p. 126].

On the west coast, in Selangor, the palette drew on different sources. Mangrove bark (kulit bakau) was used as a black dye, while yellow was obtained from isi temu kunyit or temu kunchi and temu pauh, the first of these being particularly effective; the yellow was darkened by the addition of lime and asam gelugor [1, p. 127]. Red came from sepang and kēsumba k’ling; green from bunga tēlang (the creeper, not the bamboo); and black from the fruit of the kēdudok (Melastoma) and from the fruit of the tumu, the latter giving the best results [1, p. 127].

Technical Processes and Aesthetic Preferences

The dyeing processes followed a broadly consistent logic across regions, though with local variations in materials and sequence. The fundamental technique involved preparing a liquid dye bath—typically by boiling the vegetable or mineral source with mordants such as alum and asam gelugor—and then immersing the thread, which was kneaded, boiled, and subsequently dried. Drying conditions were critical and varied by colour: orange required shade to prevent fading, while yellow required direct sunlight to develop [1, pp. 124–125]. The practice of exposing dyed silk to the night dew (di-perembong) for several consecutive nights appears to have been a standard finishing step for multiple colours [1, pp. 123–124].

Skeat noted that the most generally favourite colour was red, followed by yellow and a kind of delicate rose-colour (or madder) called kembang petaw in Selangor and kemae petaw in Kelantan and Patani [1, p. 126]. Darker and soberer tints were in vogue for older wearers, and the sarong patterns worn by women featured smaller checks and were considered more tasteful than those worn by men [1, p. 126].

The economic context of the trade is briefly recorded: silk was purchased from peddlers or in the bazaar at from $4 to $4.50 per kati (1⅓ lbs), with typical dyeing batches ranging from four to ten kati’s weight [1, p. 123]. In out-of-the-way inland districts, a few Malays of the older generation still manufactured a coarse but durable thread of native vegetable fibre (home-spun), but in Kelantan and Patani the material for sarongs and kain lepas was by 1902 almost invariably silk or cotton thread imported from Singapore [1, p. 123].

The Sepoh Process and Metallurgical Colouring

A separate but thematically adjacent contribution to the literature on colouring processes in the Malay world was provided by R. Braddell in 1951, who addressed the sepoh technique for producing the characteristic red colour of Selangor regalia gold [2, p. 157]. The process, as described by Sir Richard Winstedt, involved a mixture of nitre, common salt, and alum applied over a moderate fire [2, p. 157]. Braddell raised the question of how old this process was and whether it could have been in use a thousand years ago, linking it to the deep red gold recorded by the Chinese historian Ma Tuan-lin as coming from Tan-mei-lieou [2, p. 157]. While sepoh is a metallurgical rather than a textile process, its inclusion in the Society’s literature reflects a broader scholarly interest in the chemical and cultural dimensions of colour production in the region.

Research and Documentation

The Society’s literature on dyes and dyeing is concentrated almost entirely in the early twentieth century, with Skeat’s 1902 article constituting the sole substantive treatment of the subject. The article reflects the colonial administrative interest in documenting indigenous economic and technical practices, likely motivated by the perceived urgency of recording knowledge that commercial modernisation was erasing [1]. Skeat’s method was based on direct informant interviews in Kelantan, Patani, and Selangor, with colour references tied to physical swatches that were shown to his informants but which are no longer available, limiting the precision of the colour descriptions for later readers [1]. The article’s structure—proceeding through a numbered series of standard colours—suggests a systematic attempt to catalogue the full range of achievable tints rather than to analyse any single process in depth.

The later contribution by Braddell in 1951 [2] is a brief note rather than a sustained study, and its relevance to textile dyeing is tangential, concerning instead the colouring of gold. No subsequent articles in the Society’s journal have been identified that extend or revise Skeat’s account, suggesting that the subject has not attracted renewed scholarly attention within the Society’s publication record. The gap between 1902 and 1951, and the absence of any further treatment thereafter, indicates that dyes and dyeing remain a relatively underexplored area in the Society’s literature, with the 1902 record serving as the foundational and, to date, the most detailed source on the topic.

MBRAS Sources

References

  1. W.W. Skeat (1902). Silk and cotton dyeing by the Malays JSBRAS 38: 123–127. Read on JSTOR
  2. R. Braddell and P.D.R. Williams-Hunt (1951). Two notes: red gold and chiamassie JMBRAS 24(3): 157.