The weaving industry in Trengganu
A.H. Hill published this technical-ethnographic study in 1949, documenting the village weaving industry of Trengganu in the immediate post-war period when renewed demand for textiles had given the craft a new impetus. The article provides a detailed account of the technical processes from raw silk procurement to finished cloth, and catalogues the diverse types of textile produced in the state.
Summary
Hill’s article is fundamentally a field description of the Trengganu weaving industry, written from direct observation of workshops in the Chabang Tiga area and surrounding villages. The narrative traces the full production chain: the purchase of Chinese 2-ply silk thread through Singapore importing houses, the dyeing process using American aniline dyes imported via China, the winding of thread onto bamboo spools, the complex arrangement of warp threads on a special frame to establish the pattern, and finally the weaving itself on the traditional Malay hand loom. The author pays particular attention to the technical vocabulary of the craft, recording Malay terms for every component of the loom and each stage of production, and distinguishes between the simpler patterned cloths (kain beragi) and the more elaborate songket types in which gold or silver thread is woven into the fabric to produce raised decorative patterns.
The article also addresses the question of classification and nomenclature, noting that the industry resists rigid systematic categorisation because of the free interplay of techniques—woven patterns, embroidered borders, ikat-dyed grounds, and stamped designs can all be combined in a single piece. Hill acknowledges that his account is introductory rather than exhaustive, and explicitly states that the economics of the industry fall outside his scope, though he appends brief remuneration data at the close. The piece is notable for its sensitivity to the artistic dimension of the work, describing the kepala (centre panel) of fine songket as “a real work of art” and cautioning against reductive taxonomies that would obscure the subtlety of the craft.
Key Findings
- The industry was carried on in nearly 1,000 Malay homes in Trengganu, with approximately 600 workers employed on the Chabang Tiga looms, centrally controlled by Tuan Bharu and his sister Tuan Sharifah (p. 75).
- Raw material consisted of Chinese 2-ply silk thread purchased in bundles (bantal) of 3 katties each from Singapore importing houses; each bundle contained 36 hanks further divided into 10 skeins of ¼ tahil (p. 75).
- American aniline dyes were imported from China; British dyes were rejected on the grounds that they caused too rapid deterioration of the silk fibre (p. 76).
- A full-size sarong required 1,680 warp threads with 20 heddles to the inch; the loom width limited the cloth to 42 lok (approximately 40–44 inches) (pp. 75, 77).
- Weavers’ piecework rates ranged from about 50 cents for a small kain selerang to $8–$10 for a fully worked kain benang mas taking several weeks; retail prices reached up to $200 for the finest pieces (p. 84).
- A very fine kain lepas made in Trengganu before the war, with a broad border exquisitely embroidered in gold thread, was included in the wedding gifts sent to Princess Elizabeth in October 1947 by the Sultans of Malaya (p. 77).
Conclusion
Hill’s definitive takeaway is that the Trengganu weaving industry, while economically modest in its labour costs and organised as a co-operative home industry free from the trammels of big business, represents a sophisticated and highly varied art form whose full complexity defies systematic nomenclature. The technical devices available to the weaver allow such free combination of pattern, colour, and embellishment that any attempt at rigid classification would do less than justice to the subtle harmonies achieved.
Context
- The study is based on direct field observation of workshops in Chabang Tiga and surrounding villages, with access granted by Tuan Bharu and Tuan Sharifah; illustrations were selected from C.A. Gibson-Hill’s collection of Malayan photographs (p. 75).
- The article contributes to the ethnographic record of Malayan textile technology at a moment of post-war economic recovery, and its detailed technical vocabulary remains a valuable reference for the study of Trengganu weaving traditions.