Batik means painted or dotted in Javanese. The origins of this traditional Indonesian handicraft, which uses applications of wax to create patterns in dyed cloth, reach back more than 1,000 years.

Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed! Centuries ago, royal court ...

Among songs, dances, traditional East Asian cuisine and cultural performances, the three-day ASEAN Festival at Katara also brought with it the world-famous Indonesian Batik. Dozens of people learnt ...

Disability did not stop Andika Indra Saputra, 30, and Agus Rizkianto, 23, from leading an independent life. Saputra was born with cerebral palsy and Rizkianto is deaf. The two make a living creating ...

Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed! ecently, Indonesia' s ...

For visual artist Arif Rafhan Othman, batik is more than colour and ornamentation. He treats it as a miniature world — one where every motif holds a story waiting to be read. At 48, Arif approaches ...

In contrast, the production of genuine batik is more time-consuming, involving artisanal techniques like stamping or hand-drawing, with the resulting products referred to as batik cap (stamped batik) ...