By Honorary Reporter Magdalena Krisnawati from Indonesia
Photos = Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Seoul, Republic of Korea

Indonesia celebrated National Batik Day on Oct. 2 to commemorate UNESCO's 2009 designation of batik, or clothing made through the batik technique of wax-resist dyeing applied to whole cloth, as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

On this day, almost all Indonesians wear batiks of various designs and styles.

The Indonesian Embassy in Seoul marked the holiday this year by creating the "Indonesia-Korea Friendship Batik" that incorporated Korean and Indonesia cultural elements. Indonesia has hundreds of batik designs used in traditional clothing and batik's popularity has spread throughout the globe.

The embassy said the joint batik was hand drawn with an extraordinary color design. Megamendung, one of Indonesia's many traditional batik designs, was the basic design and combined with the paintings of landmark traditional houses and buildings in Korea and Indonesia such as Monas and Jam Gadang in the latter nation and Namsan Tower, Gyeongbokgung Palace, Jogyesa Temple and Tongkonan House in the former.

The batik also features a natural coloring technique using three colors commonly used in both countries, namely brown (the color of a traditional batik), blue (one of Korea's national colors) and green (a color often used by the two countries). The natural dyes used show Indonesia's commitment to preserving the environment.

The batik design has been officially used in attire for embassy staff, who will wear it at all embassy events.

Six months ago, the Indonesian foreign minister created a mural with a batik design that is now displayed at the embassy.

The embassy is also displaying on its walls mural art with a design showing bilateral friendship and inaugurated by Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi last year. The mural is by two Indonesian mural artists, Rio Afrianto and Ahmad Thantawi, both of whom studied visual communication design in Korea.

Indonesian Ambassador to Seoul Umar Hadi said he hopes the mural and the batik help promote bilateral cultural and tourism exchanges and good harmony between the two countries.



chaey0726@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.