Offers a comprehensive overview of the profusion of ikat styles found across Indonesia, featuring examples from over fifty weaving regions.

Unlike collectors who typically show a selection of stellar pieces from a limited number of different localities, Peter ten Hoopen seeks to showcase not just individual masterpieces, but the culture of the “ikat archipelago.” This is done through the close reading of over two hundred early and emblematic examples of ikat textiles from his Pusaka Collection, and by introducing us to the living conditions, beliefs, and customs of the people who have created and used them. ten Hoopen’s ethnographic approach to collecting allows us to see where the styles from neighboring island regions are interwoven—reflecting migration, bridal exchanges, trade, and raiding patterns—and where they stand out by marked individuality.

Created with scholarly input from a dozen region-specific experts, Ikat Textiles of the Indonesian Archipelago spans the entire arc of the Indonesian archipelago, from Sumatra in the west to the Moluccas in the east. It even reaches beyond Indonesia’s borders to include the Malaysian state of Sarawak and the Democratic Republic of East Timor. While building on previous ikat research, ten Hoopen offers numerous new additions to the knowledge base, including information on the ikat of a dozen islands and regions never before addressed in the scholarship.