Life Cycle ceremonies

In batik-making villages across the river from the Jambi capital, textiles also have an important part to play in all stages of the life cycle. Ceremonial gift exchanges at marriage ceremonies in Jambi always involve textiles. A week or so before the wedding itself, a delegation from the groom's family goes in procession from his family's house of the bride's family, carrying twelve Trays of gifts. Most important are the trays of betel chew ingredient and money Carried at the front of the procession, but these are followed by many more on which textiles, folded into the shapes of fruits, flowers, a fan, a goose (sometimes with two heads) and a boat. These last two items recall Orang Kayo Hitam's marriage to Princess Mayang Mengurai, and his journey dowsteram to found the new kingdom in Tanah Pilih. Unlike the situation in many others parts of Indonesia, the bride's family does not make a precisely reciprocal exchange: the groom has to buy his way into the bride's family. The twelve large cakes returned to the groom's family are in the nature of a polite formality; there is no pretence of equivalence in the exchange. At the wedding ceremony itself, the groom sits in front of a wall hung with a carpet decorated with flowers and gauze. A pile of folded batik sarongs arranged into the shape of a sunflower is provided for him to sit on, with each individual sarong forming one petal. Nowadays, there would be eight cloths making up the flower shape, but in the past there would have been fifty-six, in seven layers. The significance of this Sunflower shape and the shapes into which the gifts are folded has been lost, but the practice continues and every groom, rich or poor, goes through this ritual.