Mud Dyeing & Traditional Tais Weaving in Timor-Leste
- Suzanne Dekel
- 8 באפר׳
- זמן קריאה 5 דקות
Natural dyeing in the youngest democracy in the world.
I traveled to Timor Leste in November 2024 at the invitation of Hilly Bouwman, founder and manager of RELOKA. This NGO is a training, production, and marketing initiative to promote the capacities of persons of different abilities.
ReLoka creates environmentally responsible products, using local and recycled resources as much as possible. ReLoka re-invents and promotes local production, inspired by Timorese traditions and techniques, such as Tais weaving.
I was invited by Hilly to come and share my knowledge of natural dyeing with her team, to improve the natural dyeing practice in their workshop.
Timor-Leste, is a small Southeast Asian nation and one of the youngest countries in the world. The country has lush green hills and beautiful sea views, there are bustling towns with busy markets selling fresh produce. Traffic in the capital Dilli is by far the most challenging I have ever seen and I was happy not to be in the driver's seat. The people are beautiful, smiley, and friendly. Timor Leste does not have many tourists coming in, the ones I met in my hostel were mostly young backpackers coming in to do whale spotting and surfing in the turquoise seas.
The national textile pride is called Tais, recognized as an Intangible Cultural Heritage these are intricate, colorful handwoven cotton textiles created with the Ikat technique, created by women on a backstrap loom. These fabrics tell stories of the Timorese people’s history, culture, and identity. Tais weavings hold a prominent place in every aspect of life, from ceremonial occasions to daily use, and are increasingly becoming a means of economic empowerment and cultural preservation in the face of modern challenges. Tais are gifted as tokens of respect to guests visiting, baby gifts, and other special occasions.
What sets off Tais weaving from other weaving traditions on islands nearby (like Sumba in Indonesia for example) is the use of different colored warp threads, in combination with Ikat warp. This creates vertical stripes and vertical widths of Ikat (called Futus) combined. Another technique that is used is a supplementary weave, called Sotus, where additional threads are woven into a textile in addition to the ground pattern.
Motives found in Tais weaving carry deep symbolic meanings:
PAYOLA (also seen as Paiola or Paiolu, depending on region and dialect.
Symbolizes sacred houses (uma lulik), the spiritual and ancestral heart of Timorese communities.
Represents ancestry, status, and connection to land and lineage.
Often woven as an act of honoring familial roots, cosmological beliefs, and obligations to the spirits and elders.
Visual Characteristics:
Geometric forms such as stepped patterns, zigzags, lozenges, or ladder-like shapes.
These may represent the structure of the sacred house, the steps leading to it, or abstract representations of cosmic balance and social order.
Typically placed in central or repeating bands, anchoring the composition and giving spiritual weight to the textile.
PASSABOLA (sometimes spelled with slight regional variations), is a motif found in Tais, and while it sounds similar to Payola, it carries its own meaning and design identity.
It is sometimes interpreted as symbolizing movement, circulation, or exchange, possibly referring to the passage of goods, people, or spiritual energy.
In some contexts, it may be linked to ritual journeys or the ongoing flow between generations and realms.
Visual Characteristics:
Often appears as a repeating motif with circular or rotational symmetry, sometimes resembling a wheel, knot, or linked loops.
May be used to create a sense of rhythm across the fabric or to break up larger bands of more static motifs like Payola.
Tends to be more fluid or curvilinear than the very geometric Payola, depending on the weaver’s interpretation.
KAIF is interpreted to represent connections or pathways, possibly symbolizing kinship lines, genealogies, or journeys, both literal and spiritual.
In some regions, it’s said to represent lifelines or the road of the ancestors, linking the weaver (and wearer) to their clan lineage, the sacred house (uma lulik), and their spiritual obligations.
Visual Characteristics:
Typically rendered in linear or interlocking patterns, sometimes resembling zigzag paths, ladders, or even flowing streams.
It might be used as a repeating band motif running horizontally across the fabric or embedded within more complex compositions.
The creation of Tais involves a meticulous and time-intensive process that begins with the preparation of natural fibers. Traditionally, the threads are dyed using natural dyes extracted from plants, roots, and iron-rich mud from the rice fields. Some warp thread are dyed solid, others are dyed with Ikat technique. I was blessed to witness the mud-dyeing process and that is what I want to focus on in the scope of this article.
Mud dyeing, is a particularly fascinating aspect of the Tais tradition, is still a point of pride for many weavers. The process is deeply labor-intensive and requires knowledge of local materials. We first soaked the threads in tannin-rich plant extracts, created from:
Burnt corn
Ai-samtuku bark (albizia, I do not know which one)
Fahi-raan leaves (copper beech)
Silari leaves (Black-Honey Shrub, Phylanthus reticulata)
Ai-kakeuk bark (Casuarina)
These were all boiled in water over a wood fire. The cotton threads were soaked in this mixture for around 30 minutes.
The threads were then buried in mud from the rice fields, preferably the smellier parts where lots of buffalos and pigs poop. It is claimed this makes the mud better. Could it be poopie mud contains more iron?
After a good rinse, the process was repeated multiple times until the desired depth of shade was achieved.
Colleague Mario recalls fondly his mother used to bring him along when the village women went to create another batch of mud-dyed cotton on the rice fields. His skills showed me it was difinitely not the first time handling a skein
The result was a beautiful earthy black.
In rural Timor-Leste, where poverty remains a persistent challenge, the art of Tais weaving provides a source of income for women. Many families rely on the sale of Tais to sustain their livelihoods. However, the globalized economy poses threats to this traditional craft, as cheap, mass-produced textiles flood the market, often undermining the value of handwoven goods. Despite these challenges, NGO's like ReLoka work to revitalize and sustain Tais weaving as a viable economic activity.
ReLoka is dedicated to education and employment, focusing on the preservation of traditional weaving and natural dyeing techniques. The organization works closely with local communities, offering training programs that empower women to enhance their weaving skills and teaching sustainable practices in natural dye extraction and application. By connecting artisans with broader markets, ReLoka helps them gain fair prices for their work, thus improving their economic situation. ReLoka also addresses the educational gap that exists in many rural areas of Timor-Leste. Through workshops and community programs, ReLoka fosters an environment where young women can learn both the practical skills of weaving and the cultural knowledge embedded in Tais. This dual approach ensures that the tradition remains vibrant and relevant while providing a pathway out of poverty. Moreover, ReLoka’s emphasis on natural dyes not only aligns with global sustainability goals but also reconnects the artisans with their ecological heritage, strengthening the bond between people and nature.
Please consider supporting ReLoka's work; https://www.re-loka.com