{"id":1327,"date":"2018-06-16T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-06-15T23:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/blog\/?p=1327"},"modified":"2018-05-04T11:22:11","modified_gmt":"2018-05-04T03:22:11","slug":"poleng-balis-unique-black-white","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/blog\/poleng-balis-unique-black-white\/","title":{"rendered":"Poleng – Bali’s Unique Black & White Weaving Technique"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the kaleidoscope of visuals that greets visitors to Bali, there\u2019s a recurring motif called poleng that you\u2019d have to lock yourself in your hotel room to miss.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s everywhere \u2013 girdling tree trunks and mossy stone statues, spread on restaurant tables, adorning worshippers at temple ceremonies a monochrome checkerboard pattern known as poleng. And it\u2019s more than mere decoration \u2013 poleng is one of the clearest expressions of the unique worldview of the Balinese.<\/p>\n

They may call Bali<\/a> the Island of the Gods, but the tiny Hindu enclave in the heart of the Indonesian archipelago is as filled with demons as it is divinities. In fact, Balinese beliefs are a heady homegrown blend of animism, Hinduism, Buddhism and ancestor worship. At their heart lies a philosophy called Rwa Bhineda, which describes the world in terms of complimentary opposites \u2013 large-small, young-old, good-evil. The island\u2019s elaborate ceremonies are largely about maintaining balance between good & evil. You don\u2019t try and defeat the demons, you appease them with offerings. Poleng expresses this philosophy of inseparable opposites, but it\u2019s not just a symbol either.<\/p>\n

For the Balinese poleng is a kind of magic \u2013 it acts as a barrier between objects that have a strong mystical \u2018charge.\u2019 A tree or statue wrapped in poleng is likely home to a powerful spirit. Bali\u2019s village guards, the pecalang, also wear poleng which reflects their role in protecting the community.<\/p>\n

The origins of poleng aren\u2019t entirely clear, but it\u2019s at least as old as the Hindu Majapahit Empire, the Javanese civilization that ruled the Malay Archipelago from the end of the 13th century until the early 1500s. It\u2019s possibly even older \u2013 an animist artefact the Majapahit culture assimilated.<\/p>\n

It can take a month to make a metre of poleng, if it\u2019s handwoven in the traditional manner. And if you look closely at the pattern, you realise it isn\u2019t in fact black & white \u2013 there are grey squares too. And because the blend of black and white threads is slightly different depending on whether the warp or weft of the thread is on top, there are in fact four shades in total.<\/p>\n

Besides its mystical properties, poleng is perhaps also a reminder to live ethically. Respect the inhabitants of the unseen realm \u2013 i.e. \u2018live ethically\u2019 and you embody the white squares of the cloth and the converse is true of the black. The reality of course is that most of us occupy one or other of the grey squares!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the kaleidoscope of visuals that greets visitors to Bali, there\u2019s a recurring motif called poleng that you\u2019d have to lock yourself in your hotel room to miss. It\u2019s everywhere \u2013 girdling tree trunks and mossy stone statues, spread on restaurant tables, adorning worshippers at temple ceremonies a monochrome checkerboard pattern known as poleng. And…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":1329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations","blog-preview-content","post-without-tags"],"acf":[],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/storage.karmagroup.com\/assets\/karmagroup.com\/blog\/2018\/05\/Poleng.jpg","yoast_head":"\nPoleng - Bali's Unique Black & White Weaving Technique<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From the girdling tree trunks and mossy stone statues, adorning worshippers at temple ceremonies a monochrome checkerboard pattern known as poleng.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/karmagroup.com\/blog\/poleng-balis-unique-black-white\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poleng - 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