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An academic who has spent decades studying Malaysian textile, alongside Malaysia's prolific songket entrepreneur, share their stories and thoughts on songket. In this documentary, the Malay Songket is explored through its ingredients, tools, processes, techniques and designs, bringing the audience closer to the world of songket weaving in Terengganu, Malaysia. This colourful journey delves into the magnificence of this textile and its association with the Malay community’s inherited pride and creativity.

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MACPA Malaysia

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Script
“When it expands, it’s wide as the universe, when it curls, it’s smaller than a claw.”
This simile which was written in ‘Hikayat Awang Sulong’ (Awang Sulong Tales) depicts the magnificence and elegance of Malay songket
Songket in its basic form is a plain weave, patterened with gold threads.
These gold threads will then be inserted and woven into the plain weave to create certain motifs.
The insertion of the gold threads defines songket.
Undeniably, the shining metallic threads woven in songket exposes the unique creativity of the Malays.
The appreciation of Alam Melayu (Malay Universe) found in songket pattern isn’t just for its beauty, but also a symbol of identity and pride for the Malay; passed down from one generation to another.
Songket originally was made solely for clothing since the era of The Malacca Sultanate.
However, its weaving technique was quite different back then, striking resemblance to Cindai or Patola from India. We don’t really know when songket was discovered, but the weaving itself was already practiced in Malay culture. Since The Langkasuka era.
Langkasuka is an ancient Malay state which includes the Old Kelatan and Patani region (Southern Thailand). That is where songket was born. It was told that Che Siti Wan Kembang and Puteri Saadong (ancient Kelatan rulers), both were known for their mastery in weaving.
When songket was introduced to the Malay people, it gathered attention especially from the nobles and aristocrats, and was quickly regarded as the luxury of the time.
So luxurious, it soon became the attire for the Malay elite during that period. The dynamics between the ruler and the people while maintaining the social and economic needs of the nation, has made room for the development of songket weaving practices and discipline.
Some studies have discovered that Malay girls in Kelantan, back then, were required to learn the skill of weaving before they’re allowed to get married.
This skill was a must for every women during that time. The development of songket weaving bring us to the state of Terengganu Darul Iman. Located in the east coast of peninsular of Malaysia, Terengganu is now considered the focal point of songket weaving activities in Malaysia.
Mass production of songket in Terengganu has long been established since the 18th century, during the reign of Sultan Mansor which has created an important economic resources for the people of Terengganu, until today.
This involves several tedious processes and you need to go through it, step-by-step, to produce a single piece of songket.
The elegance of songket starts with this basic ingredient: Thread
Each thread will be manipulated by utilizing specific techniques and weeks of pre-processing before it is ready to be used in the weaving. Everything is calculated and carefully conducted.
Actually, we’d never produced all these threads, but rather imported it. We bought them from China and India. Silk threads mostly came from China, whereas cotton threads from India. Gold threads were acquired from the Arabs, and recently from China.
It’s pure gold, since the threads was going to be used for royal clothing.
A single cotton thread would be dipped into the molten gold that’s how these gold threads were made, back then. Raw cotton and silk threads are white in color. The colorfulness of songket requires its threads to be colored first.
The first step of songket is called ‘mencelup’ (dyeing). Malay textile is inseparable from these three elements; threads, colos and techniques. This is ‘mengikat’ (tying) process. We’ll tie some knots upon this threads before applying colors onto it. For example, this white part will be colored with red, while the tied part is left uncolored. After that, we’ll loose this knotted part and tie new knots upon the colored part, and then apply another color to the newly untied parts. Historically, ‘mencelup’ utilizes dyes derived from the nature. From example, we used turmeric for yellow, and mangosteen peel for the purple coloring. There was once a strict guideline regarding to the color of clothing. People were restricted from wearing yellow, white-yellowish and purple garments. As a result, they wore simple colored garments. This changes after the arrival of Indian traders.