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PAID CONTENT FOR SARAWAK TOURI SM
around the waist and over the shoulder in a complicated series of tucks and folds. “Songket was becoming a dying art
because most of the remaining weavers were very old,” explains Ramtiniwati. “I thank God I can do this to keep songket alive — and off er a livelihood to the local community.”
THE KE RINGKAM EMBROIDE RE R DANNY ZULKIFLI From the outside, you’d never guess this house in a residential suburb of Kuching is home to a sought-after embroiderer, tasked with creating pieces for very important people. Go inside, however, and you can well believe it. Danny Zulkifl i’s sitting room is uber-elegant, and the man himself is impeccably turned out with a forest-green sarong around his middle and a traditional songkok hat on his head. Danny is a master of keringkam, a form of
embroidery brought to Sarawak by Indian merchants three centuries ago. Thin gold- or silver-plated ribbons are hand embroidered onto rubia gauze fabric to make elaborately adorned headscarves worn by women to weddings and other special occasions. He shows me how it’s done, picking up a
fl attened needle and working it down and up through a piece of blood-red material
stretched across a frame. This is his latest commission, a scarf with motifs of winding tendrils, fl owers and a geometric wave pattern at the edges. “I started doing it 15 years ago when I was teaching dance choreography,” explains Danny. “I wanted my students to wear traditional dress with keringkam but I couldn’t fi nd any — so I decided to learn myself.” Each scarf requires up to 35 spools of
expensive plated thread and the most intricate scarves can take a year to create. “I don’t call it embroidery — I call it artwork,” says Danny. Ten years ago, he was one of just 25 keringkam artisans in Sarawak, and most of the others were much older than him. “There was a danger the art would become extinct.” However, four years ago the Sarawak government launched an initiative to train young embroiderers, and Danny was recruited to help. Innovation has a part to play in the
preservation of this centuries-old craft. Danny has incorporated keringkam into fashion items like luxury handbags and shoes, off -the-shelf shirts and dresses; he even recently embroidered Miss Malaysia’s gown for the Miss World competition. But at heart he’s a traditionalist, and all too aware how easily ancient skills can be forgotten.
From left: Keringkam embroiderer Danny Zulkifli in his studio, Kuching, Sarawak; detail of songket, a traditional Malaysian handwoven fabric, at the Seri Gedong Songket centre in Kuching, Sarawak; using the weaver to make a loose yarn for a songket, a traditional Malaysian handwoven fabric, at the Seri Gedong Songket centre in Kuching, Sarawak
PLAN YOUR TRIP
There are regular flights to Kuching from Heathrow via Singapore, Brunei or Kuala Lumpur. For more information, visit
sarawaktourism.com
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