Endurance test: How Sri Lanka’s batik artists keep the craft alive
Jezima Mohammed has run a small workshop and boutique, Jez Look Batiks, from her home in Matara, Sri Lanka, for nearly seven decades. Now in her 80s, she still works every day. When visitors stop by, the batik artist proudly shows off framed letters from Buckingham Palace and a photo of Queen Elizabeth II sporting a white satin scarf with baby pink florals – one of her designs. Meanwhile, outside, a group of artisans meticulously outline peacock motifs onto off-white fabric with boiling hot wax.
“They are my girls,” she says of the 16 women currently employed by her shop, “and we work like a family.”
It’s often said that batik came to Sri Lanka from Indonesia, where the as an important part of humanity’s intangible heritage, but late researcher Gerret Pieter Rouffaer it was India or Sri Lanka that introduced the resist dyeing technique to the Indonesian islands. Murky origins aside, batik flourished in Sri Lanka during the 1960s, with female artists like creating massive tapestries that adorned the ceilings of Colombo’s most iconic buildings. Small businesses such as Ms. Mohammed’s shop emerged to meet the demand for the popular medium. Then, in 1983, civil war brought the industry to an abrupt halt.
