Iket Sunda

The Sundanese iket is made from one square of cloth — usually batik or plain — folded and tied on the head each time it is worn, without stitching and without a fixed shape. The tyings have names: barangbang semplak, julang ngapak, parekos jengkol, kuda ngencar and others, each with a different fold and a different use.

Because nothing is sewn, one piece of cloth can become any tying, and what a person owns is the cloth while what he commands is the way of tying it. That has consequences for transmission: what passes on is a skill and not an object, and a skill not used leaves no countable trace.

The wearing of the iket nearly ceased by the mid-twentieth century and has been taken up again since the 2000s by Sundanese cultural associations, by some provincial government staff on designated days, and by young people wearing it as a marker of Sundanese identity.

A revival of this kind should be named a revival and not a continuity. The distinction is not a judgement about authenticity but information about the route of transmission: a skill taken up again is learned from someone teaching it deliberately, from books, and from recordings, and not from watching one's father tie it each morning. A different route produces a different repertoire — some tyings once known are not recovered, and some new ones appear.