Exotic Tenun Gringsing from Tenganan village, Bali

Many of us know exactly how exotic Bali is with its beaches, cultural, arts and craftsmanships - but few only know about the weaving traditions exist in Bali other than Songket.

In Tenganan village - in east Bali - is known as the oldest village - where the oldest & real natives of Bali Aga society lived there before Majapahit era. Their weaving (Tenun) called Gringsing is very unique and known as Double Ikat cloth, not found anywhere else in Indonesia. 

The gringsing is known as double ikat, because, unlike other textiles, both warp and weft threads are dyed in complex patterns before weaving – the final design is achieved by combining these threads’ patterns into carefully preconceived ornamental form. This is an extremely complex and time consuming process

There are about 20 varieties of gringsing in Tenganan, with motifs such as the lubeng, cemplong, wayang and sanan empeg. The word Gringsing -Gring derived from the word meaning 'sick' and -Sing meant "no", therefore Gringsing means to avoid pain. 

Picture: Gringsing weaving, cemplong motifs

Gringsing motif that forms a plus sign describes the philosophy of life for people in Tenganan, the "balance", just like the Swastika, a symbol of balance in Balinese Hinduism. There are only 3 colours are in Gringsing: white or yellow represents air or oxygen, the red symbolise heat or energy, and black symbolise water.

Exotic! that's the word for Gringsing Bali weaving !