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Palepai Maju (Ceremonial Banner)

Paminggir artists, Lampung, 18th–19th century. Sumatra, Indonesia.

You are here

Thirty works are on view at a time, ten to a room. Every day at midnight UTC, the ten that have hung longest go back into storage and ten others come out, so each work hangs for three days and then rests for three. A work always returns to the same place on the same wall.

A long horizontal beaded banner with symmetrical designs of stylized creatures and branching forms in white, yellow, red and blue on a dark ground.
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0). Select it for the full size.

This long banner, more than four meters wide, was made by the Paminggir people of Lampung in southern Sumatra, where long ceremonial cloths were hung at important family events such as weddings. This one is worked with thousands of glass and ceramic beads and small shells, sewn onto cloth to make bold, symmetrical designs. Stylized creatures, branching forms and patterned bands are set against a dark ground in white, yellow, red and blue. The beadwork catches light from every angle. A banner like this marked a passage from one stage of life to another. It would have hung behind the people at the center of the occasion, a background that also announced how important that day was.

Look closely

  1. Find a place where the design mirrors itself.
  2. Look for the shells among the beads.
  3. Find a creature. What could it be?

While you sit

A banner hung for the big days of a life. Today can be an ordinary day, and that is fine too.

Your seat in the galleries: a very long teak bench with a beaded saffron runner.

About the work

Title
Palepai Maju (Ceremonial Banner)
Artist
Paminggir artists, Lampung
Date
18th–19th century
From
Sumatra, Indonesia
Medium
Glass and ceramic beads, fiber, cloth, nassa shells
Size
L. 162 x W. 48 1/2 in. (411.5 x 123.2 cm)
Rights
Public domain
Image
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access (CC0)
Record
The museum's page for this work

The words on this page were written for the campus, not taken from the museum's label.

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