A lovely wastra cepuk just came to us from a local collection. The condition and colour are perfect, and the ikat patterns in the centre have a lot of life and movement. One of the most interesting texts on cepuk is a paper by Marie-Louise Nabholz-Kartaschoff, "Sacred Cloth of Rangda: Kamben Cepuk of Bali and Nusa Penida," which was published in Gittinger's To Speak With Cloth. You can buy the book here.

Cepuk echo the appearance of patola double-ikat trade textiles from India, which were long considered to have magical powers throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Similarly, cepuk are still believed to have strong protective qualities and are used in various ceremonies in Bali, most prominently in the Calonarang dance-drama, which is a mass catharsis ritual involving not only the performers, but the whole community.