As is tile Custom the world over, textiles are used to make articles Significant of clothing, in particular clothes worn on festive occasions both sad 'If textiles and gay, for ceremonies, as well as clothes worn to identify the wearer as a member of a certain class or as holder of a certain rank.

But what makes these textiles so immensely significant is the special part they play in many ceremonies and customs in the life of the Indonesian peoples. Certain fabrics have a sacral and/or ceremonial function to fulfill at birth and death, at important events such as circumcision and filing of the teeth, in customs connected with marriage, as well as in certain rites observed when planting rice.

The Indonesian envisages not only the world of nature as male and female, but also the whole cosmos, including material objects. Sun and heaven are the masculine counterparts of moon and earth. Textiles represent die female element, whereas weapons. on the other band, represent the male element; when both are combined (with die weapon generally being a spear, or its harmless substitute, a long stick), this becomes a symbol of the universe as a whole. The carrying of flags and pennons, which is generally considered as merely a festival ornament or a means of expressing joy on some special occasion, thus acquires a symbolic significance in the truest sense of the word.