Shoulder cloth

Unknown artist

The 'sadum' originated in the southern Batak region. In his dictionary, published in 1861, Van der Tuuk writes about a Mandailing version. The 'sadum' is however also a very important and frequently made cloth in the Angkola-Batak culture area north of Mandailing. The southern Toba Batak weavers made their own versions based on the examples of these cloths. These were very popular in the Silindung valley in the early twentieth century. In the course of the twentieth century, the popularity of these cloths increased so that they also found a place in Toba Batak ritual ceremonies. The use of the cloths also spread further and further in a northern direction. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, versions of the cloth are popular as far north as the Toba, Karo and Simalungun areas.‖ In all cases, the older Toba Batak versions are not easily distinguished. Over the years, the more modern Toba Batak versions become more recognizable as such, but what is certain is that the Toba Batak adopted the motifs, the stripes in the chain direction in the side strips and the colors of the cloth and applied them in their own weaving. \In the middle strip of this cloth, the words 'selamat pakai' (good luck wish for the wearer) are woven into suppletive weft thread. \The beaded pattern border in the fringe ends of the cloth characterize this cloth as originating from Angkola. The red tassels attached to them are also typical.\The cloth is used as a shoulder cloth.\Angkola-Batak 'sadum' fabrics of this type contain some special weaving techniques.\One of these is a kind of kelim technique or weft wrapping technique. This is usually applied to a row of large diamond motifs running from selvedge to selvedge of the cloth. The weaver adds the weft by hand into the warp while the cloth is still hanging in the loom. A thicker 'woolly' thread was used for this purpose (see Jasper and Pirngadie 1912:225, 226; Niessen up/2004, Techniques: Weft wrapping).According to Jasper and Pirngadie (1912:226), beads in the weft are a typical Angkola method of decoration. The beads are strung on the weft and when the weft is added, the weaver places the beads in place between the warp threads.