Function and Meaning of Palembang Songket Fapric Decorative Varieties

Songket is a typical Malay cloth, many areas in Sumatra have Songket Cloth. However, of these many areas, Palembang Songket Cloth is the most famous. Palembang's typical songket is famous for its beauty and luxury. Songket itself is a form of high culture from the Sriwijaya era that is full of meaning. Therefore, this research wants to examine more deeply the meaning of various motifs and functions of various types of Songket. This research uses the historical method with stages of heuristics, criticism, interpretation and historiography. It is hoped that the results of this research will provide satisfactory results. The research results show that each motif depicted on a piece of Songket Cloth has its own meaning, this meaning generally describes the greatness of Sriwijaya as a great kingdom.


INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, culture is important for every nation.Because of its culture, a nation has characteristics that differentiate it from other nations.More than that, culture reflects the long history of a community group, which includes skills, beliefs, arts, customs, morals, as well as habits and skills that humans have acquired as members of society.
Indonesia as an archipelagic country has very abundant ethnic wealth.Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency in the population census, it is recorded that Indonesia has ± 1.300 ethnic groups.
Each tribe has its own unique culture which is reflected in customs, beliefs, language, art, food and clothing.
The various ethnic cultures in Indonesia were born due to many things, starting with the topography of the region which has implications for the daily lives of people in it.The fact that Indonesia is an archipelagic country is also the cause of the diversity of culture in Indonesia.

Culture has a very close relationship with
Function and Meaning of Palembang Songket…, Septia Sulia Andini & LR Retno Susanti, 711-722 DOI: 10.24127/hj.v12i2.9778man because culture is a collection of ideas, thoughts and human experiences from time to time which continue to be preserved by a group of people (Made. 2018).This form of culture can take the form of objects, norms, oral speech, writing, food, religious rituals and traditional clothing.Clothing is an important thing for a group of people, because clothing is something that is attached to the human body so that its use often has its own meaning and meaning for each ethnic group (Herlina et al., 2022).The fundamental element of clothing is cloth, and each region in Indonesia has its own unique cloth which usually reflects the long history of that region, such as the songket cloth of the city of Palembang.
Palembang City, South Sumatra, already famous for its rich culture, will start from the preliterate era until the contemporary era, from food until clothes (Annisa, 2022) it is now available to anyone.Even though it was in the past only nobles and rulers who had the opportunity to use songket (Miranda & Dina, 2022).
The word songket comes from the word sungkit, which means "to hook" in Malay and "to gouge" in Indonesian.This planting is based on the process of making the songket cloth itself, namely by taking and attaching a small amount of gold thread, which is then started to be embroidered with woven cloth (Mainur, 2018).
The use of gold thread was done because, in the past, only important people could wear songket, so songket cloth was identified, also known as luxurious woven cloth.Songket weaving is a "tradition carried out by the people of Palembang.Usually, songket cloth is used at celebration parties or receptions (Riski, 2023).A songket is usually worn like a sarong, namely wrapped around the waist, and can also be worn as a shawl worn around the shoulders.
Palembang's typical songket cloth has privileges in comparison with cloth weaving from other regions.Palembang songket cloth depicts the greatness and patience of songket weavers.This is reflected in the materials and complexity of the manufacturing process.In fact, precision is needed to produce highquality songket cloth (Devella & Novia, 2020).Thereby, cloth songket can be said to be one of the legacies of the Sriwijaya Kingdom.
Appropriately A left-behind past culture, songket cloth fiber will have meaning.By simple definition, meaning is an effort to give meaning to something; meaning is not an absolute and static concept that can be found in a message, just like that, with thereby meaning no can appear alone, however meaning that given (Djawad, 2016).In the context of the history of giving meaning, no can be done in an autonomous way; however, it must be based on historical facts.And Culture is identical with symbols; even in a number of literacy programs, culture is interpreted as a series of symbols that are used as a means for humans to adapt and interact with the physical environment and the symbolic environment.Every area owns respective symbols, and this is what happened characteristically, so area 1 may own the same symbol, but it is different in meaning (Hendro et al., 2020).Apart from being functional as a medium for channel-thinking craftsmen, symbols also add aspects of aesthetics to a craft like a cloth songket.
Aesthetics comes from the Greek aisitanesthai, which means "to feel.".The Oxford Dictionary defines aesthetics as "knowledge that comes from the senses" (Natalia et al., 2022).According to Beakley and Chilton, aesthetics can be explained as a pattern related to art that expresses elements such as beauty and positive impressions and, therefore, is closely related to activity and the appreciation of authenticity (Lestari, 2020).

METHOD
In accordance with the objective study this so method that will used in study.This is the method that will be used in the study or method historical.The is carried out through analysis critical to historical method traces of the past The characteristic of the historical method is that it relies more on primary data than secondary data.The aim of the historical method is to reconstruct past events Because of its high price, the songket cloth business has excellent potential for improving the welfare of its craftsmen (Riski, 2023).
Motif By philosophical this motive creates an impression of a woman with simplicity.
Without frills, gold or gems are inherently beautiful creatures.This motif is also used by widows when they want to marry again.
When this Songket cloth is worn by a widow, the widow will look elegant and modest (Resianty, 2015).Lepus is not allowed by people outside the palace, so it was created (Tahrir et al., 2017).

Nampan Perak Motif
. Songket cloth, originating from the city of Palembang, is one of the proofs of culture in the land of Sumatra.Palembang songket cloth is famous for its beauty and luxury.This cloth is identical to the bright red and gold, which are then combined with various patterns.These motifs and patterns are not merely decorative but have a special meaning in them, which connects the traditions and beliefs of the people of Palembang City.Until now, songket cloth has been preserved and guarded from generation to generation.Unfortunately, the rapid movement of the times has given rise to shifts and even a decline in sacred values embedded in the songket cloth.This matter can be seen through use, darling; inside the cloth songket, experts explain meaning in three aspects.Starting from meaning symbolic, meaning aesthetic, as well as meaning philosophical.Diction Symbol comes from the basic verb symbollein in Greek, meaning 'to match; the two parts that are matched are called symbols.Symbols are basically words, objects, or even mutual signs used to interpret things that have happened and understood together (Laksmi, 2010).
A craft-like cloth songket Not only add element aesthetics as decorators, but element aesthetics also have philosophical aspects to each of them.Something historical remains for sure; fiber will have philosophical meaning inside his.Meaning philosophical refers to the result.Of the concept of human thought in assessing a particular object wisely and judiciously.Apart from that, meaning philosophical on songket is business giving meaning in form, material, as well as the pattern displayed on the songket cloth itself.Deep-patterned cloth songkets have very abundant diversity.Patterns this represents the splendor of the Sriwijaya Kingdom; the pattern usually drawn is like flora and fauna patterns.Almost all regions in Indonesia use various decorative flora as a supply of objects for various decorative designs.This is because people can easily find decorative floral motifs in the surrounding area.There are several forms of decorative flora, such as flowers, leaves, seeds, shoots, fruit, roots, twigs, and even trees.Use variety Decorate the flora and fauna inside a cloth songket with its own deep meaning and mark culture within it (Robert, 2021).However mature Many people do not understand or do not know the meaning and history of the cloth songket that alone.So that marks culture from songket that has diminished, ignorance.This is also caused by the increasing development of the times.Now, the usage cloth songket no is again as exclusive as it was during the era of the Sriwijaya Kingdom.Everyone is free to use a cloth songket at big events, regardless of their respective social status.Based on the background behind the research this aim is to examine the function and meaning of variety in ornamental cloth (Palembang songket).Study this only will examine history, meaning, and the value contained in Palembang singket.This is because songket is not only in the city of Palembang; there is also songket from other cities in South Sumatra, so discussion will only be limited by songket originating from Palembang city.Study This is expected to be beneficial for society as a new addition to knowledge of community history.
Figure 1.Nago Besaung motif Source: Private Collection of RM Ali Hanafiah Figure 2. Jando Beraes Motif Source: South Sumatra State Museum Collection

Figure 3 .Figure 5 .
Figure 3. Nampan Perak Motif Source: South Sumatra State Museum Collection pulir, which has a sprinkling of flowers in the form of a straight slope, and the Balinese pulir Bungo Cino, which has flower peaks with broken accents.The name "bali" here refers to 49 in the Palembang language, which means return or return home, referring to the weaving process.When weaving songket with this motif, after pulling the thread to form the motif, the process does not continue downwards but is repeated upwards.This is what makes this motif with flowers in the form of pulir flowers called "bungo cino pulir bali."Many other motifs were developed from these early songket motifs, which add to the richness of Palembang's culture, especially in terms of clothing (Syarofie, 2012).The Bungo Cino motif also adopts a variety of floral decorations, such as those found in the Bungo Pacik motif, using jasmine, rose, and tanjung flower motifs to symbolize welcome and friendliness (Yohannes, 2023).The Bungo Cino songket motif can only be worn by women of Chinese descent who have become Muslims.From this, it can be assumed that songkets of this type and motif were created specifically for people who are not native residents so that they feel recognized as part of Palembang society.This motif is usually worn by women of Chinese descent in Palembang, especially nobles who have married at a young age when attending busy events and mungga brides.During the sultanate, they wore them to attend official events at the palace (Dafril & Nurlaini, 2001).CONCLUSION Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that Palembang songket is a tall cultural form.Songket was born during the Sriwijaya era.This has been proven with found There are songket motifs on several statues from the Sriwijaya period.The presence of motifs such as stars, stripes, bamboo shoots, ferns, and sunflowers, which are geometric and inspired by plants, is clearly visible on these statues.The research results also show if the decorations contained in this cloth pattern reflect human hopes.The diversity in songket can be explained as the result of a cultural acculturation process that involves influences from Malay, Chinese, and Javanese cultures.Weavers take the forms of decoration on songket motifs from descriptions of the environment of the surrounding community, such as mythological stories and the beliefs they adhere to, which are then realized in two types of decoration, namely floral or because they were in accordance with Islamic teachings, which did not allow the use of animal motifs or animate creatures as motifs.