The Changing Season
Early dry season at the cotton field in Kerek village.
Our Java trip that took place this May took us to five areas; Bangkalan, Tuban, Surakarta, Wonogiri, and Temanggung. Out of those places, Tuban stood out the most with its cotton that is closely connected to farming.
Getting our lunch at the farm.
Farmers in Tuban grow cotton alongside corn, snake beans, rice, and polo pendem, which is cassava and sweet potatoes. Their life revolves around farming, weaving, and making batik. Unlike other batik makers in Java that begin their process with nyungging, where they make the pattern on paper, batik makers in Tuban start from picking the cotton from the field.
Spinning Tuban's lowo brown cotton.
In Tuban, cotton comes in two colors. Lawe, for the white cotton and lowo for the brown cotton, which shares the same meaning as bat because the brown color of the cotton is similar to the shade of bats’ fur.
We went there to see cotton fields that for a couple of years have experienced failures caused by pests and seasonality. After that, the cotton that we found there was neither lawe nor lowo. Instead, it was a mixture of both; white and brown in the yarn. This variation is a result of the short proximity between each cotton farm. In an ideal situation, it needs a minimum of 5 kilometers distance from one farm to the other. Especially when it comes to the white and brown cotton. However, with many factors such as pests, seasonality, and more land being used for a cement factory, there is not enough land to plant lawe and lowo the right distance apart.
Homegrown cotton planted next to chili pepper.
Freshly picked cotton bolls on a tampah winnowing tray.
A comparison of the brown yarn and the white-brown yarn.
What we found on our recent trip was the flowers of cotton, blossoming during mangsa terang, the dry season where cottons grow that falls in May through early August. The cottons were still planted very close - less than 1 kilometer from one another - resulting in the light brown buds with patches of white color. “This is still not the ideal distance, but let’s see what we’ll get next year when we come back”, said I Made Maduarta.
