Designing Dua Negeri (Two Countries) Batik Influenced by Indonesia and Thailand Shared Culture to Enrich the Batik Repertoire in Both Countries

Abstract

The study aimed to explore knowledge about the shared culture between Thailand and Indonesia, the story of Garuda and batik traditions, and develop a new cultural product that represents the two cultures visually in the form of batik based on the findings. Samples were determined purposively from the Mother-Inlay-Pearl doors of the Emerald Buddha Temple at the Grand Palace Bangkok and the Semen Agung Sawat Garuda batik from the collection of King Chulalongkorn. This qualitative-descriptive and comparative study used a compositional interpretation approach to analyze the symbolic meaning of visual styles and text semiotics. The analysis could help develop batik with the Dua Negeri concept based on previous studies, batik expert interviews, and visual experiments. The idea is that one piece of batik displays visual styles from two countries. This study showed that Indonesia and Thailand have a shared culture influenced by Hindu Buddhism due to trade, culture, diplomacy, and kinship relations. Both countries have batik traditions, and each has a distinctive visual style. Therefore, the proposed new Dua Negeri batik design is expected to enrich the batik repertoire in both countries and strengthen cultural relations by respecting each other’s cultures.