Yogyakarta known as a tourist destination with many options of tourism theme. Culture tourism as one of the favourite education tourism in Yogyakarta, offer Giriloyo as a tourism village with batik as the main craft original product. Batik technique is originated from Indonesia which has produced so many artistic cloth. Giriloyo is one of the villages that has still preserved the tradition of batik making.
With so many tourist spots, Yogyakarta has always been busy at the holiday or break period at the end of the year. Local or even foreign tourists would come and visit the spots such as beaches, hills, the City of Yogyakarta including the tourism village. Not all the village can be visited as a tourist destination, but there are villages with some local product that is worth it to visit.
Giriloyo batik village as one of the oldest batik central in Yogyakarta has offer culture, product, workshop and beauty which has attractiveness for tourists to visit. For more experience, some history of batik for you to identify will concluded. Here are some information about batik, the village and how to get there.
Batik Craft
Batik making has been a tradition in Indonesia. Although, some other countries have their own batik products, Indonesia may be the best known. The word batik is identical as Javanese language. In Javanese, batik is consists from word “ambha” and “titik” which means drawing dots. The cloth is painted begin from dots then drawn into pattern.
Batik making process is by applying wax-resist dye on the plain cloth with a spouted tool called canting. The other tool is called as cap, which is cooper stamp that already has a pattern. The choice of the tools are depend on the design that has decided by the artist. Yogyakarta in particular has it own batik pattern whom people in Indonesia usually will recognise.
The origin of the tradition of batik in the Yogyakarta region began during the Islamic Mataram empire in the four half of the 16th century, the center of which is located around the Kotagede and Pleret regions. However, it is still limited in the royal family environment which is done by court ladies.
In its development, the tradition of batik extended to other court circles, namely the wives of courtiers and soldiers. When the people found out about the beautiful patterned cloth, they gradually imitated it and batik traditions began to spread in the community. The villages adjacent to the graveyard complex of Sultan Agung royal family, more than a century ago had reliable batik craft women.
You can learn the batik making, the process and the variation of pattern of Yogyakarta batik when visiting Giriloyo batik village. Although this village is popular by batik as it traditional craft, the village still offer another attraction such nature, historical sites and traditions for tourists to learn.
Giriloyo Village
Most of the local know this place as royal graveyard complex of Yogyakarta Sultanate. It contains graveyard of Sultan Agung Mataram, the first Sultan of Mataram and many of the relatives. This complex often visits by tourists and local as they tradition.
The graveyard is unique building which represent traditional graveyard building of royal family of Yogyakarta Sultanate. It’s not like any local or civil graveyard that we have seen. For visiting this graveyard complex, visitors must follow some of the rules from juru kunci, or the authority of the graveyard complex. The rules are part of the original tradition of Yogyakarta.
The village is also popular as the first manufactures of lurik and clinic of nasal irrigation treatment practice. Lurik is traditional clothes of Yogyakarta that has special pattern. In fact, lurik is the word of the clothes pattern name itself. Whilst the clinic of nasal irrigation treatment practice is began once due to the issues of widespread respiratory illnesses contracted in Java.
How To Get There
Giriloyo is a hamlet located under Wukirharjo Village, Imogiri District, Bantul Regency, Yogyakarta Province. Under the foot of the Imogiri hill which is famous for the graveyard complex of Sultan Agung royal family of Islamic Mataram. To reach Giriloyo hamlet is easy because it is not far from Giwangan Central Terminal.
For travel routes taken from the city of Jogja, you can head south to Jalan Imogiri. Take Imogiri Road east to south leading to the Graveyard of the King of Cirebon. After meeting the direction of the Tomb of Sunan Cirebon, head east to find the direction of the Giriloyo Batik Village.
Price for Admission
For the prices charged here is depends on the activities you do. One of the activities that you can do is take a batik workshop. If you are interested in learning to make batik in Giriloyo Village with an experienced traditional batik expert, you can take a tour with a Yogyakarta tours that serves tourist trips in Yogyakarta