Batik Day

Quick! It's not too late for you to find your favorite batik garment and wear it in celebration of UNESCO's declaration of batik as a unique part of Indonesian heritage. An interesting piece of subtext is that Indonesia has been annoyed by Malaysia's attempts to claim batik as its own to use it for tourism and advertising. Apparently, Malaysia is looking into the UNESCO issue.

Whomever it "belongs" to, President Yudhoyono called on Indonesians to wear batik today to celebrate. And since IPEKA participated, too, I wore my batik blouse from Jogjakarta today instead of my boring white uniform one.

I also slept under my double-sided batik quilt, which makes me happy every time I look at it and its glorious patchwork of colors and patterns.

If you're interested in learning more about batik, this is a great site to check out, complete with the step by step process.