Home of court batik
Yogyakarta
The royal city of central Java, whose classic batik is drawn in brown, indigo and white.
Why Yogyakarta is soga brown
Yogyakarta is a city in central Java ruled by a sultan, whose palace, the kraton, remains a centre of Javanese arts. It is one of the homes of batik, cloth patterned by drawing on it with hot wax before dyeing. The wax keeps dye out; it is boiled off and reapplied for each colour. Classic court batik here uses three colours: deep indigo blue, a warm brown from the bark of the soga tree, and the clean white of the cloth. Certain patterns, such as the diagonal parang, were once reserved for the royal family. Batik from the north coast is far brighter. UNESCO recognised Indonesian batik as intangible cultural heritage in 2009.
Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.
Colours tied to Yogyakarta
Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Yogyakarta" on Wikipedia. If you know Yogyakarta and we have it wrong, tell us.
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The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.