Batik Giriloyo: The Way of Life on a Sheet of Hand-Painted Fabric

Abstract

Prior becoming one of renowned tourist sites in Yogyakarta, Giriloyo was a quiet hilly village in which the people were commonly employed as Sultan’s tomb keepers. Yet, they were able to make batik using hand-painted method, called nyanthing, and fortunately their talent was discovered by the courtiers of Kasultanan Yogyakarta. Since then, people in Giriloyo started to produce handpainted batik and until today various batik motives have been produced in which eight of them belong to primary motives of Kasultanan Yogyakarta. As one of Yogyakarta batik industries, the ups and down occurred including the attack of massive natural disaster, advanced technology used by factories, and the recent pandemic. There are several issues to be revealed in maintaining consistency of authentic product, dealing with the competitors, and struggling during the pandemic. This paper aims to explore the attempts done by the owners, craftsmen, and the community of Batik Giriloyo in surviving the business and preserving cultural values to support cultural tourism in Yogyakarta. In-depth interview with the head of Batik Giriloyo community, the batik owners, and the batik craftsmen was conducted to obtain primary data. The result revealed that the batik owners took time in introducing new business, applied several strategies in maintaining the business, and made important decisions in crucial time. The role of entrepreneurial figure and possible collaboration with related stakeholders are necessary for the business sustainability of Batik Giriloyo as well.