This is a South Sumatran baju kurung (long tunic), made with red silk and cotton songket textile with weft gold-wrapped thread. This artefact showcases a vanishing art form of South Sumatran origin. Songket textiles are divided into 5 main practices and forms and its production is generally seen as critical to the landscape from where it originates; primarily, the songket of South Sumatra (from Palembang), is one of the main centers of songket production and is key to songket-making history, arguably going as far back as the times of the Srivijayan empire (circa 7th to 13th century). This particular songket consists of repeated stylized flower blossom motifs in a grid pattern at its front and back. This tunic, owing to its specific material culture and eye-catching motifs, paints a picture of a wider Nusantara trade history.
