Innovation

Located in Palbatu Street, Tebet, South Jakarta, Palbatu Batik Village (Kampoeng Batik Palbatu) is becoming the most unique eco-tourism destination in Jakarta, the capital City of Indonesia. Batik Village is intended to increase the awareness of Batik as a National Heritage.

Palbatu Batik Village was established in 2011, out of the concern of preserving Indonesian intangible heritage. Iwan and Hari - the initiators of Palbatu Batik Village - are interested in maintaining and developing Batik heritage. Starting with little knowledge of what to do, they began to try out small ideas. The goal was to introduce Batik to people who do not know about it. First, they introduced the typical Batik patterns by teaching the Palbatu communities on how to do Batik painting. The other idea was to create a Batik Village in Jakarta. In the capital city of Indonesia, it is not easy to find a Batik Village. Generally Batik Villages are located in remote areas, far away from Jakarta. In order to create a Batik Village, they brought craftsmen skilled in drawing batik from Central Java and East Java to Palbatu, and taught the community on how to draw batik. Now Jakarta has an incredible Batik village: Palbatu Batik Village.

Inspiration

The initiators of Palbatu Batik Village are Iwan and Heri. Iwan mentioned: "I am really sad that the Indonesian people rarely understand about their own cultural heritage specifically the Batik tradition. If nothing is being done, then soon the future generation will only be consumers of imported printed batik from overseas, and lost their precious tradition of high quality Batik painting".

Iwan and Heri started investing their own money to teach the community about this art. They created a forum called Communication Forum for Palbatu Batik Village Development. This forum is established to promote the Batik cultural heritage and involve companies and communities as members. They also invited batik craftsmen from the Center of Java to train the Palbatu community on how to draw batik. This training is for community members who want to develop their skills in this typical form of art. However, they also could teach and train people from the surrounding communities who want to have a unique experience in drawing batik. What Iwan and Heri have done is attracting the community surrounding Palbatu to understand the beautiful art of Batik painting and become a part of the movement to preserve the Batik painting cultural heritage.

Thanks to the enthusiasm of the creators, Iwan and Heri, and the collaboration of the community, Palbatu is now becoming the first 'Batik Viilage', in Jakarta

Overall impact

"This represents a new Business Model for Palbatu Batik Village" said Iwan when explaining how the Batik Village can have a positive impact on the community.

First, he said that the craftsmen were brought from Central Java. They taught and trained the community. Iwan said: "When introducing and teaching batik, we help the individuals in the community to earn money from drawing batik. We hope that the local (Palbatu) craftsmen become economically independent people. For this reason, we don't charge for the training. This is our responsibility to the community. By developing the people's skills in Batik, we have added value to the community."

He also explained: "It is not only about sharing the knowledge. The Management of Palbatu Village also buy the batik made by the community by paying a fair price. We do not treat the trained community or craftsmen as our employees, nor our labor. They are actually our partners. The Palbatu business concept is modeled after a Sharing Economy Transfer of Knowledge Concept."

Not surprisingly, we can see how knowledge transfer is working in the Palbatu Batik Village. The Palbatu community now has opened a School of Batik. This is a good initiative and approach to preserve Indonesian heritage. Everybody flourishes in the process.

Business benefit

Currently Palbatu Batik Village helps the craftsmen to earn money. But they realize that they can not work by themselves. They also cooperate with other institutions, individuals, or companies, who act as sponsors. The sponsorship is to help the funding of the training of Batik to other communities, to enlarge their Batik Painting suppliers. By doing so, the Palbatu Batik Village and the companies, individuals, and institutions join in a similar mission: to preserve the Indonesian heritage. The plan is to make Palbatu more independent in the near future.

Companies are only sponsoring training for individuals that want to become Batik painting craftsmen but cannot afford the instruction.

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Social and environmental benefit

Palbatu Batik Village has never shifted from their main purpose which is preserving the heritage. Besides that, Palbatu Batik Village is trying to use natural materials in the coloring process. There are plenty of natural resources that they can use as a colouring material. Mengkudu leaf, guava leaf, manggis leaf, and also coffee beans. These natural materials are extracted in order to get the pure nature colour. The best reason using natural coloring in batik process is to have a positive ecological footprint, which helps save the planet.

More people are becoming independent by earning income from this Batik painting business, at the same time they understand more about the eco-friendly process of Batik painting.

Interview

Budi Dharmawan, The Initiator of Palbatu Batik Village