This textile is another wonderful example of Indian cloths brought to Sulawesi, Indonesia, as part of the elaborate Indian Ocean trade network popularly known as the Spice Trade. Once in Indonesia, these valuable trade cloths were elevated to the position of sacred heirloom textiles and were passed down through generations. Consequently, in the Toraja area of Sulawesi a cache of Indian trade cloths brought by the Spice Trade have survived—the earliest known examples dating to the late 13th and 14th centuries. While the design of the parade of dancing women is distinctively Indian, both the pattern and technique of mordant-block printing were commonly traded to Sulawesi. With this technique, the motifs were first block-printed with a mordant and then submerged in the red dye bath. The blue and ocher dyes were later hand painted. In contrast to the completely hand-painted palampore made for European market (found on the entry wall of this exhibition), this was a considerably less time-consuming and less expensive process.