Gringsing woven cloth is a handmade woven cloth originating from Tenganan village, Karangasem Regency, eastside of Bali island. This Gringsing cloth is made out of natural dyes which may take months even years to develop the cloth. The word Gringsing is derived from two words Gring which means not and sakit which means pain so the word Gringsing has a meaning "no pain", that is why Gringsing cloth is used on ritual ceremonies it is believed that when using the cloth, there wont be any pain and would be protected from evil spirits. The original Gringsing cloth can only be found in Tenganan village, it is also said that this kind of weaving technique can only be done by three countries in the world, they are Japan, india and Indonesia (Tenganan).
The colors of the thread are all from natural coloring. The red color originates from the roots of Mengkudu (noni fruit) trees, yellow from candle nut oil and black color is made from the mixture of indigo and red taum grass. First, the thread is soaked in a candle nut oil, minimal for 40 days, it may also be soaked for more than a year because the thread would have a better quality when it is soaked longer. The candle nut oil is exchanged every 24-29 days. After the thread is soaked, it would be dyed with natural coloring, when all the threads are dyed, the weaving process (without machine) starts which takes about one week for a small piece and 2 months for a large size.
Gringsing woven cloth is different to any other woven cloth, it shows stronger color as it gets older due to the natural process. One piece of a small sized Gringsing cloth is priced about Rp. 1 million and for the larged sized cloth is priced between Rp 5 million to Rp 30 million each. Many foreign tourists come to Tenganan village to see the process of making this Gringsing woven cloth.
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