A blangkon ( Javanese: ) or belangkon (in

Indonesian Indonesian is anything of, from, or related to Indonesia, an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. It may refer to: * Indonesians, citizens of Indonesia ** Native Indonesians, diverse groups of local inhabitants of the archipelago ** Indonesian ...

) is a traditional Javanese headgear worn by men and made of batik fabric. There are four types of blangkons, distinguished by the shapes and regional

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

nese origin: Ngayogyakarta,

Surakarta Surakarta ( jv, ꦯꦸꦫꦏꦂꦠ), known colloquially as Solo ( jv, ꦱꦭ; ), is a city in Central Java, Indonesia. The 44 km2 (16.2 sq mi) city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoh ...

, Kedu, and

Banyumas Banyumas ( jv, ꦧꦚꦸꦩꦱ꧀, formerly spelt "Banjoemas") Regency is a regency ( id, kabupaten) in the southwestern part of Central Java province in Indonesia. Its capital is the town of Purwokerto, but that town no longer has a central adm ...

an.

History

It is believed that blangkon may be as old as the

Javanese script The Javanese script (natively known as ''Aksara Jawa'', ''Hanacaraka'', ''Carakan'', and ''Dentawyanjana'') is one of Indonesia's traditional scripts developed on the island of Java. The script is primarily used to write the Javanese langu ...

, and inspired from the

legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

ary story of

Aji Saka Aji Saka is a Javanese legend that tells the story of how civilization came to Java, brought by the legendary first king of Java named Aji Saka, and the mythical story of the origin of Javanese script. Origin Aji Saka is said to have come from B ...

. In the story,

defeated Dewata Cengkar, a giant who owned the land of

, by spreading a giant piece of headdress that could cover the entire land of

was also believed to be the founder of the

Javanese calendar The Javanese calendar ( jv, ꦥꦤꦁꦒꦭ꧀ꦭꦤ꧀ꦗꦮ, Pananggalan Jawa) is the calendar of the Javanese people. It is used concurrently with two other calendars, the Gregorian calendar and the Islamic calendar. The Gregorian calendar is ...

. There are another theory stating that the use of blangkon is absorbed by the Javanese due to the influence mixture of local Hindu and

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

ic culture. The

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s traders who entered

were people from various places including mainland

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

and

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

i regions, and the blangkon is believed to be adapted from

turban A turban (from Persian دولبند‌, ''dulband''; via Middle French ''turbant'') is a type of headwear based on cloth winding. Featuring many variations, it is worn as customary headwear by people of various cultures. Communities with promine ...

s, but this theory is irrelevant because the story of

itself predates the arrival of

Gallery

File: Pakaian adat jawa1.jpg, The Javanese traditional attire for men is always worn with the Blangkon and accompanied by a

Kris The kris, or ''keris'' in the Indonesian language, is an asymmetrical dagger with distinctive blade-patterning achieved through alternating laminations of iron and nickelous iron (''pamor''). Of Javanese origin, the kris is famous for its disti ...

File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van een assistent-ambtenaar te Pasoeroean TMnr 10001911.jpg, Man wearing a tied version of blangkon File:Megawati family.jpg, Fifth Indonesian President Megawati and her family File:Portrait of Raden Saleh, 1863 - 1866 - Rijksmuseum.jpg, Raden Saleh, a famous Indonesian painter in the colonial era File:Ngayogyakarta-style blangkon, 2015-05-17 03.jpg, Ngayogyakarta-style blangkon File:COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Portret van een jongeman (lokale bestuurder) Probolinggo TMnr 10001910.jpg, Colonial young man wearing blangkon

External links

Java Heritage - Blangkon
Hats Headgear Javanese culture Indonesian clothing {{clothing-stub