This ceremonial cloth or ‘tampan’ depicts two rows of ancestor or deity figures at the top, and underneath them, two creatures, probably elephants and a ship carrying a house-like structure that represents an ancestral shrine. Ship imagery in Lampung textiles symbolises a spiritual vessel that carries the community through transitions in life. Such ceremonial cloths could be used as gifts, covers for ritual offerings or pillows for the deceased. It is normally woven using the supplementary weft technique, where additional horizontal threads create patterns over the top of the ground weave.
