This man’s mantle, known as ‘hinggi’, depicts in the upper and lower bands, confronting horses which provided transport and were part of the bride-price wealth. The following rows depict skull trees, where skulls were hung after headhunting tips. Man’s mantle was wrapped around the hips and was used to cover the corpse at death. Such cloth dyed with red dye was the prerogative of the noble class in Sumbanese society, and were only dyed by women of the nobility who retained the secret of red dyeing. This textile was woven by the ‘warp ikat’ technique where vertical threads were tied and dyed.
