This ceremonial cloth or ‘tampan’ depicts a ship carrying creatures with stylised tails. It also features house-like structures that probably represent ancestral shrines. 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.
