The body of this cloth is woven from plain, reddish brown ramin, a special plant fibre, with a silk weft. The ends bear richly woven gold supplementary weft panels with stacked rows of different motifs which the Minangkabau say communicate cultural norms and ideals. For instance the ‘balah kacang’ motif, which literally means ‘divided groundnut’, looks like rows of large lozenges and illustrates the ideal of sharing. Such cloths were normally worn as elaborately folded headdresses which varied from locale to locale within the region. Draped over the shoulder, the cloth could also function as a shoulder cloth or 'salendang.'
