Malay Women in Kedah (circa 1937 – 1939)

Pictures of a group of ladies in Kedah between 1937-1939, interestingly, captured by Egon Freiherr von Eickstedt, the German anthropologist who classified humanity into races. There was no information on the photographs but in one of them, we could clearly see one of the ladies holding a hospital appointment card.

We were pretty excited to see the lady standing in the middle donning tiedyed kain pelangi, also called kain rawa, as her kain dagang luar. Much older than hand-blocked batik, kain pelangi existed in Terengganu since the reign of Sultan Zainal Abidin II ibni [Al-Marhum] Sultan Mansur Riayat Shah I (1773-1808).

cottonandsago.com