Transformation of mengkuang weaving motifs

Craft is one of the elements that require understanding and appreciation for those who are involved in heritage site. The documentation data of craft is essential in order to understand its culture of a certain places and to preserve the benefits for the Malaysian heritage for the present and future generation. In Malaysia, there are many types of crafted goods that have been made by the ancestors such as weave (mengkuang and songket), weapon making (keris), dance (mak yong), pottery, woodcarving and others. In Malay traditional craft, motif acts as a messenger to deliver the thinking of the artisan because the motif itself contains inner meaning, the use and philosophy which can benefit, give a lesson and reminder to Malay society. The aim of this paper is to focus on 15 out of 51 motifs of mengkuang including their four main elements which are flora, fauna, abstract and people’s name. This study measured the transformation of shape attributes of weaving motifs and the size of the motifs. The results suggested that the types of motifs of mengkuang determined were influenced by environments and socio-cultural aspects of the Malay society