Heirloom Beads from the Island of Sumba

I've been doing some research on the orange heirloom
beads that we purchased on Sumba.....thought I'd pass this
along.  Please note the disclaimer at the bottom of the email.

Tawna



Mutisalah are known as heirloom beads in the Indonesian islands 
of Timor, Flores,Sumba, and Suwa (also known as Nusa Tenggara Timur 
or NTT).  The term Mutisalah has been debated over the recent past.
Some scholars have claimed that Mutisalah are wound coil beads from 
China, others have claimed that they are orange to reddish-brown 
drawn Indo-Pacific beads.

The word "muti" (moeti in Old Dutch) is derived from the 
Dravidian/Sanskrit "mukta", which means pearl.   And "Salah" 
means false.  So Mutisalah means "false pearl" or simply bead.

Other names for beads on these islands are:
Mutibatta, which is "brick pearl", referring to the orange color
  of the beads (bricks are orange in this part of the world).
Mutitanah, "earth pearl", referring to the reddish brown earth color.
Mutiraja, "the King's pearl"

In modern bead terms, the Mutiraja are wound coil beads from China,
while the Mutibatta and Mutitanah are drawn Indo-Pacific beads, made
in many places.

From an interview with Prince Umbu Darius, of the royal family of Sumba:
There are two classes of Mutisalah.  One, the Mutiraja, is worn (and
touched) only by royalty.  These lead-glass Chinese "coil" beads
are reddish-brown or orange, shiny, and heavy in weight.  There 
are larger ones (1.5-3cm) in diameter which are found only on Sumba 
and are very rare; the Mutiraja used all over NTT are quite small.  
The other class is known as Mutibatta (orange) or Mutitanah (red brown). 
They are drawn soda-lime glass beads, somewhat larger than Mutiraja, 
dull in lustre, and are not heavy.  These Indo-Pacific beads 
and are the beads of commoners.  

Not only are Mutiraja and Mutitanah/Mutibatta heirloom beads 
owned by different classes of people, they circulate as heirlooms 
in distinctly different manners in the Indonesian culture. 

For example, the commoner's heirloom beads (Mutitanah/Mutibatta) 
are given by the groom to the bride's family as brideprice and 
handed down to the sons of the family.

The royal's heirloom beads (Mutiraja) are worn as necklaces by 
young princesses, and after marriage as bracelates, anklets, 
and rings. (in the old days they were also sewn onto clothes).  
The bride's family gives them to the groom in exchange for 50 
to 100 carabao or horses and some gold.  The bride wears the 
beads and passes them on to her daughter.  The beads are 
worn on special occasions. If the royal family does not wish to attend 
some ceremony, they may send a servant wearing the beads.  The 
servant wears either a "Kahanga Hupu", a single strand around the 
neck and four long strands reaching to the ground terminated with 
gold coins or a "Papiarang", which is similar but a double strand.  
The beads, rather than the servant, appear to be the true surrogates.  
At death, royal corpses are buried with the beads.


A question that has puzzled many is:  Why did the relatively newer 
coil beads (Mutiraja) become the more valued Mutisalah, while the 
older Mutibatta and Mutitana (indo-pacific beads) are less valuable?  
The answer lies in the patterns of trade throught Southeast Asia 
and Indonesia in particular.  Though coil beads became quite common 
in Sumatra, Java, and Borneo after about AD 1200, there is little 
evedence of Chinese trade to the outer, dryer, less rich islands 
of the archipelago.  There was virtually no Chinese contact with 
the area until the Ming dynasty (beginning in 1368).  It is likely 
that the opaque orangish or reddish-brown coil beads were introduced 
into NTT while there was still little contact with Chinese traders, 
who found few goods worth their time to acquire.  The Indo-Pacific beads 
were already well established, having been brought for centuries by Malay
traders and manufactured in Srivijaya.  Infrequent visits with
the rare exchange of Mutiraja coil beads may well explain their
scarcity compared to the older Indo-Pacific beads.

Indo-Pacific beads are thought to have originated in southern India,
and later production spread to other parts of Asia.  A major 
Southeast Indo-Pacific beadmaking center was Srivijaya, from as 
early as the 7th century.  Other sites were located in Malaysia and 
Thailand during the 9th century.  When the Srivijayan empire collapsed 
in the 13th century, the Srivijayan Indo-Pacific bead industry also 
collapsed, never to be revived in the region.

The small, tiny coil beads (Mutiraja) are Chinese, but it is not 
certain where they were produced (with the exception of the 14th
century colony Temaresk in Singapore).  They were very popular, however;
and by the 13th century (after the fall of the Srivijayan empire), 
they had replaced Indo-Pacific beads. 




Source: 
Please note that often the Margaretologist was directly
quoted, other times paraphrased.  Any errors are due to my
typing and paraphrasing skills (or lack thereof!).

The Margaretologist, the official journal of
The Center for Bead Research
4 Essex Street
Lake Placid, NY 12946
Material referenced:
Vol 2 #3 1989
Vol 5 #2 1992
Vol 5 #1 1992
Vol 6 #2 1993