Back in 14th century, it was Arabian and Indian (Gujarat) merchants who brought this cloth to Indonesia. Later on, sarong in Indonesia has been identical to Muslim culture.
A cultural blend along the coast areas in Indonesia made sarong design more varied. It’s a fusion of Islamic, Javanese, Chinese and Indo-European design. Thus, sarongs in the coastal area have more various color, motif and pattern.
During the Netherlands occupation, sarong was identical to struggle against western culture brought by the colonists. Then, sarong became one of the cultural values symbols in Indonesia.
People used to wear sarongs in kinds of religious, ritual and wedding events. In such events, either men or women used to wear their best traditional cloth with sarong which is full of color and grandeur.