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Madura is famous for the intricate and boldly colored designs that are a feature of the art pieces, home decorations and wood carvings produced in the region. One of the most admired art pieces from the island are the ornate carved doors that have graced many a home in the area for decades, even centuries.

However, many villagers from Madura are increasingly losing interest in the traditional-style doors, replacing them with sleek, new, factory-made counterparts. While this may be sad, it is something a lot of people, especially antiques lovers, are grateful for.

“A lot of people in Madura have doors with glass or doors made out of plywood because they look more modern to them,” said Hadi Juana Malik, owner of ILA, a company in Pamekasan, Madura, that sells antique doors and earthenware. “Meanwhile, middle to upper class people in big cities want to go back to the traditional style.”

Hadi found out about this emerging trend when he worked for a company that delivered traditional doors from Madura to customers’ homes in 1991.

“Buyers were mainly from big cities in Java, such as Jakarta, Yogyakarta, Surabaya and from all over Bali,” the 44-year-old said.

“I never imagined that people would be so interested in these doors.”

Using the network he built up as a driver for the company, Hadi decided to start his own business a year later.

Ornate carved doors from Madura, Hadi said, are different from the ones produced on nearby islands.

“The ones you see in Java or Bali have mostly one or two colors, or sometimes just look natural. The most typical color is dark brown,” he said. “However, the doors from Madura are rich in color.

“Our main colors, as you can see in our batik as well, are red, yellow and green. You can see these three colors, and sometimes others, in one set of doors. It is a beautiful combination.”

The carving on Madura doors is also different to the one made in other parts of the archipelago.

“In Java and Bali, they will usually make the same carving design for doors and furniture. The same birds, flowers or dragons can be found on doors and on, say, bed headboards.

“Here, we have a lot of different designs from just one theme, such as birds,” said Hadi who learned to carve from his father when he was just 12 years old.

Most of the old doors are purchased from people in the villages throughout the island’s four districts: Sumenep, Pamekasan, Bangkalan and Sampang. Hadi collects them through agents in those villages but often home owners come to his workshop to sell directly.

Most of the doors, he said, are hundreds of years old. “We don’t make doors so there are no new ones here,” he said. “We do make the sills because those usually break. But for the doors, we mostly just clean them and do not make any changes to maintain the original carving.”

Prices of the doors, Hadi said, depend on the material they are made of — either teak or wood of the jackfruit tree — as well as their age and carving.

“Roughly, we sell doors starting at hundreds of thousands of rupiah while some cost millions of rupiah [tens to hundreds of dollars],” Hadi said.

Despite the fact that his shop is located far from big cities, where most of his customers reside, Hadi does not complain about business. “They are willing to pay extra money to rent a truck or to pay the shipping cost to have the doors delivered to their homes,” he said.

Even though Hadi has been in the business for a while now, he said that the popularity of Madura’s ornate carved doors sometimes still amazes him.

“It is true when they say that the world goes round,” he said. “Those on top want to go to the bottom, and those at the bottom want to know what it feels like to be at the top.”