Kelantan Artist Finds Home Teaching Batik In Langkawi
Originally from Pasir Mas, Kelantan, she arrived in Langkawi 30 years ago as a tourist but fell so deeply in love with the island’s traditional kampung houses and fishing villages that she decided to make it her permanent home.
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Noris Udin never planned to stay.
Thirty years ago, she arrived in Langkawi as a tourist, drawn by the island’s pristine beaches and emerald waters.
But something about the place captivated her—the traditional kampung houses with their weathered wooden walls, the fishing villages where boats bobbed gently in turquoise lagoons, the unhurried rhythm of island life.
What was meant to be a holiday became a lifetime.
“I came here just for vacation,” Noris says, her hands moving deftly across a piece of white cotton, applying wax in delicate patterns.
But I fell in love with this place. The houses, the fishing villages—everything here is so beautiful. I decided to stay and teach people batik.
From Student to Sought-After Guide
Today, Noris has become something of a local institution on the island.
Armed with skills learned at an arts college in Shah Alam during her youth, the mother of five now works with hotels across Langkawi, including Temple Tree Resort, teaching tourists the ancient art of batik painting.
Her workshops have become a sought-after experience, with visitors eager to learn from someone who has mastered both the technique and the stories behind each design.
Beyond her hotel collaborations, Noris also welcomes tourists at her own Langkawi studio, assembling an intimate space where the art form can be explored in greater depth.
Interestingly, artistic skill seems to run in the family—her husband works at a car painting workshop in Langkawi, bringing his own creative expertise to a different canvas.
Langkawi’s Beauty, Captured in Batik
The inspiration for Noris’s work comes from the very landscape that convinced her to stay.
She draws the traditional houses that dot Langkawi’s countryside, the fishing boats that line its shores, the tropical flora that seems to grow everywhere with wild abundance.
Her designs have found their way into five-star establishments like the Four Seasons and special events such as Lima, bringing a piece of authentic Langkawi to visitors from around the world.
“Batik painting is a way to express love for nature,” she explains.
It’s this philosophy that has inspired a growing number of locals to take up the craft over the past decade, turning what was once a dying art form into a thriving cottage industry.
Bridging Worlds Through Art
For Noris, who hails originally from Pasir Mas in Kelantan—the East Coast state recognised as the cradle of Malaysian batik—the work represents more than just a livelihood, but a passionate preservation of her cultural heritage.
It’s a bridge between cultures, a way of sharing Malaysia’s rich artistic heritage with visitors from across the globe.
In a time where cultural exchange has become increasingly important, her small studio and hotel workshops represent something larger: the power of art to connect people across borders.
As the afternoon sun filters through the windows of a traditional home at Temple Tree Hotel in Pantai Chenang, casting golden light across bolts of fabric waiting to be transformed, Noris continues her patient work with a group of media personnel gathered around her workspace.
Each brushstroke is a love letter to the island that became her home, each design an invitation for others to see Langkawi through her eyes.
Sometimes the best journeys are the ones that never end.
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