The ship is a vital symbol associated with the legendary travel of ancestors and the life journeys of individuals. In Sumatra rituals to mark significant events from birth to initiation, marriage and death are accompanied by ship imagery, often in the form of textiles. Large palepai cloths such as this are associated with nobility. Made by women, they were passed down from father to son in high-ranking families.

Here a large elaborate ship carries a fleet of smaller boats as well as two pairs of human ancestor figures atop elephant-like mythological creatures. Also present are bird and tree motifs linking the watery lower world to the upper world of the sky.