Batik plays multiple roles in the culture of Indonesia. The wax resist-dyeing technique has been used for centuries in Java, and has been adopted in varying forms in other parts of the country. Java is home to several batik museums.

On 2 October 2009, UNESCO inscribed written batik (batik tulis) and stamped batik (batik cap) as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity from Indonesia. Since then, Indonesia has celebrated a Batik Day (Hari Batik Nasional) annually on 2 October. In the same year, UNESCO recognized education and training in Indonesian Batik as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

The art of batik is most highly developed in the island of Java, although the antiquity of the technique is difficult to determine since batik pieces rarely survive long in the region's tropical climate. The Dutch historians Rouffaer & Juynboll argue that the technique might have been introduced during the 6th or 7th century from India or Sri Lanka. The similarities between some traditional batik patterns with clothing details in ancient Hindu-Buddhist statuaries, for example East Javanese Prajnaparamita, has made some authors attribute batik's creation to Java's Hindu-Buddhist period (8th-16th century AD). Some scholars however object that mere similarity of pattern is not conclusive of batik, as it could be made by a number of non-related techniques. Further, as the word "batik" is not attested in any pre-Islamic sources, there is also the view that batik only flourished at the end of Java's Hindu-Buddhist period, from the 16th century onward following the demise of Majapahit kingdom.

The oldest physical Javanese batik piece to have survived so far is a 700 year old blue-white valance in the private collection of Thomas Murray. The batik's quality and early Majapahit period carbon-dating suggest that sophisticated batik techniques already existed at the time, but competed with the more established ikat textiles. Batik craft further flourished in the Islamic courts of Java in the following centuries.

Batik technique became more widely known (particularly by Europeans) when Javanese batik was described for the first time in Thomas Stamford Raffles's 1817 The History of Java, which also marked the beginning of collecting and scholarly interest in batik traditions. In 1873 the Dutch merchant Van Rijckevorsel gave the pieces he collected during a trip to Indonesia to the ethnographic museum in Rotterdam. Examples were displayed at the Exposition Universelle at Paris in 1900. Today the Tropenmuseum houses the biggest collection of Indonesian batik in the Netherlands.

In the 19th to early 20th century, Dutch Indo–Europeans and Chinese settlers were actively involved in the production and development of Javanese batik, particularly pesisir "coastal" batik in the northern coast of Java, especially developed in Pekalongan City, Batik Elhasiq. They introduced innovations such as cap (copper block stamps) to mass-produce batiks, synthetic dyes which allow brighter colors, and new patterns which blended a number of cultural influences. Several prominent batik ateliers appeared, such as Oey Soe Tjoen and Eliza van Zuylen, and their products catered to a wide audience in the Malay archipelago (encompassing modern Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore). Batik skirts and sarongs for example were widely worn by indigenous, Chinese, and European women of the region, paired with the ubiquitous kebaya shirt. Batik was also used for more specialized application, for example peranakan altar cloth called 桌帷 tok wi. It is in this time period that the influence of Javanese batik spread. In Subsaharan Africa, Javanese batik was introduced in the 19th century by Dutch and English merchants. It was subsequently modified by local artisans with larger motifs, thicker lines, and more colours into what is now known as African wax prints. Modern West African versions also use cassava starch, rice paste, or mud as a resist. In the 1920s, Javanese batik makers migrating to the eastern coast of Malay Peninsula introduced batik production using stamp blocks.

Many traditional ateliers in Java collapsed immediately following the Second World War and Indonesian wars of independence, but many workshops and artisans are still active today creating a wide range of products. They still continue to influence a number of textile traditions and artists. In the 1970s for example, batik was introduced to Australia, where aboriginal artists at Ernabella have developed it as their own craft. The works of the English artist Thetis Blacker were influenced by Indonesian batik; she had worked in Yogyakarta's Batik Research Institute and had travelled in Bali.

As each region of Indonesia has its own traditional pattern, batiks are commonly distinguished by the region they originated in, such as batik Solo, batik Yogyakarta, Pekalongan, and batik Madura. Batiks from Java can be distinguished by their general pattern and colours into batik pedalaman (inland batik) or batik pesisiran (coastal batik). Batiks which do not fall neatly into one of these two categories are classified by their region. A clustering of batik designs from all parts of Indonesia by degree of similarity indicates a history of cultural assimilation.