Gum Damar is a solid natural resin, white to yellow in colour obtained from the Dipterocarpaceae family of trees in Indonesia. It is readily soluble in spirits and gives very pale films with high gloss, impermeable and excellent colour stability.

Typically used in lacquers to produce gloss and provide adhesive properties, it is also an ingredient in varnishes, emulsion and painting mediums. It is a water resistant coating, sometimes also used for its glazing functionality, and found in the indigenous system of medicine.

Dammar is used in foods, as a clouding or glazing agent, and in incense, varnish and other products. Dammar varnish, made from dammar gum mixed with turpentine, was introduced as a picture varnish in 1826; commonly used in oil painting, both during the painting process and after the painting is finished.

Dammar crystals are also dissolved in molten paraffin wax to make batik, to prevent the wax from cracking when it is drawn onto silk or rayon.

Damar crystals are disolved into beeswax wih pigment added to harden it in order to make encaustic paints.

Dammar resins were often used in the past to caulk ships, frequently together with pitch or bitumen.