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INDONESIA artefacts SUMBA mamuli JAVA KRIS handles ORNAMENTS masks

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Batak Priest Diviner Datu Shaman 'magic book PUSTAHA' from island of Sumatra, Indonesia - Toba Batak Datu Ritual Healing Recipe Book
Bark pages.  Buffalo bone covers.
This book preserves the datu priest's knowledge of herbs, medicines, oracle, as well as black and white magic.
Inscribed in ritual language on tree bark with text and drawings, the datu uses pustaha as a reference work or notebook in performing cures and rituals.
The script divided into three categories:
1. the art of preserving life which includes medicine or herbs.
2. the art of destroying life -- black and white magic.
3. the art of fortune-telling, written as oracle to determine auspicious time, 7 days and 7 periods of the day.

​The Batak script is used to write the six Batak languages (Toba, Karo, Dairi, Mandailing, Simalungun and Angkola) spoken collectively by approximately 3 million people on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. It is one of several scripts indigenous to the Indonesian archipelago, descended from the Old Kawi script, which in turn is derived from the Pallava, and ultimately the Brahmi, script.
It is an abugida; its 18 consonant letters each contain an inherent [a] vowel, which is modified by means of diacritics for other vowels. Syllable-final consonants are indicated by means of a pangolat (virama). Consonants do not form conjuncts. Punctuation is not normally used, but a number of bindu characters are used to disambiguate similar words or phrases or to separate sections of text. These marks may each have a number of variants and may perform more of an ornamental than a grammatical function. A further sign (pustaha) exists to separate a title from the following body of text, which normally begins on the same line.
Batak is read from left-to-right. Some have observed it being written vertically bottom-to-top along the length of a piece of bamboo. These bamboo stalks were placed next to each other and bound together with string in such a way as to form a bundle of plates inscribed with horizontal lines of right-running text.
​The script was standardised in the 1850s, and was used in education until the declaration of Bahasa Indonesia as the national language in 1945, since which time literacy and usage has declined. However, something of a Batak renaissance in recent years has led to teaching materials once again being made available for use in schools. (information courtesy of http://scriptsource.org/) 

Batak Medicine Horn
Naga Morsarang Shaman Magical Concoction Container from Sumatra Island. Manang Shamanism.
Shaman's container for magical potions.
Origin : Batak people of Sumatra Island
Early - Mid Twentieth Century
Horn (water buffalo), Wood

Magic horn’s known as Naga Morsarang come in a variety of sizes; this larger example is an impressive work of Batak art. The wooden stopper is beautifully carved; the Singa and riders are conceived in dynamic fashion; as the riders tilt back the Singa push forward giving a sense of movement to the sculpture. The large curved container is also impressive, exhibiting the natural sweep of the horn and is further enhanced with a carved small seated male facing inward on the top of the horn.
To the Batak shaman these objects were sacred, for they held secret and magical concoctions.

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artefacts AFRICAN ornaments

The Kota are noted for their sculptural figures which are called ‘mbulu-ngulu’. They are carved in wood and covered with sheets of brass or copper to increase their power.
Kota figures have very stylized heads and simplified lozenge shaped bodies. Their faces are oval with a convex surface to represent males or a concave surface to represent females.
Some figures have faces on both sides of the head. We call this Kota statues guardian or reliquary figures as they protect the relics of an ancestor that are contained in a box, basket or bundle called the ‘Bwete’. The Kota revere the relics of their ancestors as they believe that they can call on their power to assist them with their troubles in this life.
8 Kota/MaHongwe Reliquary Figure Janus Heads Gabon African
Type of Object Reliquary figure
Country of Origin Gabon, Republic of Congo
People Kota or MaHongwe
Materials wood, copper repousse/ copper alloy sheets
Approximate Age Mid 20th Century 
This is a wonderful piece because of its stylized Janus-headed form. The wildly curved face covered with brass/copper alloy sheeting adds to the beauty of this reliquary figure from the Kota or Mahongwe people from Gabon. This example of the reliquary sculpture is similar to those from the southern Kota-Obamba. Obamba reliquary sculpture is known as "mbulu ngulu", "spirits of the dead" or basket figure.

Ancestor worship formed the core of the Kota peoples' religious and social life. At the death of a chief, parts of his body would be decorated with metal and rubbed with magical powders. These would be kept in baskets surmounted by stylized figures which the Europeans called ""naja"" because they resembled the head of an erect cobra. The figures were covered with copper or brass. At the time of the initiation into the secret society, each clan's chief would dance, holding the reliquary. The reliquaries were kept outside homes, and only the initiates of the lineage had access to this sacred place. The MaHongwe are linked to the Kota but have developed their own style often identified as 'naja', a European term of identification. The brass sheet and narrow strips-covered wooden sculpture were known to the MaHongwe as 'osseyba' and placed on baskets containing the relics of ancestors and to venerate the deceased and recognized members of the lineage. They were used in an ancestor cult known as 'bwete' where the baskets were placed in temples in a village and would generally consist of two figures, one larger than the other.

The larger represented the founder of the lineage and the smaller a descendent of the lineage. Sometimes they were 'janus' faced (that is having faces on both sides of the figure) and would represent the two ancestors on one figure. The formal sculptural presentation of the figures was often enhanced by brass sheets worked in a repousse technique (sheet metal worked by pressure from the rear to form a design) and by brass metal strips worked in design across the face of the sculpture. Numbering about 30,000, the Kota share language and culture with a constellation of smaller ethnic groups living in Gabon and along the western reaches of the People's Republic of the Congo. The focal point of Bwete rituals are reliquary containers made of bark or basketry holding magical objects or the bones of ancestors. On top of these baskets would be placed the often quite abstract metal-covered statues. These figures also served to protect the relics from malicious actions of witches and malefactors and themselves were handled with care and reverence. It is in the stylistic development of the heads where regional and ethnic variations are most apparent. Complete figures will range from approximately 30 to 80 centimeters in height.
Punu masks represent the idealized beauty of Punu women, and should only be carved by Punu men.
They are portrayed with their traditional high-domed hairstyle, diamond- shaped scarification marks on their forehead and they often have eyes that display oriental characteristics. The elaborate Punu hairstyles suggest that the wearer is wealthy as her hair has not been flattened by the need to carry goods.
 

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