Subject: datu / guru shaman
Culture: Batak
Setting: northern Sumatra highlands 18-20thc
Object: bottle
Museum of Fine Arts > Arts of Oceania *
"Ritual horn Toba Batak peoples, Indonesia (Sumatra) 20th century Wood, horn, hair, and fiber string
In their ceremonies, Toba Batak ritual specialists used staffs and various medicine containers, such as this hollowed water-buffalo horn with an attached wooden stopper. The stopper displays a finely executed human head with a tuft of hair and the head of a singa, a mythical being that combines elements of the water buffalo, the horse, and a snake of the underworld." ...
* Primitif Stuff Gallery
* Tropenmuseum > Zuidoost-Azië
"Toverhoorn van een priester
Op de hoorn, Naga Marsarang genoemd, zijn een mythische kop,
slangen, een hagedis en voorouders afgebeeld.
Hoorn. Toba-Batak (volk), Noord-Sumatra, Indonesië, ca.1850"
