Panel "tulangan bilou" ·  Indonesia - West Sumatra, Mentawai Islands · ID: 3033870

Description

wood, middle brown patina, decorated with the high-relief carving of a monkey (black gibbon), arranged frontal with hanging feet and symmetrical limbs, slightly dam., minor missing parts, cracks, paint rubbed off, on metal base;
such carved panels used to decorate the wall of a “great house”, called “uma”. Until recently, the traditional “great houses” were constructed without the use of a single metal nail, everything held together with pegs. About thirty meters long, ten meters wide, and six meters high, the “uma” is raised on stakes in such a way that the habitable floor stands a full meter above the ground.

Comparing literature

Newton, Douglas (ed.), Arts of the South Seas, München, London, New York 1999, p. 36 f. ill. 4