Shaman mask ·  Northern Vietnam / Laos, Kim Mun Lanten (Dao / Yao) · ID: 3051083

Description

wood, animal skin, rest., base

These masks are worn by shamans during ceremonies to impersonate deities.They are decorated with bright paper at each usage, and often an older mask will have vestiges of paper from its last village ceremony (as in the present work on both horns).

Pourret reports (2002) that masks with pink or white paper decoration are worn by female shaman to represent “one of the female deities who protect the souls of small children and oversee fertility in women.”