Masque zoomorphe "kavat"
Description
rattan, bark cloth, red and black pigment,
The best-known aspect of Baining artistic culture are night dance ceremonies, often called ‘firedances’, during which the dancers run through, leap over and kick the embers of a fire.
The dancers wear large masks laboriously made from bark cloth, bamboo and leaves: the masks are used just once for the firedance ceremony before being thrown away or destroyed. Masks are of two main types, the ‘kavat’ and the larger ‘vungvung’.
The origin of these fire dance ceremonies was to celebrate the birth of new children; the commencement of harvests and also a way of remembering the dead. The Baining firedance is also a rite of passage for initiating young men into adulthood; during the ceremony the dancers are considered to be possessed by anthropomorphised animal spirits that enhance the dancer’s own masculinity. The dancers are accompanied by an ‘orchestra’ of percussion instruments, and take turns parading through the dance ground: as the tempo increases the dancers will briefly dance through a large central bonfire. The dances last until daybreak, when members of the accompanying ‘orchestra’ chase the masks out of the dance grounds.
After this night dance, the initiates live in seclusion for some time during which they learn how to make the masks and the laws of the community.