wood, brown patina, in squatting posture, with both hands clasping a libation bowl, separately carved long tapering crown in the shape of an openwork carved palmbranch with notched ornaments, remains of black painting (chin beard, eyebrows), richly adorned with hanging earring, "nifato-fato" necklace and headband surrounded by conical points, rising from square plate, slightly dam., missing parts (crown), cracks;
the "siraha salawa" represents a distant, or founding ancestor (progenitor) whose function is to protect the houses of the nobility. The missionary Sundermann calls the image a "house god" to which a great deal of respect is given. He adds that it is "always found raised above the floor attached to a freestanding post in the largest room."
H: 85,5 cm, H: 33,7 inch
Provenance:
Heinrich Sundermann, Ladbergen/Göttingen, Germany
H. Sundermann was a Protestant missionary of the "Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft" on the Indonesian island of Nias for more than three decades, from 1875 to 1910. His lifework is inconceivable without his confrontation with life, religion and ancestor worship on Nias.
Published in:
Martin Schoppenhorst, Ladbergen in alten Ansichten, Zaltbommel 1983, ill. 56
Continent: Asia

See description