Specifications
- Height: 35 cm.
- Material: wood
- Position:seated
- Gender:male
- Indigenous name: belum
- Price realised:
Provenance
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne inv. nr. 23269.
Publications
Vatter, Ernst (1926), Plastik der Naturvölker, p. 167, fig. 98; Ref. Morris, R. Stephen (1997), The Oya Melanau: traditional ritual and belief, The Sarawak Museum Journal Special Monograph No. 9.
Exhibitions
Additional information
An early acquired and rare carving for curing sickness, in the traditional Melaunau belief caused by spirit attacks. These small statues usually made of sago palm spathe were rare because after ‘capturing’ the spirit in the carving, the statue was placed on a model boat or got rid of by putting it on a river. The figure is carved with fish scales denoting the domain of the spirit.