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Lot 727
A WOODEN GUARDIAN FIGURE
Estimated Value:
2.000 € - 3.000 €
Result:
incl. Premium and VAT
Description:
Moluccas South, Indonesia East, Alfuren, early 20th cent.H. 106,3 cm (o.S.)
Rare, unusual sculpture made of very hard wood as a village guardian, in the shape of a monkey as an early ancestor. The feather on his head indicates that the ancestor was also a great warrior, which makes him particularly suitable as a village guard. To avoid the destruction of the ancestor figures by fanatical Protestant missionaries, monkey figures were also erected in the early 20th century instead of human figures. At the bottom of the pedestal, four faces look vigilantly in the four cardinal directions.
Collected from an old German private collection since the 1950s
When the Dutch established their colonial rule in the South Moluccas at the beginning of the 20th century, they tried to suppress ancestor worship. They attempted to suppress ancestor worship, ostensibly for "religious" reasons, but also to deprive the population of its mental and cultural basis and unity. Fanatical missionaries, often Moluccans from Ambon, destroyed and burnt ancestral figures as they could get hold of them. The little that remained was bought up by collectors from all over the world from the 1920s onwards, so that today there are only a few äolder statues from this part of the world left. This makes this figure culturally significant in addition to its original subject. The islands of the South Moluccas (Maluku Tenggara) are located öeast of Timor and extend over an area of approx. 800 x 400 kilometres to West Papua. The largest island groups are the Tanimbar Archipelago, the Aru Islands and the Kei Islands. The Südmoluks have a very rich carving tradition, which is mainly based on ancestor worship. These are village founders, house founders, tribal mothers and other ancestors who have become gods and who are permanently remembered. It is quite possible that early Hindu-Indian influence played a role in the creation of the statues of gods sitting on pedestals. Since the late 1st century, Indian culture has played a significant role in the Southeast Asian archipelago in various ways.
