Title
Medicine container
Year/Period
19th century
Region
Karo Batak, North Sumatra
Technique
Dimension
Object size: 11.5 x 11.5 x 28.0 cm
Accession No.
2013-00961
Collection of
Credit Line
Gift of the Mandala Foundation
Batak priests known as datu stored their medicinal concoctions in ceramic or earthen jars with carved wooden stoppers, known as guri-guri. The stoppers of medicine containers were frequently elaborately carved with figures of mythical creatures and ancestors. This example is typical, with wooden stopper carved with a squatting figure and with attached metal bells and glass beads.
