Medicine container

Title
Medicine container
Year/Period
19th century
Region
Karo Batak, North Sumatra
Material
Technique
Dimension
Object size: 13.0 x 13.0 x 28.0 cm
Accession No.
2013-00962
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 figure riding atop a mythical creature known as a singa.