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God house (bure kalou)

Not on view

Designed to be portable, small shrines such as this one were modeled on lifesize temples. Vast quantities of the finest grade coconut fiber cord (magimagi) were used for the elaborate, labor-intensive construction of this god house. Dozens of small white shell disks refer to the egg cowrie shells (buli dina) that decorated full-size temples and were signifiers of godly presence as well as chiefly authority and power. This is the earliest known god house collected in Fiji.

God house (bure kalou), Coconut fiber, wood, reed, shell

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