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Finial from a Ritual Staff (Tungkot Malehat)

19th–early 20th century
Not on view
This kneeling figure is almost certainly the finial of a tungkot malehat, a type of ritual staf used by religious specialists among the Batak people of Sumatra. The tungkot malehat features a single wooden or metal figure that was often carved or cast separately (as with the present example) and then joined to a staff of rattan or bamboo. A brass figure similar to this one still attached to its wooden staff in the collection of the Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara, Delft, strongly suggests that the Metropolitan's piece served the same function.
The cast figure has a large head crowned by a helmet-like headdress decorated with bilaterally symmetrical double spirals and a beaded border. He wears a matching beaded torque around his neck and holds a cylindrical vessel in his lap. The figure is hollow and filled with a dark, hardened substance that was probably added to increase the object's supernatural efficacy.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Finial from a Ritual Staff (Tungkot Malehat)
  • Date: 19th–early 20th century
  • Geography: Indonesia, Sumatra
  • Culture: Toba Batak people
  • Medium: Copper alloy, resin, brass
  • Dimensions: H. 4 3/8 × W. 1 1/4 × D. 2 in. (11.1 × 3.2 × 5.1 cm)
  • Classification: Metal-Ornaments
  • Credit Line: Gift of Fred and Rita Richman, 1988
  • Object Number: 1988.143.141
  • Curatorial Department: The Michael C. Rockefeller Wing

More Artwork

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Si gale-gale (puppet head), Toba Batak artist(s), Wood, copper alloy, lead alloy, water buffalo horn, paint, Toba Batak
Si gale-gale (puppet head)
Toba Batak artist(s)
19th–20th century
Hasapi (lute), Toba Batak artist, Wood, buffalo horn, silver, brass, iron, gold, Toba Batak
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Toba Batak artist
late 19th–early 20th century
Ganagana (ancestor figure), Toba Batak artist, Wood, fiber, tradecloth, horse hair, cowrie shells, glass beads, brass, iron nails, bone, seeds, feathers, Toba Batak people
Ganagana (ancestor figure)
Toba Batak artist
late 19th–early 20th century
Perminangken (container for magical substances), Toba Batak artist, Wood, trade ceramic, copper/zinc alloy (mouth inlay), Toba Batak
Perminangken (container for magical substances)
Toba Batak artist
19th–early 20th century
Pustaha (book of ritual knowledge), Toba Batak artist, Wood, bast, resin ink, fiber, Toba Batak people
Pustaha (book of ritual knowledge)
Toba Batak artist
19th–early 20th century

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