Post #582845 by Limbo Lizard on Fri, Apr 1, 2011 6:55 AM

That's a Sumbanese tribal ancestor boat/bowl, from Sumba (once called Sandalwood Island), one of the Lesser Sudra Islands of eastern Indonesia. (See http://www.indonesiaphoto.com/facts/life/item/207-the-monumental-stone-tombs-of-sumba ).

They were originally used to convey chiefs and priests to the afterlife, rowed by their minions. The minions were “dispatched” at the time of the chief’s death, to leave them unencumbered and ready for the task. The bowl contained the ashes of the chief, and was interred in a carved-out cavity or chamber beneath a stone monolith.

Later, prominent persons, and finally, most persons of the tribe, were buried in this manner. The “minions” on the “boat” were no longer representative of real sacrificed servants, but became spirits that had the duty to convey the departed to the next world.

After contact with India, and later, the Dutch, the burial customs changed to the current practice of burying the whole body – sans boat - rather than the ashes, in the cavity, over which the monoliths were erected.

During the Japanese occupation of WWII, soldiers looted the chambers under the standing monoliths, hoping to find valuables. When they found an ancestor boat/bowl beneath one of the older monoliths, they emptied the ashes and kept them as souvenirs. Subsequently, a number came into the hands of British and American soldiers, who took them home. After the war, a collectors market developed, and the Sudra peoples, whose cultural traditions had been quite disrupted by the war experience, began to loot the older burials themselves, and sell the bowls – often still containing the ashes. Families that still knew which site belonged to their ancestors either protected the site, or reburied the remains in a more hidden way. But the sites that were “orphans” were free for the pillaging. Eventually, the authentic boats ran low, and reproductions were made, and “aged”, but true collectors quickly caught on. So, finally, most of the bowls being sold were reproductions and not represented to be anything other than that. The popularity of these items fell off after the Vietnam war, so most of the repros found “in the wild” would have been produced prior to 1970. The authentic pieces date, in some cases, back as far as the 15th century.

Authentic boats typically have some staining or discoloration, especially within the bowl, which might also contain traces of adhering residue.

"The rum's the thing..."

[ Edited by: Limbo Lizard 2011-04-01 06:56 ]