Origin: Leti island, South East Mollucas, Indonesia.
Material: Wood.
Between New Guinea and Timor, spread throughout the Banda Sea, lie the islands of South East Mollucas. For the most part it is made up of uplifted coral islands -
small and barren in the west, somewhat larger and more wooded in the east -
where the standard of living is low. On some of the islands famine occurs
regularly due to infertile soil and a shortage of rainwater.
Despite
their challenging environment, the inhabitants of South East Mollucas have produced
works of art of impressive beauty and profound meaning. Consequently, the
ancestor statues of Leti and Tanimbar, as well as the jewelry and fabric of
Kisar and Tanimbar, have been highly desired by collectors for many years.
Regrettably,
the production of most of these objects ceased nearly a century ago. This
resulted primarily from the increasing influence of the Dutch colonizers at the
beginning of the twentieth century, as well as the related efforts of Christian
missionaries.
In South East Mollucas islands, the boat represents a woman in which, after conception, new life can thrive. In essence the boat can be compared to the womb. In the Kai, Tanimbar, and Babar archipelagos, as well as on the islands of Luang, Sermata, Leti and Damar, the boat not only served as a means of transport; it was also considered an important model of society. The occupants of houses and villages saw themselves as a ship's crew, a
view that was expressed in various ways.
The
form of this figure indicates the Sun God, the legendary creator ancestor whose union with the earth goddess produces fertility. It was carved in either Babar or Leti
because they display several characteristic aspect of South East Mollucan iconography. The heavenly deity, the Sun God, was portrayed as a male figure (although the gender is not specially emphasized), often sitting in a boat or a boat-shaped construction which usually had a beautifully worked stern. The ancestor face is
dominated by extraordinary large noses, set just below the downward-angled
eyes, which reach almost to the chin. The eyes were inlaid with shell.
Ornaments indicating high status are carved on the figure and include a pair of
dangling earrings, a headdress with a horizontal band, a comb like extension on
the top, and a pair of decorative leg bands below the knees. The ancestor' back
rest against carved post that rise high above the figure and that terminate in
rounded form. Similarly shaped post extend from the back of the altar, carved with
open scroll work like that of the crescent boat form. The woodwork around the
ancestor and its offering cups is extensively carved with spiral forms and four
petaled flowers. Offerings are placed before the altar during rituals to ensure human and agricultural productivity. The spiral form is undoubtedly the most dominant decorative motif and is found on practically all statues in the region. Decorations often also include representations of the founding ancestors, either in the shape of a human or an animal figure. In the latter case, the animal is often a cock, a dog or a fish-like creature.
The
whole statue was mounted on a post about three meters in height and often
stood on a stone base located at the "stern" or east end of the village
ritual center. It was thought that earthly life was dependent on the
cosmic marriage between the heavenly deity and the earth goddess, a
dependence relationship that was expressed in the depiction of the male
deity as a helmsman. The combination of helmsman and sun manifests itself also in the orientation of a boat during construction: the stern post must be directed eastwards, the direction of the rising sun. Moreover, divine combination of helmsman and sun is traditionally expressed in the decorative motifs on the stern board and at the top of the stern post.
