Product Description

Antique Minangkabau Headdress

Material: Wood, gold leaf
Style: Minangkabau, West Sumatra, Indonesia
Size: Diameter 18 cm
Order Number: MHSAME5

When the Minangkabau converted to Islam,  they kept their traditional law and matrilineal social organisation. They remain strongly Moslem and have blended the two systems. Property and inheritance follows the female line, but maintenance of adat, the traditional law, smooth running of society and settlement of disputes is the responsibility of senior men. Many events call for ceremonies.

In early days wooden headdresses (saluak datu batimbo kayu) were intricately carved, hollow and lightweight in imitation of folded cloth headdresses and then decorated with gold leaf. This one has clearly been used and has a crack. They have not been worn for many years and are mostly in private collections and museums.

There is a similar one in Gold Jewelry of the Indonesian Archipelago, Anne Richter and Bruce Carpenter, Editions Didier Millet 2011, page 281.

About 70-80 years.

Please ask for the price (or make an offer).