Product Description

Antique Timor Lime Container 2

Material: Bamboo, beads
Style: West Timor, Indonesia
Size: Height 10 cm; Diameter 3 cm
Order Number: MHSATLC2

Betel chewing was widespread in Timor.

The basic ingredients are betel leaf, areca nut and lime powder. Gambir and tobacco may be added  to make it more fragrant.

The containers and implements included boxes of various shapes and sizes to store the betel nuts,  betel leaf holders for the already prepared betel quid, lime pots, hinged cutters , similar to scissors, to cut the hard areca nut, knives to cut the softer nuts, pounders to crush the nut, salve boxes to hold beeswax for the lips, spittoons, tobacco pouches and trays on which they all were displayed.

In Timor  beads were especially liked for decorating pouches for the betel ingredients and lime containers. They often used powerful, magical colour combinations of black or blue-black, red and white. Black represents the female; red represents the male; and blue represents the unity of the cosmos.

The Atoni people are believed to be the aboriginal people of Timor and are culturally Melanesian. They live in the interior of West Timor in the western part of the island. Originally belonging to 10 traditional princedoms and speaking several Austronesian languages, they were pushed to the mountainous interior by the neighboring Belunese and Rotinese. They are still the largest ethnolinguistic group in Timor, about 250,000.

There are similar ones in Arts and Crafts of Indonesia, Anne Richter,  Thames and Hudson 1993, page 110 and Betel Nut, Beads and Beliefs in Atoni Society, Kathy Rousso, Arts of Asia, July-August 2000, page 93.

About 80-90 years old.

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