Product Description

Old Sumatran Etched Bamboo Lime Container (Tagan)

Material: Bamboo, wood
Style: Karo Batak people, Lake Toba, North Sumatra, Indonesia
Size: Height 18 cm
Order Number: MHSOSMC3

This tall container called a tagan is made of finely etched bamboo and a carved, domed wooden stopper. The Karo Batak people of North Sumatra used them to hold powdered lime for the betel quid. Betel chewing was widespread among the Batak.  It is now mainly chewed by older people – usually women.

The lime was made by burning seashells and coral and then grinding them to a powder. The container has a good patina showing its use and age.

There is an example in Art of Island Southeast Asia, The Fred and Rita Richman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art,  Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), Florina H. Capistrano-Baker, 1994, page 132.

There is also one in The Batak, Peoples of the Island of Sumatra, Achim Sibeth, Thames and Hudson, 1991, page 155.

19th – early 20th century.

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