TITLE: Toba Batak Funerary Mask
TYPE: helmet mask
GENERAL REGION: Oceania
COUNTRY: Indonesia
SUBREGION: North Sumatra
ETHNICITY: Toba Batak
DESCRIPTION: Funerary Helmet Mask
CATALOG ID: OCID040
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Hoda Hoda
FUNCTION: Entertainment; Funerary; Protection/Purification
AGE: late 20th century
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: resin
The Toba Batak people make up the largest ethnic group in North Sumatra. Although most Toba people are Christians, their traditional religion is a syncretic mixture of animism, Hinduism, and Islam. Masks are used in several ways among the Toba Batak people. Historically, they were used to tell stories in dance dramas, in which unmasked characters often participated. During funerary ceremonies for rajas, a masked dance called Hoda Hoda was performed, in which a pair wore masks to confuse the spirit of the deceased, so that the spirit would depart to the next world and not linger to harm the living. The dancers carried large wooden hands to exaggerate their dance movements, and masks such as this one would include a large headdress made of cotton and plant fiber inserted into the hole on top.
