Dayak Bowl with Aso Figures
Ironwood & Rattan Chieftain’s Bowl with Aso Figures
Kenyah or Kayan Dayak, Rajang River Basin, Borneo
circa 1930
length: 66cm, height: 24.5cm, width: 42.5cm
This large, dramatic bowl made of solid ironwood with rattan edging and applied blue beads is from the Dayak people of Borneo. The bowl is supported at either end by a pair of aso, dragon-dog-like creatures that have talismanic, protective properties, and which mark it out as the property of a local chieftain (bowls for ordinary folk were made with just one aso head at one end only.) The interior base of the bowl is inset with a shell disk.
The bright blue eyes are at first startling but the beads are a type commonly used in tribal images elsewhere in Borneo and New Guinea to denote eyes. They are examples of trade beads known as Blue Barrel (let mitem or let itam or let silo) beads and most likely originated in China (Munan, 2005, p. 132).
Such bowls were used in the Rajang River Basin area to serve rice. It was believed that the hard qualities of the ironwood would permeate the rice and give strength to young men who ate the rice so that they would become warriors. They were used to serve rice to the Chieftain’s family and clan.
A similar example, formerly in the Kaneko Kazushige Collection (Kazushige was the director of Japan’s Institute of Asian Ethno-Forms and Culture) and now in the National Museum of Korea, is catalogued as a ‘bathtub for a newborn baby, Dayak’.
The Sarawak Museum has several examples of carved wooden bowls with carved aso mounts and even a table with legs carved as aso figures (see China, 1980, p. 82). According to Chin, aso figures are carved singularly, or as legs for tables, as bottle stoppers, war canoe bowpieces and as earrings.
The bowl is in excellent condition. The rattan on the rim is intact and has a good patina.
References
Chin, L., Cultural Heritage of Sarawak, Sarawak Museum, 1980.
Munan, H., Beads of Borneo, Editions Didier Millet, 2005.
Provenance
UK art market.
Inventory no.: 2189
SOLD
