30 June 2017
The island of Bali is in Indonesia. While it can be described as an island paradise featuring extraordinary natural vistas and scenes of great beauty on both a grand and intimate scale, it is also home to one of the most complex and engaging cultures in the world. While the rest of Indonesia is Islamic, Bali is Hindu. However, Hinduism as practiced on Bali is endemic to the island alone. It is ...
23 June 2017
In the Kuba Kingdom, men and women work side by side to create highly symbolic cloth known simply worldwide as Kuba cloth. The cloth is fabricated from the leaf of the raffia palm tree, the plant with the longest leaves in the world. The transformation from leaf to textile is easy to understand, but difficult to execute. Discarded leaves are gathered, dried, softened, dye...
16 June 2017
The Toraja are a tribal ethnic group living in the highlands of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The area they inhabit is known as Tana Toraja, which translates as “Land of the Toraja.” Prior to the 20th century, most of the Toraja people inhabited independent villages. The vast majority practiced animism, the belief in individual spirits inhabiting natural objects and phenomena. In eff...
09 June 2017
As one of the most important officials of the royal court, the Okyeame holds a special form of court regalia when he speaks. Known formally as an Okyeame Poma, the more common name is simply a "linguist’s staff." It is a carved work of art with a detachable finial. Some might say it is the equivalent of a king’s scepter. While the development of the staff was directly influence...
02 June 2017
In tracing the threads of provenance innumerable stumbling blocks are constantly encountered with Chinese furniture. For example, furniture makers typically did not sign their creations. The western idea to immortalize the maker was foreign to Chinese culture, and craftsmen were typically not elevated to notable status. If anyone had their name affixed to a piece of furniture it was likely to b...