Priest's Staff
| Culture | Batak |
|---|---|
| Culture | Toba (Subgroup of the Batak) |
| Title | Priest's Staff (Tunggal Ponaluan) |
| Date | Early 20th century |
| Medium | Wood, hair, and and fiber |
| Dimensions | Object: 72 3/4 × 3 1/4 × 5 1/4 in. (184.8 × 8.3 × 13.3 cm) Overall (includes mount): 73 × 6 3/4 × 8 in. (185.4 × 17.1 × 20.3 cm) |
| Credit Line | Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University |
| Accession Number | 73.44.1 |
| This artwork is currently on view. | |
The top of this carved wooden staff has a column of stacked figures, each on the back of the one below it. The staff terminates at the top with a figure larger than the rest; this figure wears a woven headdress, and has real hair hanging down its back.
One of the most visible accoutrements of a datu, a powerful male ritual specialist trained in divination, healing, and sorcery among the Toba Batak, was a staff such as this, which he kept on behalf of the community and used in ceremonies intended to protect it, as well as in divination and in rites intended to bring rain. The stacked figures on this staff may refer to a Batak myth that says that the first staff was carved from a tree that had trapped and embedded in its wood a brother, a sister, priests, and animals. The turban on the top figure contains the spiritually charged ingredients that were believed to make the staff effective.
Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.
Request this image
The Eskenazi Museum of Art provides images of its collection, free of charge, upon request.
This artwork is under copyright protection. You can request the image and it will be emailed to you when the request is complete.
Cite this page
"Priest's Staff | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=73.44.1