Priest's Staff

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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

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About this Work

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
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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.

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"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