VO LU M E 1 9 N O.

2 J U N E 2 0 1 0

the journal of
the asian arts society
of australia

TAASA Review

SOUTHEAST ASIAN ANCESTRAL ART

c o n t e n t s
Volume 19 No. 2 June 2010

Editorial : Sou t he as t As i an a n ces t r al a r t

TAASA RE VI E W

Josefa Green

Life , Death an d M ag i c : 2 0 0 0 Y ea r s o f S o u t hea s t As i a n An c e s t r a l A r t

THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC.

Abn 64093697537 Vol. 19 No. 2, June 2010
ISSN 1037.6674

Robyn Maxwell

Be adwork of Is l a n d S o u t hea s t A s i a

Hwei-Fen Cheah

Anc estors in t he Ar c h i te c t u re : I n d i ge n o u s Ar t f r om Ta i wa n

Lucie Folan

11

S ple ndour fo r t he A n ces to r s t he Sc u l p t u re a n d Go l d o f N i a s

Niki van den Heuvel

13

Small and P ot en t F i s h i n g C h a rms a n d t he Mel a n au o f B o r ne o

Charlotte Galloway

14

Portraits fro m In d i a 1 8 5 0 s 1 9 5 0 s

Anne OHehir

17

In the P ublic Do m a i n: A N e w D is pl ay at t h e N at i ona l M useum of C a m b od i a

Oun Phalline and Martin Polkinghorne

Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134

e d i to rIAL email: editorial@taasa.org.au

General editor, Josefa Green

p ub l i c at i o n s c omm i t t ee

Josefa Green (convenor) Tina Burge

Melanie Eastburn Sandra Forbes Ann MacArthur
Jim Masselos Ann Proctor Susan Scollay
Sabrina Snow Christina Sumner
de s i g n / l ayo u t

Ingo Voss, VossDesign

printing

John Fisher Printing

Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc.

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TAASA Review is published quarterly and is distributed to members
of The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc. TAASA Review welcomes
submissions of articles, notes and reviews on Asian visual and
performing arts. All articles are refereed. Additional copies and

18

C ultural Enco u n ter s : T h e Re ve r se G a ze o f K u tc h Pa i n t i n g

Jim Masselos

21

Book Re view: E t hn i c Jewellery a nd Ador nment

Janet Mansfield

22

Batik of Java: Poetics and Politics. Caloundra Regional Art Gallery Touring Exhibition

or omit any article or advertisements submitted and require

Maria Wronska-Friend

indemnity from the advertisers and contributors against damages

24

C olle ctors Ch o i ce : A Pa i r o f K enya h Belaw in g Poles f r om Bor neo

Michael Heppell

26

Travellers Tale: A S E AC S S t ud y Tou r o f H i s to r i c K i ln S i t es i n Fuj i a n a nd J i n g de z h en

Linda McLaren

29

Rec e nt TAASA Ac t i v i t ie s

29

TAASA Membe r s D i a ry

30

W hats On: June - Aug us t 2 0 1 0

Compiled by Tina Burge

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TAASA c o mm i t t ee

E DITORIAL : S ou t h e a s t As i a n An c es t r a l A r t

Judith R uthe rford Pr esi dent

Josefa Green, Editor

Collector and specialist in Chinese textiles

G ill G ree n Vic e P r esi dent

Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture

ANN GUILD TR E ASU R E R

Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK)

KAT E JOHNSTON SE CR ETARY

Intellectual property lawyer with

an interest in Asian textiles

This issue celebrates the much awaited

exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia
(NGA), opening in August. Articles in this
issue are devoted to exploring facets of Life,
death and magic: 2000 Years of Southeast Asian
ancestral art.

Hwe i-fen ch eah

Lecturer, Art History, Australian National University,

with an interest in needlework
JOC E LYN CHEY

Visiting Professor, Department of Chinese Studies,

University of Sydney; former diplomat
Matt Cox

Study Room Co-ordinator, Art Gallery of New South

Wales, with a particular interest in Islamic Art of
Southeast Asia
Philip C ourt enay

Former Professor and Rector of the Cairns Campus,

James Cook University, with a special interest in
Southeast Asian ceramics
Sandr a Forbe s

Editorial consultant with long-standing interest

in South and Southeast Asian art
Jose fa Gree n

General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese

ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian
art as student and traveller
G E RALDIN E HARD MAN

Collector of Chinese furniture and Burmese lacquerware

MIN-JUNG KIM

Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum

ANN PROCTOR

Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam

ANN RO BERTS

Art consultant specialising in Chinese

ceramics and works of art
SABRINA SNOW

Has a long association with the Art Gallery of New

South Wales and a particular interest in the arts of China
CHRISTINA SU MNE R

Principal Curator, Design and Society,

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
Hon. Auditor

Rosenfeld Kant and Co

s t a t e r e p r e s e n t a t i v e s
Australian Capital Territory
Ro by n Maxw ell

Visiting Fellow in Art History, ANU;

Senior Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia
Northern Territory
Joanna Barrk man

Curator of Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture,

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory
Queensland
Suhan ya Raffel

Head of Asian and Pacific Art, Queensland Art Gallery

South Australia
Ja me s B e nne tt

Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia

Victoria
Carol Cains

Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International

TASMANIA
Kate Brittl eb ank

Lecturer in Asian History, School of History and Classics,

University of Tasmania

the use of fishing charms carved in wood or

ivory by the Malanau of Borneo. Charlotte
Galloway, Lecturer in Art History at the
ANU, points out that amulets, fetishes and
charms were widely used in Borneo for
personal protection but are now quite rare
as they were generally disposed of with their
deceased owners.

Robyn Maxwell, Senior Curator of Asian

Art at the NGA, presents highlights of the
exhibition, which encompasses animist
sculpture, textiles and gold. The NGAs core
collection will be joined by contributions
from major European collections: the
Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, the BarbierMueller Museum in Geneva and the Dutch
National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden,
as well as contributions from US, Indonesian
and local collections.

Other articles continue the Southeast Asian art

theme. Readers will be interested to know that
the West Mebon Vishnu, the Khmer bronze
figure covered in our September 2006 issue,
has been newly installed in a spectacular
setting at the National Museum of Cambodia.
We hear the details from the Director of
the Museum, Oun Phalline, and Martin
Polkinghorne, who specialises in Khmer art.

Common themes bind animist based ancestral

art across Southeast Asia. It serves a religious
function, communicating with and harnessing
the power of the spiritual world to maintain
order, achieve prosperity and bolster the
power of elites. A shared belief in the powerful
interventionist spirit of nature and the dead
provides much of the impetus for and the
power of this art tradition, whether expressed
in the decorations found on utilitarian objects
or used in ceremony and ritual.

An exhibition with a batik theme at the

Caloundra Regional Art Gallery in Queensland,
curated and discussed in this issue by Maria
Wronska-Friend, will juxtapose a significant
private collection of Javanese batik textiles
with an exhibition of works from Dadang
Christanto, which use batik to evoke memories
of a traumatic past. Janet Mansfield offers
armchair pleasure with her book review of a
splendidly illustrated publication on Ethnic
Jewellery and Adornment by Truus Dalder.

The ceremonial function of beadwork, a

less well-known aspect of Southeast Asias
rich textile traditions, is explored by HweiFen Cheah, Lecturer in Art History at the
ANU. Beadwork was executed by men and is
associated with the male sphere. Combined
on cloth and clothing - soft textiles made by
women - beadwork symbolically connected the
male and female spheres and held protective
powers associated with fertility and wealth.

Finally, Michael Heppell entertains us with

his account of transporting two 6 metre long
belawing poles from Kalimantan Timur,
Indonesia to a suburban Melbourne backyard.

Lucie Folan, Curator of Asian Art at the NGA,

discusses ancestor imagery created by two major
indigenous Taiwanese groups, the Paiwan and
Yami. These are found on impressively carved
house posts and panels, ceremonial staffs and
canoes and serve to honour ancestors and
pacify hostile spiritual forces. The exhibition
will display the largest and most representative
collection of indigenous Taiwanese art ever
shown in Australia.
Also on display will be splendid works in
gold such as a set of Chieftains gold jewellery
from the island of Nias, loaned from the Asian
Civilisations Museum, Singapore. Niki van
den Heuvel, Exhibition Assistant, discusses
the significance of art and regalia of this
small island, acclaimed as among the most
spectacular examples of Indonesian animist art.
The exhibition provides an opportunity to
explore fast disappearing traditions, such as

On another theme, Anne OHehir, NGA

Assistant Curator of Photography, discusses a
new display of photographs from India at the
NGA, drawn from its extensive Asia-Pacific
collection. She explores the way in which
Indian painting traditions and the imported
modern medium of photography intersected
in the 19th century. The display coincides
with a major international conference Facing
Asia on Asian studio photography to be held
on 21-22 August. Details of this conference
can be found on p28.
Jim Masselos article on Kutch painting
from the later 1700s explores similar issues,
this time the way these little known NW
Indian paintings absorbed aspects of the
Western vue perspectifs print tradition into a
distinctive Indian framework: in the process,
occidentalising Europe.
Finally, to satisfy ceramic enthusiasts, Linda
McLaren gives us a lively account of a SEACS
study tour of historic kiln sites and museums
in Chinas Fujian and Jiangxi provinces. This
links us back to our main theme, as so many
of the ceramic wares from these areas were
destined for export to Southeast Asia.
3

LIF E , D E ATH AND M AGIC : 2 0 0 0 Y E ARS OF SOUTH E AST ASIAN ANC E STRAL ART
Robyn Maxwell

major exhibition Life, death and magic:

2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral art,
opens at the National Gallery of Australia
(NGA) in Canberra in August 2010. Its focus
is the art of small communities throughout
the region who maintained the animist beliefs
of their ancestors when most large kingdoms
and trading societies adopted Hinduism and
Buddhism, and later, Islam and Christianity.
While Australian audiences can find fine
examples of Southeast Asian Buddhist and
Hindu art in public collections, and have
had the unique opportunity to visit Crescent
Moon: Islamic art and civilization in Southeast
Asia in Adelaide and Canberra in 20052006,
there are very few superb examples of animist

sculpture, textiles and gold in Australia.

While probably unlikely to attract the crowds
and queues of the Masterpieces from Paris
show, Life, death and magic offers Australian
audiences a unique opportunity to appreciate
the excitement and often strange beauty
of objects created to venerate the spirits of
nature and ancestral deities.
In a conscious attempt to broaden its scope
and introduce visitors to this important aspect
of the art of Southeast Asia, the NGA has built
a small but formidable collection of ancestral
sculpture in recent years to complement the
institutions exceptional holdings of Southeast
Asian textiles. The Gallerys imposing

examples of stone sculpture from Nias will

be joined in the exhibition by fine examples
of the somewhat better-known wooden
figures of ancestors, regarded by some as
the pinnacle of Indonesian sculpture. These
have been generously lent by major European
collections of tribal and ethnographic art:
the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam and the
Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva.
The NGA has also acquired a small group of
fine wooden sculptures from central Luzon
in the northern Philippines. Ranging from
a highly stylised king post for an ancestral
house to a realistic depiction of an Ifugao bulol
rice guardian couple with child, the figures

Toraja granary faade, Indonesia, 19th century, wood, pigments, 211.0 x 198.0 x 10.0 cm, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

Standing dog, Indonesia,4th6th century

Toraja ceremonial hanging and shroud [paporitonoling], Indonesia, 19th century, cotton;

bronze, 43.2 x 15.9 x 37.5 cm, Gift of the Christensen Fund,

warp ikat, 181.0 x 137.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

2001, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii

are ushered into the afterworld with lavish

ceremony and expense. Some of the finest art is
created for these events, including spectacular
coffins and mortuary jars. Archaeological finds
from Bronze and Iron Age sites across the region
reveal the antiquity of elaborate burials and
extravagant grave goods. This is marvellously
demonstrated by the loans of a number of
Dian Culture (500 BCE 300 CE) bronzes from
the Yunnan Provincial Museum, China. The
antiquity of architectural forms is demonstrated
by the largest and smallest of the bronzes
a massive house-shaped bronze sarcophagus
covered with animal motifs and geometric
patterns and a three-dimensional model of
village dwellings from the lid of a container used
to store valued cowry shell currency.
demonstrate the power of art created to
ensure fertility and prosperity in vulnerable
agricultural and environmental conditions,
a recurring focus for animist rites. A striking
seated figure holding a large container for
an Ifugao shamans magic herbs and charms
from the Fowler Museum of Cultural History
(University of California, Los Angeles) is
a powerful example of objects created to
control the spirit world.
Also on loan from the Fowler Museum is the
faade of a Toraja granary from Sulawesi,
Indonesia, its surface completely filled with
incised and painted patterns. It joins the
NGAs carved buffalo-head door for a rice
barn. Throughout Southeast Asia, one of the
most prominent emblems of agricultural and
human fertility, prosperity and wealth, is the
water buffalo that also appears in schematic
and recognizable designs on the rice granary
decorations.

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

A number of the Gallerys Southeast Asian

textiles will be on display for the first time
in this exhibition. Representing the oldest
regional forms and styles, made from beaten
bark cloth and a range of vegetable fibres, they
also display motifs associated with fertility
and prosperity. As in architecture, buffaloes
are prominent on Toraja textiles, along with
the doti langi stars of heaven patterns which
represent plenty. Archaic Toraja banners show
village scenes of rice granaries and buffaloes
with plough, while stylised horns are painted
on superfine bark head cloths. So important is
the symbol in Toraja art that a repository for
the aristocratic corpse at a funeral ceremony
can also take the form of a mighty buffalo. A
richly decorated two-metre long coffin in the
form of this prestigious animal comes from
the collection of Muse du Quai Branly, Paris.
The greatest rites for animist Southeast Asia
are funerals, when the spirits of the deceased

The Dian architectural forms have great

resonance with ancestral dwellings across
Southeast Asia into the modern era. Like
the ancient rulers of Dian, the remains of
nobles in many remote parts of the region are
still placed in house-and boat-shaped coffins,
just as they have been for millennia. A 19th
century Toraja wooden coffin on loan from
the Art Gallery of South Australia mirrors not
only the shape and ornamentation of the local
architecture, but is remarkably similar to the
2000 year old Yunnan sarcophagus.
Perhaps the most fascinating Dian bronze
vessel, and one that speaks of the antiquity of
many arts and techniques in Southeast Asia,
is the cowry container with a scene depicting
weaving on back-tension looms. Remarkably,
all the woven textiles in the exhibition were
created on similar simple apparatus, from
the tiny Li skirts from Hainan to the huge

The Bronze Weaver, Indonesia, 6th century, bronze, 25.8 x 22.8 x 15.2 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

shroud from Luzon. The Gallerys own Bronze

weaver, a key work in the show, and indeed
in Southeast Asian art history, depicts in far
greater detail the same foot-braced loom.
Like the Bronze Weaver, a number of large
bronze vessels in Life, death and magic were
found across the Indonesian archipelago. The
superb casting skills of the Dong Son culture
of north Vietnam (500BCE200CE) and the
active trade in the spectacular Dong Son
bronzes is encapsulated in the huge 2000year
old Makalamau kettle drum on loan from the
National Museum of Indonesia. It displays
images of saddle-roof houses, birds, boats
manned by figures in extravagant feather
headdresses, found on Sangeang, a small
island off the coast of Sumbawa.
From the same Jakarta collection, a large
ceremonial axe discovered on the far eastern
Indonesian island of Roti is more enigmatic,
and may be a masterpiece from one of the
later regional bronze casting centres that
seem to have developed. An impressive
bronze bell possibly from Cambodia and
recently acquired by the National Gallery of
Australia could also have been produced in a
regional workshop. The style of these objects,
combined with the thermoluminescence
dating of the clay cores of the Gallerys Bronze
weaver and the Honolulu Academy of Arts
Standing bronze dog to the 4th6th centuries,
suggest a blossoming of local creativity
inspired by treasured Dong Son heirlooms.
While textiles wonderfully represent the
female arts of Southeast Asia, the male
arts of hunting, including headhunting,
are encapsulated in beautifully decorated
shields in the exhibition. The hot arts of
metal smelting are also the male domain, and
range in the exhibition from ancient bronze
daggers to luminous gold jewellery. A sign
of high status and wealth, gold ornaments
are an important part of the sacred regalia
of great houses and lineages. Spectacular
gold objects from Indonesias eastern islands
Sumba, Timor, Flores, Luang and Moa
have been borrowed from around the world.
So too has a full set of gold regalia for
a Nias nobleman from Singapores Asian
Civilisations Museum. Among the most eyecatching of the gold objects in the exhibition
are burial masks, fitting for the grave of a local
ruler, with examples from the Philippines and
Indonesia generously lent from the BarbierMueller Museum collection.
Some of the most significant figurative
sculpture in Southeast Asian is associated
with the veneration of ancestors, from the
great mythological creators to important

genealogical forebears. Many are pairs of male

and female, displaying the distinct genitalia
on which the fertility and fecundity of the
family or community is founded. Drawn
from international collections, the exhibition
shows the range of ways the human figure
is depicted, from strikingly minimal forms to
surprising realism. The sculptures in wood
and stone have been chosen to demonstrate
the continuity and similarities in style from
the Bronze Age until the 20th century, most
notably in a widespread preference for the
seated figure, arms resting upon knees, often
with enlarged head showing strong elongated
facial features.
The house altars of the small Indonesian
island communities of the south Moluccas
(Maluku) are perhaps the most arresting of
the art associated with the honouring and
appeasing of ancestors. A small number
of spectacular wooden sculptures from
the little known islands of Leti, Damar and
Yamdena have been borrowed from the
collection of the Dutch National Museum

of Ethnology in Leiden. The altars range

from tall poles where sky gods sit on boatlike forms to ornately scrolling, vaguely
anthropomorphic, sculptures incised with
representations of the familys wealth of
sacred gold objects. They demonstrate the
importance of ancestor veneration and the
tremendous artistic energy that goes into the
creation of fine Southeast Asian animist art.
The size and complexity of the exhibition,
drawn from numerous international
institutions, combined with the fragility of
many of the loans means Life, death and magic:
2000 years of Southeast Asian art will only be
exhibited at the National Gallery of Australia
Canberra, from 13 August until 31 October
2010. The show is accompanied by a fully
illustrated catalogue and a well stocked
exhibition shop.
Robyn Maxwell is Senior Curator of Asian Art at the
National Gallery of Australia.

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

B E ADWORK OF ISLAND SOUTH E AST ASIA

Hwei-Fen Cheah

he protective powers of beads and their

symbolic association with durability,
fertility and wealth are manifest in the regard
with which beads and beadwork are held in
so many parts of island Southeast Asia. Shell
beads, employed in Southeast Asia since at
least the second millennium BCE, were often
applied in combination with imported glass
beads. While some beads were made locally,
beads from India and China were widely
traded through the archipelago ports and were
exchanged for local produce. From the late
19th century, European drawn glass beads
became increasingly accessible (Francis 2002).
Beads could be highly valued objects in
themselves but the types of beads that were
prized varied. In parts of eastern Indonesia,
beads were handed down as heirloom items,
the mutisalah or false pearls being a particular
type of small glass beads of an opaque orange to
reddish-brown. The small orange-brown coiled
glass seed beads are a class of heirloom beads
worn by the elite and are known as mutiraja
(Francis 2002: 19-20, 186-7). For the Orang
Ulu community of central Borneo, flattened
polychrome rosette beads, lukut sekala, were the
most highly esteemed (Munan 2005: 66, 78).
Beads were integrated into the rich textile
traditions of the archipelago stitched, netted
or woven into a range of items, from ceremonial
hangings, betel bags and baby carriers to
sarongs, dance skirts and jackets. A number
of distinctive ceremonial hangings and mats
from the coastal areas of Lampung in southern
Sumatra are densely worked in monochrome
glass seed beads. Motifs range from elephantlike creatures to boat-shaped forms shared
with the woven tampan and palepai ritual

textiles used as hangings, mats and wedding

gifts. Stitched beadwork, however, facilitated
more free flowing designs and curvilinear
forms that contrast with the angular patterning
of the woven textiles. Rarer than their woven
counterparts, these beaded panels are thought
to have been used by the nobility (Taylor and
Aragon 1991: 132-4).

of these skirts, beadwork diamonds and

hexagons with spindly protrusions form
colourful disruptions to the orderly indigo
and white ikat bands of the textiles. The
significance of these patterns is not well
understood but could relate to fertility, as
the cloths are used in ceremonies to improve
harvests (Maxwell 1990: 141).

Textiles applied with beads and shells

were worn on ceremonial occasions. The
Sumbanese womens ceremonial skirts
from eastern Indonesia, mud-dyed to a dark
chocolate brown, are sometimes decorated
in beads (hada) with curious semi-abstracted
forms that suggest composite creatures
with outstretched arms and legs (Maxwell
1990: 96). In other cloths, human figures are
shown with arms raised from the elbows and
genitalia emphasised. In contrast to these
bold and colourful designs, the mountaindwelling Atayal of Taiwan crafted hemp
jackets stitched with strings of white beads
made from the discs of giant clams obtained
through trade with coastal peoples. Worn
by successful headhunters, these jackets not
only spoke of the physical prowess of the
individual but also their access to foreign
beads (Sumberg 2010: 145).

Regarded as hard objects and associated with

the male sphere, beads stood in opposition to
soft textiles made by women. Combined on
cloth and clothing, beadwork symbolically
connected the two spheres (Maxwell 1990:
58-63). Although the Ngada lawo butu
were worn by women, the beadwork was
executed by men and the cloths themselves
were named posthumously after the death
of the high-status clan leaders who had
commissioned the pieces (Hamilton 1994:
109). Stored alongside other clan treasures,
such beaded textiles embodied not only an
individual history but also became integral to
the sustenance of communal memory.

A legend of the Ngada people in Flores tells

how beads, gold and cloth all blossomed
magically from the branches of a tree planted
by two orphans, becoming items that were
much coveted by the villagers (Hamilton
1994: 108). Like cloth and gold, imported
beads must have held a mystery, inspiring
a sense of wonder for the locals. They were
incorporated into the lower half of womens
tubular garments, the lawo butu. In some

Beaded accoutrements worn by women

during feasting added to the celebratory feel
of the occasion. In Engano, a small island
off the southwest coast of Sumatra, striking
belts, typically embellished with red, white
and blue imported beads, were worn at ritual
feasts to celebrate an abundant harvest. Elio
Modigliani, an Italian who visited Engano
in 1891, wrote of their ceremonial dress and
described their petticoats (sottanino) made
of beads and vegetable fibres, moving with
every motion of their legs (1894: 152). The
weight of their garments, particularly of the
beaded belts, could even make the women feel
faint (ter Keurs 2006: 156). The number of red

Batak ceremonial jacket, Indonesia, 19th century, cotton, beads, metal bells; supplementary weft weave, appliqu, 37.0 x 132.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

Sadan Toraja ceremonial

object and beaded neck
ornament [kandaur],
Indonesia, 19th century, beads,
cotton; bead-work, tablet weave,
plaiting, 89.0 x 40.0 cm, National
Gallery of Australia, Canberra

However, neither the significance of the beads

nor the pattern on the bridal jacket is easily
understood. Overviews of Batak art do not
generally discuss patterns of concentric circles.
While the pattern has a formal similarity to
the representations of the prominent eyes of
the Toba Batak singa (lion), with their dilated
black pupils encircled by concentric rings of
a contrasting colour, further connections are
difficult to extrapolate.
The short jacket is simply tailored, with
slightly tapering long sleeves and an opening
down the front. Niessen (1993, 2009: 399-400)
documents the baju omon as a bridal garment
that may have originated in the southern
Batak area, worn by the Toba and Angkola/
Mandaliling groups. She also suggests that
the ensemble pre-dated colonial involvement
in the area (Niessen 1993: 72-79). Indeed,
this form of beaded jacket was illustrated in
coloured lithographs of Mandailing bridal
dress published by a Dutch linguist in 1861.
Photographs taken in the early 20th century
also show a southern Batak bride clad in
a beaded jacket with a bulls-eye design
(Niessen 1993: 25, 72-73, 114; Sibeth 1991:
208). Yet, where, when and why this form
of beaded jacket emerged in Batak society
remains difficult to explain.

beads on the apron fringe is said to represent

the number of heads taken for the feast
(ter Keurs 2006: 156, 172), closely aligning
the symbolism of womens dress with the
ritual and regenerative nature of such feasts,
reinforcing the parallel relationship between
headhunting and fertility.
Colour symbolism may help to explain
the use of colour on the Batak womens
ceremonial jacket (baju omon). Strings of red,
white, black and some dark blue glass seed
beads are stitched in radial rows in a striking
bulls-eye pattern over the front and back of
the bodice of such jackets, and small bells
are often attached to the lower edge. These
three colours correspond to the sacred colours
for the northern Sumatran Toba Batak and
Karo Batak groups, who employ a red-whiteblack combination of threads to represent
their tripartite social structure and the unity
and co-operation between affinal families
(Maxwell 1990: 98; Niessen 2009: 42).

A connection that is both intriguing and

puzzling is presented by a photograph taken
before 1935 of Toba Batak masked dancers
at the funeral of an important man, held
to inform the deceased of the promise of
future offerings, an undertaking that served
to appease the spirit of the dead (Taylor
and Aragon 1991: 116). In this image, one
of the masked dancers is wearing a garment
whose front bodice is decorated (possibly
with beads) in a bulls-eye pattern radiating
from the centre are at least six concentric
circles in alternating white and dark colours.
Batak necklaces also suggest the possibility of
a second, albeit weaker association between
ritual clothing of one group and the bridal dress
of another. Mandailing brides wore long neck
ornaments with multiple strands of beads. Long
neck and shoulder ornaments (sinata godeng)
with multiple strands of beads attached to a
leather neck band were worn by the wives
of Toba Batak clan leaders at their annual
agricultural ceremony at which the women
would be possessed by spirits (Sibeth 1991:
99; Taylor and Aragon 1991: 112, 117). Both
involved the procreative powers of nature.

along the widest edge, formed by the netting

of beads over a bamboo frame. Typically,
the narrow neck at the top is decorated
with a band of small figures. These are
thought to represent the gods of the Torajan
upperworld or ancestors and the beads below
the descendants, such that the kandaure acts
as a metaphor for an interconnected web of
many descendants (Morrell 2005: 120).
Kandaure were suspended from bamboo poles
during funerals but also worn by relatives
of the deceased to greet mourners and lead
dancers at the funeral (Taylor and Aragon
1991: 186-7). However, the kandaure was not
exclusively funerary for it was draped over
the shoulders of dancers during the rice ritual
(Taylor and Aragon 1991: 186-7). A symbol
of abundance and regeneration, the multiple
uses of the kandaure in both fertility and
mortuary ceremonies remind us of islander
beliefs in the intimate relationships between
the living and the dead.
Hwei-Fen Cheah is Lecturer, Art History at
the School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian
National University.
The introduction and section on Batak beadwork
are adapted from Beadwork from Sumatra in the
National Gallery of Australia, Bead Study Trust
Newsletter, 2009
REFERENCES
Hamilton, Roy (ed.), 1994. Gift of the cotton maiden: textiles of
Flores and the Solor Islands, Fowler Museum of Cultural History,
Los Angeles.
Francis Jr., Peter, 2002. Asias maritime bead trade: 300 B.C. to
the present, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu.
Maxwell, Robyn, 1990. Textiles of Southeast Asia: tradition, trade
and transformation, Oxford University Press, Melbourne.
Modigliani, Elio, 1894. Lisola delle donne: viaggio ad Engano,
Hoepli, Milan.
Morrell, Elizabeth, 2005. Securing a place: small scale artisans in
modern Indonesia, Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
Munan, Heidi, 2005. Beads of Borneo, Editions Didier Millet,
Singapore.
Niessen, Sandra, 1993. Batak cloth and clothing: a dynamic
Indonesian tradition, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur.
Niessen, Sandra, 2009. Legacy in Cloth: Batak textiles of
Indonesia, KITLV Press, Leiden.
Sumberg, Bobbie, 2010. Textiles: collection of the Museum of
International Folk Art, Gibbs Smith, Utah.
Sibeth, Achim, 1991. The Batak: peoples of the island of Sumatra,
Thames and Hudson, New York.
Taylor, Paul Michael and Lorraine V. Aragon, 1991. Beyond the
Java sea: art of Indonesias outer islands, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.
ter Keurs, Pieter, 2006. Condensed reality: a study of material
culture, CNWS Publications, Leiden.

Amongst the Sadan Toraja of Sulawesi,

beadwork was executed by men. The most
distinctive of these items is the kandaure, a
conical shaped hanging with long tassels

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

ANC E STORS IN TH E ARCHIT E CTUR E : INDIG E NOUS ART FRO M TAIWAN

Lucie Folan

Yami ceremonial staff, Botel Tobago, Taiwan, 19th century,

wood, pigments, 201.0 x 45.0 x 13.0 cm, Fowler Museum
of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles

ncestor imagery dominates the art of the

animist cultures of Taiwan, where the
various indigenous groups are distinct yet
closely related in terms of general world view,
community organisation and ritual practice.
In broader terms, they have strong linguistic
and cultural affinities with other Austronesian
communities across Southeast Asia and the
Pacific, with whom they share beliefs in
powerful interventionist spirits of nature and
the dead. In Taiwans traditional Paiwan and
Yami communities, art serves a religious
function. Designs representing deceased
ancestors are intended to communicate with
the spiritual world and maintain order.
One of the largest of Taiwans indigenous
groups, the Paiwan, live in the southern
mountains. Paiwan society is hierarchical
consisting of high nobles, secondary nobles
and commoners and status is hereditary.
Formed by descent, the high nobility of each
village is made up of the first-born child of the
previous noble family, their spouse and any
unmarried offspring (Cameron 1985: 161).
Village nobles are the landowners and are
responsible for community well-being and
prosperity. As the Paiwan believe in an array
of supernatural beings, the most important
role of the nobility is to observe customary
religious rituals that appease nature spirits
and the ghosts of ancestors (Ferrell 1969: 45).
The house in which the high-ranking nobles
live is at the centre of these communal rites.
When a chiefs house is constructed, a feast is
held and offerings are made to ancestor spirits
(Chen Chi-Lu 1968: 290). Made from slate and
wood, the building is at once a dwelling for
the living and a ritual place to house historical
ancestors, who were traditionally buried
within the noble house (Cameron 1985: 163).
Paiwan
architectural
ornamentation
reinforces the religious nature of the chiefs
house, with carved images of ancestors
adorning wooden wall and door posts
(Cameron 1985: 163). Included in the National
Gallery of Australias Life, death and magic:
2000 years of Southeast Asian ancestral art
exhibition are two impressive 19th century
Paiwan panels. Each carved wooden panel
features a stylised human figure, one male
and one female, to flank the doorway to a
nobles house. The complementary pairing
of images and pronounced genitalia illustrate
the underlying importance of fertility in

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

Paiwan art and religion. With such

a strong emphasis on hereditary
title and community prosperity, the
rituals to which these works of art
relate were intended to ensure the
noble line. In typical Paiwan style,
the naked figures are compressed
to fill most of the panel and stand
with knees bent, feet turned out,
and arms held so that the hands are
at shoulder height. The simple faces
have strong eyebrows, large noses
and small mouths, with circular eyes
of inlaid porcelain.
Within Paiwan culture, ancestor
imagery is created to represent
recently deceased nobles as well as
distant or mythical ancestors. When
a member of the nobility dies, a
wooden panel is carved and paired
with an image of a legendary
ancestor. The two types of image can
usually be differentiated, as distant
ancestors are represented with snake
motifs (Chen Chi-Lu 1988: 188, 338).
Here the male figure has a snake
headdress, while the female figure
wears a circular head ornament.
While these two panels stylistically
appear to be a couple, it is not known
whether they were originally paired
in the same structure.
The Paiwan nobles claim descent
from a mythical snake identified
with the local hundred pacer snake
(Chiang 2001: 222). In one account
of the Paiwan creation myth, the
sun laid two eggs on top of a
mountain. The eggs were hatched
after a giant snake sunk its fangs into
them, passing on some of its power.
From the eggs a man and a woman
emerged the original ancestors of
the Paiwan and founders of the noble
line (Cameron 1985: 163). Snake
imagery is therefore reserved for use
by nobles and for representations of
mythical ancestor spirits.
In contrast to the Paiwan, the Yami
people live in villages on the shores
of the small mountainous island
of Botel Tobago, south-east of the
main island of Taiwan. Daily life in
traditional communities centres on

Yami house-post [tomok], Botel Tobago, Taiwan, 19th

century, wood, pigments, 216.6 x 108.8 x 8.0 cm, National

Paiwan ancestor panel, Taiwan, 19th century,

Gallery of Australia, Canberra

wood, mirror, porcelain, bottle caps, 185.0 x 41.0 x 9.0 cm,

Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles

poor harvests, disease, death and natural

disasters. One of the most important figures in
Yami belief is Magamoag, a legendary creator
ancestor who taught the skill of fishing to the
Yami people (Kano and Segawa 1956: 290).
A superb openwork staff on loan from
the Fowler Museum of Cultural History
(University of California, Los Angeles) to the
Life, death and magic exhibition, features three
simple stylised Magamoag figures with red
bodies, black heads and white spiral arms
and headdresses, colours that characterise
Yami ritual art. Ceremonial staffs were
displayed during significant events such as
boat launches, feasts and the construction
of houses, when the presence of anito is
particularly inauspicious (Cameron and
Sumnik-Dekovich 1985: 171). The circular
motif, which typically appears on Yami
canoe prows, is called mata no tatara (eye
of the canoe) and, like Magamoag, serves a
protective purpose.

fishing and farming and adherence to various

rituals. Living in relative isolation, the Yami
have developed a rather distinctive culture,
with close affinities to the nearby islands of
the northern Philippines (Ferrell 1969: 58).
The Yami ritual calendar revolves around the
annual migration of flying fish, considered
a sacred source of food. Ceremonies are
performed to summon, store and prepare
the fish, and various taboos are observed
during the fishing season (Del Re 1951: 33).
According to Yami belief, humans have a
number of different souls that are liberated
after death to become either benevolent
ancestor spirits or malevolent anito. (Cameron
and Sumnik-Dekovich 1985: 171). Most Yami
ceremonies are intended to honour ancestors
and dispel anito, considered responsible for

10

The most culturally valuable art forms of

the Yami are decorated canoes and house
posts (tomok). Traditional family dwellings
consist of a main house built below ground
to withstand frequent typhoons, a separate
work-house, and a platform for eating and
socialising. A tomok supports the roof apex of
the main house, symbolising the connection
between sea and mountain (Adachi 2003).
The tomok is the first element to be erected
after a house site is excavated. Highly
valued, tomok are passed down from
one generation to the next and
moved if a family relocates or
reconstructs a house (Cameron
and Sumnik-Dekovich 1985:
172). Like the Paiwan people,
imagery associated with ancestor spirits
is incorporated into traditional houses. The
strikingly bold red, black and white designs
of Magamoag and the eye of the canoe on the
National Gallery of Australias house-post,
are typical of images intended to protect a
household from malevolent spirits of the dead.
The goats horn motif, carved in relief above
the spiral forms of the Magamoag design, is a
symbol of longevity (Chen Chi-Lu 1968: 291).
The depictions of ancestors within the
Paiwan and Yami cultures of Taiwan, though
different stylistically, have the same intent
to honour ancestors and pacify hostile
spiritual forces for the benefit of the family
and wider community. While the art from
Taiwan in Life, death and magic: 2000 years of
Southeast Asian ancestral art is only a small
part of the exhibition, it will be the largest and
most representative collection of indigenous
Taiwanese art ever shown in Australia.

Lucie Folan is Curator of Asian Art at the National

Gallery of Australia.

REFERENCES
Adachi, Takashi, 2003. Isolating and connecting: a study on the
composition of space in the Yamis four-entranced main house in
Journal of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Engineering. Japan
Cameron, Elisabeth L, 1985. Ancestor motifs of the Paiwan
in Feldman, Jerome (ed) 1988: The eloquent dead: ancestral
sculpture of Indonesia and Southeast Asia. University of California,
Los Angeles
Cameron, Elisabeth L and Sumnik-Dekovich, 1985. Magamoag:
benevolent ancestor of the Yami in Feldman, Jerome (ed) 1985:
The eloquent dead: ancestral sculpture of Indonesia and Southeast
Asia. University of California, Los Angeles
Chen Chi-Lu, 1968. Material culture of the Formosan aborigines.
Taiwan Museum, Taipei
Chen Chi-Lu, 1988. Notes on a wooden house-post of the Budai
Paiwan in Barbier, Jean Paul and Newton, Douglas (eds) 1988: Islands
and ancestors: indigenous styles of Southeast Asia. Prestel, Munich
Chiang, Bien, 2001. Paiwan sculpture in Sculptures: Africa, Asia,
Oceania, Americas, Muse du quai Branly, Paris
Del Re, Arundel, 1951. Creation myths of the Formosan natives.
Hokuseido Press, Tokyo
Ferrel, Raleigh, 1969. Taiwan aboriginal groups: problems in
cultural and linguistic classification in Monographs of the Institute
of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taipei
Kano, Tadao and Segawa, Kokichi 1956. An illustrated
ethnography of Formosan aborigines. Maruzen, Tokyo

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

SPL E NDOUR FOR TH E ANC E STORS TH E SCULPTUR E AND GOLD OF NIAS

Niki van den Heuvel
Pectoral necklace, Nias, Indonesia, 19th century. Gold, 24.5 x 22.3 cm, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore

reated for the veneration and

appeasement of ancestors and the
attainment of high status and power, the
art of Nias a small island situated off
Sumatras west coast is widely acclaimed
as among the most dramatic and spectacular
examples of Indonesian animist art. In earlier
times monumental sculptures carved from
stone and wood in the form of ancestral
and aristocratic effigies, obelisks, pillars,
steles and seats of honour were prolific
throughout the entire island. Although rare,
complete and remnant examples of these
impressive monuments are still found among
traditional Niha villages, or ri, which consist
of immense wooden houses, paved terraces
and stone plazas. The desire to emphasise
rank and piety also resulted in the production
of precious gold jewellery, smaller ancestral
figures and architectural elements.
Named after their founding ancestors, the ri
of Nias have distinct customs based on the
laws dictated by their forebears. Ancestral law
emphasises a distinct hierarchical division
consisting of an hereditary aristocracy who
trace their lineage from founding ancestors,
as well as common citizens. While all citizens
are ultimately connected to the deities and
ancestors of the upper and lower words, in
the past slaves governed by the upper classes
were considered inhuman and denied all
rights of citizenship, including living among
the rest of society (Feldman 1985: 45).
On Nias, rites associated with the cycle of life,
the prosperity of communities, significant
events in an individuals life, and political
events were often accompanied by major feasts
(owasa). Gatherings held to mark a villages
foundation, a funeral, a meeting of clans with
common ancestry, or to celebrate a nobles
elevation, occasioned the commissioning of
numerous effigies, precious adornments in
gold and the distribution of wealth. Each
owasa was sponsored by the aristocracy as
well as commoners to demonstrate dedication
to the ancestors and to mark a rise in rank
(Ziegler 1990: 79).
A striking anthropomorphic stone monument
(gowe nio niha) is among a collection of
important Indonesian ancestral and animist
sculpture held by the National Gallery of
Australia (NGA). Almost two and a half metres
tall, the impressive figure of a nobleman was
commissioned for a feast of merit intended to

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

ratify or elevate the patrons social and political

standing. Carved in the style of the austere
shafts and stele found throughout Nias, the
bold figure is depicted with both arms raised
in a gesture of authority and benevolence.
Its facial features and markers of high status
are carved in low stylised relief. While the
patrons warlike qualities of bravery and
strength are evidenced by the emphasis on the
pectorals and genitalia, his great affluence is
marked by the depiction in stone of the typical
accoutrements of a Niha nobleman including a
gold bifurcated headdress, pectoral necklace,
bangles and ear studs.
On Nias the role of gold is rich and multifaceted
and its power cannot be understated. Used
for ceremonial exchange, bride price and as a
marker of wealth and status, gold which is
associated with the upper world symbolises
the divinity and power of the upper classes
(Rodgers 1985: 80). The precious metal is
ubiquitous, appearing on all manner of
items including jewellery, weapons, textiles
and furniture. Imbued with magical powers
derived from the supernatural realms, objects
in gold serve to mediate between the real and
supernatural worlds and serve as amulets to
ward off malevolent forces (de Moor 1990: 107).

Gold also expresses the complementary

opposites upper and lower world, noble and
common, male and female which, according
to Niha law, are fundamental to the existence
of the cosmos. For example, pure yellow
gold, along with yellow cloth, is associated
with the noble classes while red or false gold
(gold alloy) and red cloth are associated
with commoners (Rodgers 1985: 80). Even
character is described in terms of gold with
a good and bad nature being referred to as
yellow and red gold respectively (de Moor
1990: 111-12).
In prosperous times a rich variety of jewellery
was produced for members of the noble
and common classes by local goldsmiths
from imported gold dust and leaf from
Sumatra, and later from Dutch coins (de
Moor 1990: 108). In the endless struggle to
attain the highest possible status, the array
of ceremonial accoutrements commissioned
for spectacular owasa feasts included crowns,
necklaces, ear ornaments and bracelets all
featuring different shapes and motifs. In
the case of the most noble, striking facial
adornments of gold moustaches and beards
were also produced. Exquisite examples
of such regalia have been borrowed from

11

Central peak of a crown, Nias, Indonesia,

Nias anthropomorphic stone monument [gowe nio

Nias anthropomorphic stone monument [gowe

19th century. Gold, 52.0 x 28.0 cm.,

niha], Indonesia, 19th century or earlier, stone, 240.0 x

salawa], Indonesia, 19th century or earlier, stone, 160.0 x

Asian Civilisations Museum, SingaporE

99.0 x 16.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

30.0 x 41.0 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

international collections to complement the

Gallerys collection of Nias stone sculpture
for the exhibition Life, death and magic: 2000
years of Southeast Asian ancestral art.

traits. Along with an elaborately defined crown

and studded headband, the figure wears a
single ear pendant and bangle. The nobleman
is also shown wearing a torque (nifa tali), a
symbol of the solidarity of villagers (de Moor
1990: 107), made from twisted strands of gold
wire and a sword and scabbard at the hip.
These accoutrements overtly emphasise the
aristocrats accomplishment as a great warrior.

The portrayal of finery is also present on the

figures carved as receptacles for ancestor spirits,
to which offerings were made by the living.
The exhibition includes a fine selection of
Niha wooden ancestor statues from renowned
international collections including the BarbierMueller Museum in Geneva and the National
Museum of Indonesia in Jakarta. An exquisite
adu zatua from the Barbier-Mueller Museum,
for example, is a striking depiction of a noble
ancestor wearing a nifato-fato, tla jaga armband
and an elegant single ear pendant.

An elegant set of chieftains gold in the form

of the nifato-fato pectoral necklace and the
central peak of a crown (tuwu, nandzulo or
saembu anaa) has been selected from the
Asian Civilisations Museum in Singapore.
Hammered from gold sheet with undulating
ridges and repouss motifs, nifato-fato were
worn by male noblemen throughout Nias and
less commonly by women in the islands south.
The striking crown pinnacle, more than half a
metre in height, would have been adorned with
gold elements in the form of ornate foliage.
Worn together, these elements represented the
universal tree of life from which all existence
originates (de Moor 1990: 117).
On show for the first time in Life, death and magic
is another powerful example of monumental
Nias sculpture that further demonstrates
the variety of Niha gold ornamentation. The
spectacular gowe salawa, which would also
have been commissioned for an owaha feast,
is carved in the more realistic style found
especially in the northern villages of the island.
A particularly rare work, the figure mirrors a
slightly more eroded example, undoubtedly
by the same sculptor, on display in the Muse
du Louvres Pavilion de Sessions in Paris.
Shown in the squatting position an ancient
pose appearing repeatedly in the ancestral art of
Southeast Asia the gowe salawas characteristic
moustache and pointed beard may depict
gold ornamental versions of these masculine

12

The prowess of the Nias warrior is also manifest

in Life death and magic with the selection of
trappings of power including an elaborate
sword and scabbard (balat) and necklace of
polished coconut shell discs (kalabubu), both
on loan from Amsterdams Tropenmuseum.
With a hilt in the form of the mythical dragonlike lasara, the balat also features a bundle
of protective amulets in the form of small
ancestor figures. Resembling the form of gold
nifa tali necklaces, the kalabubu was worn by
common and noble warriors who had taken a
head. In the case of the aristocracy, however,
the kalabubu would have been covered with
gold leaf (de Moor 1990: 117).

Shown on a scale never before seen in

Australia, the art and regalia of Nias in Life,
death and magic demonstrate the impressive
variations of Niha art. From precious gold to
monumental displays of grandeur, these works
reveal the devotion of a community to ancient
forebears and, ultimately, the obsession with
the achievement of greatest merit.
Niki van den Heuvel is the Exhibition Assistant for Life,
death and magic: 2000 years of Southeast Asian art.

REFERENCES
Displays of the finest jewellery were
reserved for major feasts with smaller and
less ostentatious examples worn as part of
everyday life. Depictions of the sumptuous
gold commissioned for feasts of merit
therefore serve as a valuable commemoration
of a patrons largesse and devotion to
ancestors and deities. Stone effigies of chiefs,
immense stone seats in the form of the
mythical osa-osa and wooden house panels
carved with depictions of jewellery continued
to emphasise a patrons bounty long after the
end of an owasa (de Moor 1990: 117).

Feldman, Jerome, 1985. The eloquent dead: ancestral sculpture of

Indonesia and Southeast Asia, UCLA Museum of Cultural History,
Los Angeles.
de Moor, Maggie, 1990. The importance of gold jewellery in
Nias culture in Feldman, Jerome et al., Nias tribal treasures,
Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara, Delft.
Rodgers, Susan, 1985. Power and gold: jewellery from Indonesia,
Malaysia and the Philippines from the collection of the BarbierMueller Museum, Geneva, Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva.
Ziegler, Arlette, 1990. Festive areas: territories and feats in the
south of Nias in Feldman, Jerome et al., Nias tribal treasures,
Volkenkundig Museum Nusantara, Delft.

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

S M ALL AND POT E NT FISHING CHAR M S AND TH E M E LANAU OF B ORN E O

Melanau fishing charms, Sarawak, Malaysia,
19th century, boar tusk, 10.9 x 1.6 x 1.8 cm (R);

Charlotte Galloway

11.0 x 1.4 x 2.2 cm (L), Gift of Rex and Caroline Stevenson

2010, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

he traditional art of the Melanau, like

the other ethnic groups of Borneo, was
driven by spiritual practices that included
shamanism, ritual sacrifice and superstition.
The name Melanau (also spelled Malanau and
Milanau) was given to people living in the
region of north and northeast Borneo around
1862 when the Rajah of Sarawak annexed the
region from the Sultan of Brunei. The area
became part of the Third Division of Sarawak
and his officials used the name Melanau to
describe the people who lived in the Rejang
delta and coastal area as far as Bintulu (Morris
1991: 4). As well as being fishermen, the
Melanau were distinguished from other tribes
by their farming of sago (Morris 1991: 16-17).
As food demands grew rapidly in Southeast
Asia, sago developed into a profitable trade
item for the businessmen of Kuching and the
Melanau became economically important to
the local government. The Melanau fall into
two loose groups: those living near the coast
and those living inland along the river, and
there are six sub-groups named after their
geographical locations.
The art of Borneo is most immediately
associated with large spirit figures and carved
wooden doors, house beams and posts, grave
markers and the like. But alongside these
very obvious and communal artworks there
existed a more personal group of artefacts
which is much less known. This group is
comprised of small, carved objects variously
called amulets, fetishes or charms and were
believed to offer strong personal protection
against misadventure and illness. Indeed,
the practice of tying protective charms to
food baskets, baby carriers and other
personal items was widespread amongst the
indigenous peoples of Borneo. Each charm
was made for an individual and often for
a specific purpose. They were not usually
re-used but were most likely disposed of with
the deceased and as such are quite rare.
Amongst the Melanau, small charms were
also used for the important communal
purpose of protecting all activities related
to fishing. The traditional Melanau religion
is called Liko, which means people of the
river (Tettoni & Ong 1996: 24). The chief god
is Ula Gemilang, the sea divinity, indicating
the importance of the sea and rivers.
Fishing was integral to Melanau life and
the Melanau calendar months have names
relating to fishing (Appleton 2006: 79). Life

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

revolved around the monsoons and the most

important community festival was the Kaul,
the annual ritual cleansing of the village and
blessing of the fishing season. One of the few
traditional ceremonies still observed today,
the festival takes place during the March
full moon, which usually heralds the end of
the northeast monsoons, when fishing and
planting can resume.
There were many complex customs associated
with fishing. Melanau fishermen, especially
when they worked in the deeper waters and
used the larger nets, observed taboos, recited
spells, and used images of spirits carved of
wood or bone (bilum [or] dakan) tied to the
nets. No woman was allowed on a barong
on its way to the fishing grounds (Morris
1991: 211). Some other rituals observed were:
conversation about animals was forbidden
to prevent careless talk that might be seen as
disrespect that could bring about a state of
baliyu, accompanied by storm and lightning.
Before lowering the net the shipmaster
silently recited spells, and each specialist,
the steersman and the swimmers, knew
appropriate spells which they used silently.
The images of spirits tied to the nets were
seen as a guarantee that the fishing was done
with their approval (Morris 1991: 212).
These spirit images were an important part
of the Melanau artistic expression. In 1912
Hose and McDougall wrote: the Malanaus
[sic], excel all other tribes, in that they attain
a high level of achievement in a great variety
of [decorative] arts, with the Malanaus
particularly skilled in fine wood carving
(224). A number of Melanau fishing charms
are illustrated in Lucas Chins Cultural
Heritage of Sarawak (1980: 86). A collection
of well-documented charms can be found at
the British Museum and were published in a
special issue of The Sarawak Museum Journal
prior to being donated to the Museum (1997:
153-320). The two figures illustrated here
were carved in bone and are very similar in
form to Melanau wooden effigies.
Today, many indigenous customs and
traditions have disappeared or are more
ceremonial in nature. By 1996 Beatrice
Clayre noted that only two old men were
still carving belum (also spelled bilum) in
Medong, on the Sarawak coast (Clayre in
Morris 1997: 176). Younger generations are
no longer isolated from the modern world,

and lifestyles have changed dramatically.

As early as the 1960s, over 60% of Melanau
were Muslim and many others followed a
Christian faith (Morris 1991: 6). It is often only
through the works of early anthropologists
and ethnographers that we are able to place
these artefacts in any context as many of the
rituals in which these objects were crucial
participants are now lost.
Dr Charlotte Galloway is Lecturer, Art History at
the School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian National
University

REFERENCES
Appleton, Ann, 2006. Acts of integration, Expressions of Faith.
Madness, Death and Ritual in Melanau Ontology, Borneo
Research Council, Phillips.
Chin, Lucas, 1980. Cultural Heritage of Sarawak, Sarawak
Museum, Kuching.
Hose, Charles and William MacDougall, 1912. The Pagan tribes
of Borneo, reprint Oxford University Press, Singapore, 2 vols,
1993, vol.1.
Morris, Stephen, 1991. The Oya Melanau, Malaysian Historical
Society, Kuching (Sarawak Branch).
Morris, Stephen, 1997. The Oya Melanau: traditional ritual
and belief, in Beatrice Clayre (ed) [special issue], The Sarawak
Museum Journal L11 (73, new series), Sarawak Museum
Department, Sarawak.
Tettoni, Luca and Edric Ong, 1996. Living in Sarawak,
Thames and Hudson, London.

13

PORTRAITS FRO M INDIA 1 8 5 0 S 1 9 5 0 S

Anne OHehir

Vallabhchrya Mahrjas by William J. Johnson from The oriental races and tribes, residents and visitors of Bombay:
a series of photographs, with letter-press descriptions, Vol 1: Gujart, Kutch, and Kthiawr, London: W. J. Johnson,
Bolton and Barnitt, 1863, albumen silver photographs, letterpress, National Gallery of Australia collection

selection of recently acquired portrait

photographs from India form the focus
of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA)
display from its Asia-Pacific collection. These
works are full of tension: between science and
art, the past and the present, photography as
a tool of documentation and as a site for the
imagination. Western modes of expression
jostle with an approach that seems more
intrinsically Indian, one in which adornment
and ornamentation is fundamental and where
reality is not always what it seems. Handcoloured images are often particularly striking
in the way regional Indian painting traditions
and an imported medium meet and create a
new language, one that speaks to the stress
but also the dynamism that is generated when
one culture seeks to accommodate the visual
conventions and political demands of another.
There is something strange about the plates
in William J. Johnsons The oriental races
and tribes, residents and visitors of Bombay,
published in two volumes in London in
1863 and 1866 the first photographically
illustrated ethnographic publication on
India. Their odd look is attributed to the
fact that Johnson and his colleague William
Henderson photographed the people in
their studio in Bombay but that Johnson
subsequently bleached out the backgrounds
and overprinted them with topographical
views from separate negatives. He also drew
in other features, such as foliage.
This is arguably one of the most engaging
uses of montage in the pioneering era of
photography, unexpected in images serving
as documentary evidence. That these works
the earliest dated images in the display
show a high degree of manipulation is
prescient for what follows, most evident in
the flamboyant and distinctly Indian style
of hand-coloured images. This is a genre
that anarchically undermines the notion of
photography as a transparent window onto
the world, as a glimpse of reality.
Photography arrived in India soon after its
invention in the late 1830s. The medium
was slow to take hold in the new climate
few early daguerreotype studios lasted long
and examples are scarce. Soon, however,
India provided young British men with
employment and adventure but also with a
novel vocation. William J. Johnson worked as
a civil servant but found himself drawn to the

14

new medium, becoming a founding member

of the Bombay Photographic Society in 1854.
By then other amateurs such as Linneus Tripe
(serving in the Madras Army) and Dr John
Murray (of the Indian Medical Service) were
producing images that stand comparison,
both aesthetically and technically, with
images produced anywhere in the world in
the same period (Falconer 2001: 9).
A rage for all things Indian gradually grew
in England after the quelling of the Sepoy
Mutiny in 1857. This ended the Mughal
era and signalled the subsumption of
the subcontinent into the British Empire,
leading up to the announcement in 1877 at
the Imperial Assemblage in Delhi of Queen
Victoria as the Empress of India (Gordon
2008: 45). The 1860s through to the 1890s were
years that belonged to the foreign professional
photographer, supplying images to an everburgeoning trade in tourist views for which
the Victorian age had an almost insatiable
appetite. Perhaps the most significant are
the landscape views by Samuel Bourne, who
used picturesque conventions to tame the
rugged terrain of the north of India.
The notable exception is the work by Lala Deen
Dayal, photographing from the mid 1870s.
A draughtsman by training, his technical
proficiency, together with a fine artists eye,
appealed to a wide audience. In 1887, having
already achieved vice-regal patronage, he

became the only Indian photographer to

be awarded the use of the title by Royal
appointment by Queen Victoria. Images from
an album commemorating the huge military
exercise or camp of exercise which took
place over a fortnight in January 1886 around
Delhi is included in the display.
Far from stressing the grand nature of the
manoeuvres, Deen Dayal often positioned
his camera at peculiarly low vantage points,
resulting in images that stress a dynamism
bordering on shambolic disorganisation.
Often, as Judith Mara Gutmann has noted:
the men looked as if they were about to step
out of the picture a tendency which she sees
as being part of an Indian way of picturing the
world (Gutmann 1982: 7). Around the time of
these photographs Deen Dayal was able to
retire from government having attracted the
patronage of the sixth Nizam of Hyderabad,
Mahbub Ali Khan, Asif Jah VI, a man of great
influence and wealth.
Photography was the vehicle par excellence
for feeding the Victorian-era mania, growing
out of colonial imperatives, for cataloguing
(and therefore controlling) the world they
sought to own: its buildings, particularly
in romantically ruined state, its flora and
fauna but also importantly its people.
Studio portraits of princely rulers reflect
this preoccupation, as well as ethnographic
studies of native tribes. A suite of images

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

Lakshmi 2001 by Pushpamala N and Clare Arni from the series The native
types: a series of photographs illustrating the scenery and the mode of
life of the women of South India, 20012004, Type C colour photographs,
National Gallery of Australia collection

example as do ensembles made

more complex by the imperative
of displaying the orders and robes
of honour bestowed by the British.
This sartorial juggling (Tarlo
1996: 24) is in many ways a potent
visual reflection of the subtle and
ever-shifting adjustments that
the Indian ruling class was able
to effect in response to changing
political and cultural imperatives.
The maharajas were themselves
quick to see the potential uses
that photography could serve,
adapting the medium to their own
cultural requirements. Rulers of
Jaipur, Travancore and Tripura
were particularly active as patrons
and practitioners. It is evident that
for many of the ruling families,
photography became something
of a fashionable pursuit. (Falconer
2001: 31)

included in the NGA display was probably

photographed by the firm of Johnston &
Hoffmann for a presentation album compiled
to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of
Queen Victoria in 1897.
Her Majestys enthusiasm for and patronage
of photography is well known. The images of
the maharajas from the 19th century through
to the eve of Independence show a fascinating
mix of dress styles: traditional costume worn
with patent leather shoes provides one obvious

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

That photography rendered

a highly coloured world in
monochrome had from its
beginning been universally seen
as problematic. The importance of colour
has become a simplified clich of Indias
exotic otherness, and yet despite this, colour
has considerable culturally specific meaning
within Indian society as well as being valued
for itself indicating social and marital status,
for example, and signifying the seasons and
major festivals (Kumar 2008: 38). This is also a
country where theatricality and performance
permeate every aspect of society. It is not
surprising then that as photography took on
an Indian aesthetic the surface became a site

for embellishment and invention, resulting

in a vibrant style of hand-coloured imagery
made for a local clientele, including most
of the ruling families. Hand-colouring also
developed in Japan utilising traditional skills
yet in contrast to India much of it was made
for the tourist trade and ended up abroad.
The hand-coloured photograph in India
is a site in which tensions between the
contemporary realities and traditions of the
past reside. Hand painting developed out
of the courtly painting tradition, borrowing
techniques that had been used for centuries
to make miniature paintings. It is a potent
symbol of the ways in which sitters achieved
an alliance with the modern world, choosing a
medium that so often implied this association
while also expressing an allegiance to timeless
and indigenous customs as represented by
painting. Interestingly, the hand colourists
often added more traditional aspects such
as turbans and jewellery to clients garbed in
western-style attire (Kumar 2008: 46)
One of the true highlights of the NGA display
is the sensitively and exquisitely handpainted (with water colour) double portrait by
Gopinath Devare, reputedly the first Indian to
be awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Society
of Photography. It depicts Prince Yeshwant
Rao Holkar, the original purchaser of the
Brancusi Birds now owned by the National
Gallery, and his sister Manorama Raje and
was possibly made just before the Prince left
for boarding school in England around 1920.
As the court system broke down at the end
of the 19th century, portraiture, in the past
available only to the elite, became much
more widely available (Allana 2008: 25).

15

Prince Yeshwant Rao Holkar and his sister Manorama

Raje c.1920, Devare & Co, Gopinath Devare (photographer),
Manorath portrait. Female devotees before Shrinathji, with Raaslila in the background 1900, Bhuralal Motilal,

gelatin silver photograph, water colour, original gilded

gelatin silver photograph, watercolour, gold. National Gallery of Australia collection

frame. National Gallery of Australia collection

all paint with just the faces of the donors stuck

on: there is no appeal to photographic authority
in reproducing the divine (Pinney 2009: 102).
The undeniable appeal of hand-colouring is
reflected in the fact that the tradition runs in
an unbroken line through to the present day.
The recognition that, as it developed, it was
stylistically unique to India has earned it the
attention of contemporary artists such as the
Bangalore-based Pushpamala N., who has
engaged traditional practitioners to colour two of
her series. She has also worked with the Thakker
studio in Bombay that supplied studio glamour
shots to Bollywood mid-century. This display at
the National Gallery certainly makes it apparent
that as the medium found and continues to
find its place in India, artists have found ways
to make it their own often anarchically and
in ways that also reflect the complexity of the
modern history of the subcontinent.
Anne OHehir is Assistant Curator of Photography at
the National Gallery of Australia.

REFERENCES
Manorath portrait. A family worshipping on Nandotsav 1900, Khubiram and Gopilal Brothers, gelatin silver
photograph, watercolour. National Gallery of Australia collection

Practitioners were found more widely in

bazaars and small studios. The democratising
intent of the medium, evident in the range
of the sitters in the display, back up Bengali
writer, Ardhishwar Ghataks 1904 reflection
that: a good oil painting cannot be had for less
than a thousand or even two thousand rupees.
Photography gives us a far more accurate
likeness for a hundred (Pinney 2009: 100).
One of the remarkable aspects of these Indian
photographs is the importance of surface. An
absence of the sense of the materiality of the
surface is a notable characteristic of photography
as it developed in the West. It is particularly

16

true in the history of colour photography, which

is usually printed in a laboratory, leaving the
photographer little if any licence to play. By
contrast in Indian hand-coloured photographs,
the paint can be so opaque that the viewer
struggles to find evidence of the photograph at all.
A distinctly Indian manifestation, the Rajasthani
manorath or photographic donor portrait, carries
the I was there-ness of photography into a
sacred experience of darshan (daily showings
and blessings) of Shrinathji, a manifestation of
Krishna. In these images the sacred world of
the Shrinathji figure is significantly rendered
in paint and photography is reserved for the
temporal world. Sometimes the image is nearly

Allana, R. 2008. A bold fusion: realism and the artist in

photography, The Alkazi Collection of Photography: Painted
photographs Coloured portraiture in India. Mapin, Ahmedabad.
Falconer, J. 2001. India: pioneering photographers 1850-1900.
The British Library, London.
Gordon, S. 2008. The colonial project and the shifting gaze,
Marg: A magazine of the arts 59(4): 40 53.
Gutman, J.M. 1982. Through Indian eyes: 19th and 20th century
photography from India, Oxford University Press: New York in
association with the International Center for Photography.
Kumar, P. 2008. The evolving modern, 18501950: Indian
costumes as seen through painted photographs, The Alkazi
Collection of Photography: Painted photographs Coloured
portraiture in India, Mapin, Ahmedabad.
Pinney, C. 2009. Centre and Periphery: Photographys spatial
field, Marg: A magazine of the arts 61(1): 98 103.
Tarlo, E. 1996. Clothing matters: dress and identity in India, Hurst
and Company, London.

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

IN TH E PU B LIC DO M AIN : A N E W D I S P L AY AT TH E N ATI O N A L M U S E U M O F CA M B O D IA

Oun Phalline and Martin Polkinghorne
The West Mebon Vishnu surrounded by a project animated lotus pond. Didactics of recent archaeological
discoveries feature the sculptures position in the hydraulic city. Photo: Chhay Visoth

he National Museum of Cambodia

(NMC) holds one of the most significant
collections of art in the world. The Museums
substantial collection of bronze and stone
Angkorian sculpture showcases the greatest
achievements of Khmer creativity. Among the
most significant masterpieces is the magnificent
image of Vishnu Anantashayin from the West
Mebon temple, which readers of the TAASA
Review will remember as the cover image from
the September 2006 issue (Feneley 2006: 18 - 19).
This celebrated image of Vishnu is a major part
of a bronze figure that would have measured
nearly six metres, one of the largest Southeast
Asian bronzes ever made.
Using funds donated by the Australian
Embassy in Cambodia and UNESCO, the
display of this image has undergone an
exciting renovation. The Vishnu now appears
as if it were reinstalled in its sacred temple
setting surrounded by an animated lotus
pond. The renovation also incorporates
supplementary objects including gold
jewellery and sandstone sculptures which
link the famed sculpture to its original context
and recent archaeological discoveries.
Vishnu was one of the principal Brahmanic
deities worshipped throughout the ancient
Khmer lands. The representation of Vishnu
Anantashayin is frequently seen in Khmer
art, especially on temple bas-reliefs and
decorative lintels. In 1936 a farmer living
in the Angkor region is said to have had a
dream in which the Buddha appeared to
him asking to be released from the soil.
He led the cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient
(EFEO) conservator, Maurice Glaize to
the West Mebon where at the end of the
causeway, they unearthed not a Buddha, but
a magnificent statue of Vishnu. Following
its excavation it was brought to the NMC
(then the Muse Albert Sarraut) and has
remained on permanent display ever since.
The sculpture, among the NMCs most
famous, has toured the world appearing in
exhibitions of Khmer art in the United States,
Japan and Australia.
When the Vishnu was cast sometime in the
mid 11th century it was installed at the end
of the narrow causeway of the West Mebon
temple in the middle of a lotus pond. The
symbolic importance of both the lotus and
water are ubiquitous throughout the history
of the Khmer people and the incorporation

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

of these themes was critical to presenting

an appropriate and authentic display of the
Vishnu in context. The lotus represents the
purity of the body, speech and mind. The
life-cycle of its flower, paddy and rhizome
embodies the birth, florescence, death
and regeneration of all things. Deities are
placed on lotus seats, carry flowers in their
hands, and shrines have lotus foundations.
Fundamental to lotus symbolism is its
connection to water. Water ensures fertility,
regeneration and the prosperity of the
community through the coming of the
rains. Khmer rulers almost always based
their authority on the management of water.
With the assistance of the Visualising Angkor
Project (Tom Chandler/ Monash University)
a rippling pond filled with budding and
blooming lotus is projected onto a screen
from behind the sculpture providing visitors
with the impression that they are viewing the
Vishnu in its original setting.

settlement integrated by an elaborate water

management network (see Evans et al 2007).
A key feature of the hydraulic infrastructure
was the enormous reservoir, the Western
Baray, and at the centre the West Mebon
temple and the great West Mebon Vishnu.
The new display promises to attract both
Khmer and international visitors and promote
awareness, understanding and appreciation of
Cambodias heritage. Through the success of
this renovation, and other ongoing initiatives
like the first complete inventory of holdings
in more than half a century (the Leon Levy
Foundation and Shelby White Inventory
Project), expert conservation laboratories and
a dynamic temporary exhibitions program,
the NMC hopes to develop its facilities and
build the capacity of its staff.
Oun Phalline was appointed Director of The
National Museum of Cambodia in 2010. Between
1996 2009 Mme Oun was Deputy Director of the

Proving the most popular aspect of the

new display are 3D animations of medieval
Angkor, also produced by the Visualising
Angkor Project. Drawing upon archaeological
and historical data, the animations depict
what we know of temples, landscapes and
daily life at Angkor in the 13th century.
Recent archaeological discoveries also relate
to the West Mebon Vishnu and the water
system of Angkor. Since the 1990s, French,
Australian, and Cambodian teams have
conducted extensive archaeological mapping
and the display incorporates the resulting
map of Greater Angkor revealing a vast

Museum. Martin Polkinghorne holds a PhD in Art

History from the University of Sydney specialising
in Khmer art. In 2009 he undertook an Endeavour
Post-doctoral fellowship under host institution
Heritage Watch, including a placement at the
National Museum of Cambodia

REFERENCES
Evans, D., Pottier, C., Fletcher, R., Hensley, S., Tapley, I., Milne, A.
and Barbetti, M. 2007. A comprehensive archaeological map of
the worlds largest pre-industrial settlement complex at Angkor,
Cambodia, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of
the United States of America. Vol. 104 no. 36, pp. 14277-14282.
Feneley, M. 2006. The West Mebon Vishnu, in TAASA Review,
The Journal of the Asian ArtsSociety of Australia vol 15 (3).

17

CULTURAL E NCOUNT E RS : TH E R E V E RS E GAZ E OF KUTCH PAINTING

Jim Masselos
HORSE AND RIDER, KUTCH c1840, COLOUR ON PAPER,
14.5 x 18.5 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

ehind the British East India Companys

physical takeover of India during the 1700s,
another encounter of equal significance was
occurring, an encounter between civilizations,
between distinctive ways of thinking, seeing
and behaving. The juxtaposition was profound
and nowhere more so than in the area of
culture and the arts - particularly painting.
The impact varied according to the situation
throughout the subcontinent. Some parts
were initially less affected, others more so
depending on whether the British took over
government completely or ruled indirectly
through subordinate princes.
In less affected territories, painting went on
much as before. Artists continued producing
pictures for maharajas depicting religion
and courtly life in their accustomed opaque
gouache medium. Later in the second half of
the 19th century they were severely affected
as photographs seduced patrons and undercut
the artists support base. As for painters who
catered to pilgrims at significant temples, their
clientele was largely unaffected by the change
of masters; they flourished until late in the
19th century, when the cheaper mass products
of printing presses took away their customers.
Where the British ruled directly, the impact
was greater. Artists lost their former patrons
and perforce found new ones in Company
officials. Inevitably the new patrons had
different tastes and needs. Many wanted
visual records of their life in India to send
home to friends and family. Artists painted
Europeans with their horses and friends, in
bungalows or looking over the countryside.
Patrons also wanted pictures of the strange

exotic structures they were encountering,

so painters took on the stuff of European
orientalist fantasy, buildings like the Taj
Mahal, the palaces of the Red Forts, emperors
tombs and other Mughal monuments. Such
subjects, recorded in fine detailed precision,
became commonplace in Company painting,
a genre of its own.
While the new patrons wanted portrayals of
the built environment around them they were
less keen about the natural environment.
There are relatively few landscape and
topographical scenes from Company painters.
That market seems to have been largely the
preserve of touring British artists like the
Daniell brothers whose drawings became
spectacular coloured aquatints highly desired
in early 1800s London.
What absorbed much of the attention of
Company artists came from their recruitment
into what was essentially the documentation
project of the Raj. Artists were deployed to
depict people, castes, religions, customs,
occupations and festivals under British rule.
Many thousands of such paintings were
produced in which people going about their
daily activities became stereotypes there were
token Brahmans, warriors, widows, traders and
so on. Given the requirement to characterise
people into types, painters used attributes
considered distinctive to specific groups. Just
as deities in traditional iconography were
identified by unique attributes, Shiva by his
trident for instance, or Vishnu by his discus, so
too were different types of Indians identified
by distinguishing markers. Brahmans had
tonsured heads, shoemakers specific tools,

soldiers uniforms, snake charmers their

characteristic flutes and so on. Costumes,
weapons, headgear, a workers tools, such
items enabled human subjects to be coded into
categories, and denied individuality.
Local artists recorded for the new rulers
knowledge about who and what they ruled:
art became the handmaiden for imperial
documentation - and domination. In the process
the look of the image itself changed as artists
adopted transparent watercolours rather than
the opaque paints favoured by court artists.
The composition of pictures also changed:
because figures and social groups were most
important to patrons, they became central in the
composition, rendering context less important.
Backgrounds were downplayed and even
largely disappeared from Company paintings.
The interaction between the foreign ruler and
the local artist thus led artists to reproduce the
world around them through the foreigners
gaze, using their patrons preferred media
and viewpoints. Yet subversively, as we
look at the painting of people at work and
in action, we see the intended stereotyped
images differently. The focus on ordinary
people means that, paradoxically, we get a
sense of time, place and the individuality of
those depicted in the paintings, probably not
what their patrons had intended.
A small watercolour from Kutch in western
India of a cavalry soldier makes the point.
There is no background. The token shadows

TIDAL ESTUARY, KUTCH c1800, GOUACHE ON PAPER, 48 x 24.5 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

18

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

EXPLOSION ON BOAT, KUTCH c1800, GOUACHE ON PAPER, 36.5 x 27 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

of the horse and rider on the ground anchor

the composition, but do not identify or
contextualise the central figure. The costume
of the rider, the red scabbard of his sword,
and the long rifle differentiate him as a
warrior of worth. What lifts the painting
above its not especially expert rendering of
the horse is the warriors craggy face. Here
is an individual, distinctive in his own right
and full of grizzled character, not at all the
stereotyped warrior.
Other paintings created in Kutch from the
second half of the 1700s directly confronted
the pervasive Company gaze. Their
artists approached the cultural encounters
happening on the subcontinent from another
angle, and present an alternate gaze, a reverse
view that ensures their pictures are quite
unlike any produced elsewhere in India. They
remain characteristically Indian, whatever
the subject matter or influence. This group of
Kutch paintings has been little studied: there
is a single monograph, A Place Apart. Painting
in Kutch, 1720-1820, from B.N. Goswamy
and A.L. Dallapiccola (1983) and three or
so articles by them. Other art historians
have neglected the Kutch paintings, as have

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

museum collections, though not private

collectors from one of whom the paintings
discussed here come.
The Kutch paintings follow similar formats
and treatments, and often use distinctive
European subject matter though they could
never have been created in Europe. They
are all relatively large, horizontal images
painted predominantly in the opaque colours
of the traditional miniature on reinforced
paper, each framed with strong black painted
borders. They remain within the praxis of
court paintings in their medium though they
differ in subject matter and treatment.
Goswamy and Dallapiccola trace the origins
of the style to woodcut prints from England
or Europe that were brought to Kutch
sometime in the second half of the 18th
century, evidenced by surviving examples
in Kutch collections. The prints, known as
perspective views or vue perspectifs, were a
popular novelty on the continent at the time.
They are characterised by their rigid use
of Renaissance perspective, the perspective
of the vanishing point that was applied to
buildings, streetscapes and even landscapes.

Small figures break the formality of the

compositions, add human interest to the
scene and provide a sense of scale, as in views
of various cityscapes and country mansions.
Through such prints, Kutch artists were
introduced to novel subject matter and
compositional approaches. At first they
copied the foreign prints literally and then
set out to imitate their overall look. In some
cases they even painted in the cross lines of
the original print, as in the painting of ships
around an estuary. The subject matter itself
is rare in Indian painting there are hardly
any seascapes apart from some Mughal
representations, like that of Noah on his
ship escaping the floods. The Kutch seascape
has no dramatic central subject though there
is a sophisticated use of perspective. Here
the tide is out, leaving small country craft
stranded, a sailor swims in a pool left by the
retreating waters, others fish as do various
kinds of birds, cranes and other waders. In
the distance out at sea is a row of ocean going
vessels, presumably waiting for the tide so
they can unload or perhaps load cargo a
reminder of Kutchs maritime role and how
it has for centuries been part of the main

19

ATTACK ON FORT, KUTCH c1800, GOUACHE ON PAPER, 41 x 30 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

many seem to be Chinese sporting pigtails.

Needing to locate the images somewhere
distant, the artist has probably again used
available pictorial notions of the exotic.
Ambiguity is also there in the image of what
is probably St Pauls in London. Presumably
derived from a foreign print, the painting
retains the use of hatching lines, but these are
used to artistic effect to define those parts of
the building in shadow. The use of figures
about the building reinforces a sense of its size
and proportions but if the figures are intended
to provide local colour they miss their target.
The notable seated under an oriental looking
umbrella in front of the Cathedral looks as if
he is holding court in some distant place while
some of the figures around him seem to be in
Chinese costume they are not particularly
European in dress or pose.
The same difficulty in depicting the alien and
different is evident in the way the artist has
rendered the statues on top of the cathedral.
He would seem to have had no idea of what
a statue was like, much less a group of them
spread along a rooftop. Nor was he any
more successful depicting the finials of the
spires. With its large looming cloud above
the building, a throwback not to European
but to Indian precedents, the painting as a
whole manages to unite its disparate elements
and convey a freshness that goes beyond any
suggestion of quaintness and naivety.

ST. PAULS CATHEDRAL, KUTCH c1800, GOUACHE ON PAPER, 37 x 25 CM. PORTVALE COLLECTION

trading routes in the Indian Ocean and the

Arabian Sea.
Other paintings record distant events. There
is one of an army besieging a formidable
island fort. Just where this is remains
uncertain: it may be one of the many coastal
forts south of Bombay constructed by local
rulers. The redcoats worn by some soldiers
suggest the attackers may be British. Given
that other figures appear to have pigtails
and to be therefore Chinese, the artist may
rather be presenting an imagined version of
foreigners attacking a fort, peopled by his
stereotyped view of what constitutes foreign
appearance. The artists depiction of the guns
and cannon reinforces the imaginative nature
of this picture.

20

A painting of an explosion is equally

perplexing. Beside a stream flowing into a
lake is a Mughal or Rajasthani style gateway
and fort walls with a township, in complex
perspective, behind them and beside the
lake. There are two glorious trees and idyllic
gardens that serve as a colourful balance to
the catastrophe that is the pictures subject.
Flames and smoke rise from an explosion
on a boat full of bales of cargo. Figures
are shown hurled into the air, along with
a large pot, the sort boats of the day used
to store water. While the painting draws
on customary elements of Indian painting,
particularly in the delineation of the trees,
the fort and town, the artist again seems
to have illustrated something unfamiliar to
him. Figures in the painting are strange -

As a group, such Kutch paintings show how

the style of perspective views prints was copied
using manual painting techniques, absorbing
alien mechanical reproduction approaches
into existing artistic traditions. That the subject
matter explored in these paintings was not of
the kind normally featured in courtly painting
underscores the curiosity of the artists for
what was outside their Kutchi world, and their
willingness to depict it in their paintings. There
is a sense of adventure in their enterprise. While
Europe was increasingly viewing Asia as an
orientalist construct during the 18th century,
and was developing stereotypes of its people
and places, these artists in Kutch it would seem
were doing something similar but in reverse,
imagining and reproducing Europe within their
Indian framework of attitudes, using whatever
models were at hand. In their turn they were
occidentalising Europe, providing an Indian
view of the foreign and different.
Jim Masselos is Honorary Reader, School of
Philosophical and Historical Inquiry, University of
Sydney. His most recent books are The City in Action.
Bombay Struggles for Power, 2007 and (with Naresh
Fernandes), Bombay Then: Mumbai Now, 2009.

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

B OOK R E VI E W : E TH N IC J E W E L L E RY A N D A D O R N M E N T
Janet Mansfield

to both categories and of the highest and most

stimulating quality.

rrp A$155.00 including postage

As a potter of many years and with a small

collection of ethnic jewellery and clothing, I
have always been interested, like most potters,
in mark-making, design and pattern, and what
we can learn through the forms and decoration
that adorn pots from ancient times or ethnic
traditions. I am fascinated by the similarities
that exist in work from diverse regions and,
in particular, the differences that can be traced
from one region to another perhaps as people
migrate, or as objects are carried from one
place to another. Or is it that human needs
and ceremonies are more universal and the
differences relate to locally available materials
or other individual experiences?

With the stated aim of promoting public

appreciation of ethnic jewellery, Truus
Daalder provides much more to the reader
through her knowledge of the spiritual
values of tribal people, all learnt through the
study of objects. Her book, Ethnic Jewellery
and Adornment, covering the regions of
Australia, Oceania, Asia and Africa, gives
us an understanding of cultures, beliefs and
rituals through the objects worn and treasured
by ethnic groups from these countries.

Truus Daalder explores these and many other

possibilities in her book. The craftsmanship
shown by the makers of the objects depicted
in the Daalder collection, and 80 percent of
this book is made up of the family collection,
is exemplary. Flawless attention to detail and
meticulous fashioning can be seen in every
piece and all are objects of creative art. An
Aboriginal work, a mans ceremonial head
ornament made of sulphur-coloured cockatoo
feathers, wood and bees wax is an inspiringly

ETHNIC JEWELLERY AND ADORNMENT

Australia Oceania Asia Africa
by Truus Daalder
Ethnic Art Press and Macmillan, 2009
Photographs by Jeremy Daalder

beautiful piece, as is the silver, coral and

turquoise headdress for a woman in India.
Or my favourite, the heavy neckpiece of 13
silver rods from Southwest China. Every page
of text is filled with the research undertaken
by Truus Daalder and told as an enthusiastic,
dedicated and personal discovery she has
made. All photographs depict objects of
awe-inspiring beauty, some that must have
taken months or years to assemble by nimble
fingers and a sure eye for colour and design.
This book is a family affair. Truus wrote the
text, son Jeremy took the photographs and
husband Joost is the editor and promoter. He
will tell you that the book was compiled for
love of the subject. That love comes through
in every aspect of the books production. It
is a collectors item in itself. An extensive
bibliography, much of it part of the research
undertaken for Ethnic Jewellery and
Adornment, shows the attention given to the
subject among academics and collectors. I can
recommend this book to everyone interested
in fine art, crafts and beautiful objects.
Janet Mansfield is a ceramic artist, author and
President of the International Academy of Ceramics,
Geneva, Switzerland. She lives in Gulgong NSW.

We learn what is important to life and living

for people we cannot possibly meet, we
learn about the rituals of warfare, about
birth and marriage taboos and the death
rites of tribal people whose communities
respect and demand strict rules of conduct.
We are witness to beautiful objects, superbly
presented, objects made by people in a
traditional way to protect themselves against
misfortune and natural disasters, to ensure
the continuity of the family and to triumph
over their enemies.
Truus Daalders father, a noted Dutch
collector, started Truus on the road to looking
at the role of art and culture in objects
around her. It was in Australia where she
first started to collect ethnic jewellery. She
gives us a definition of ethnic as referring
to work made in a specific regional area
that is relevant and traditional to that area.
She qualifies jewellery as being associated
with precious metals and valuable stones,
whereas adornment relates more to items
made of materials such as feathers, fibre,
shells, and so on. In this book we are treated
Mans ceremonial head ornament, Katji people, Northern Territory, Australia, early 20th century. 27 x 25 cm.
Cockatoo plumes, beeswax, wooden hairpin. South Australian Museum, Adelaide. Photo: Jeremy Daalder

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

21

B ATIK OF J AVA : PO E TICS AND POLITICS

CALOUNDRA R E GIONAL ART GALL E R Y TOURING E XHI B ITION
Skirt cloth kain panjang, Cirebon, 1940 1950s,

Skirt cloth kain panjang, Lasem, early 20th century,

hand-drawn design (batik tulis), cotton, synthetic dyes.

hand-drawn design (batik tulis), cotton, natural dyes.

Greg Roberts & Ian Reed Collection

Greg Roberts & Ian Reed Collection

The first collection, available to the general

public due to the generosity of its owners, two
Sunshine Coast collectors and art connoisseurs
- Greg Roberts and Ian Reed, presents more
than 20 outstanding batiks illustrating the
diversity of cultural and artistic traditions
of the north coast of Java, an area known
as Pasisir. In Dadang Christantos paintings,
batik textiles have been presented indirectly,
as fragments of a distorted past memories
of tragic events which affected his home area
during the 1965-1966 political upheavals,
when tens of thousands of people lost their
lives. By presenting these two, so different yet
indirectly connected groups of artworks, the
exhibition is able to generate diverse realms of
experience and emotion. The first one results
from an encounter with the aesthetic and the
symbolic as well as the technical achievements
represented in the best examples of Pasisir
batiks. In the second one, violence and an
overwhelming feeling of loss are experienced
as universal human suffering.

including the extensive collection of batiks.

His mother survived with five young children
to look after. The artist decided to dedicate
to his mother the series of paintings Batik
has Been Burnt, admiring her strength in
overcoming these obstacles. The paintings
have been included in this exhibition courtesy
of the Jan Menton Gallery in Brisbane.

which bring to perfection the art of drawing

with wax, but which are equally vital in the
successful accomplishment of all other types
of tasks.

It comes as a surprise to find that for Dadang

Christanto, learning the meaning of batik
designs was his first art experience. Dadang
was born in 1957 in a village near Tegal in
central Java. His parents used to operate
a small shop selling batik fabrics and as a
child, he frequently witnessed his mother
discussing various batik designs with her
customers. Given this experience, batik has
also shaped my artistic journey, states the
artist. Then, in 1965 when he was eight
years old, during the political turmoil when
his father was taken away and never seen
again, the familys house was burned down,

Dadang Christanto, one of the most recognised

Indonesian artists, has since 1999 been a
resident of Australia and is currently Adjunct
Professor at Griffiths University. He is best
known for his installations, many of which
are monumental works, however his twodimensional works and art performance are
of equal substance. In the past, he occasionally
included batik fabrics as a component of his
installations, but this is the first time that his
work directly refers to these textiles. From
Javanese batik he learned of the need for
patience, concentration and focus in order
to complete the work personal qualities

Maria Wronska-Friend

he batik fabrics of Java represent the

peak of achievement in the art of waxresist dyeing and belong to the greatest
textile traditions of Asia. The significance of
these textiles was recognised by UNESCO in
October 2009 when Javanese batik was the
first group of Asian textiles to be inscribed
on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage
of Humanity. To celebrate this event, the
Caloundra Regional Art Gallery on the
Sunshine Coast decided to organise an
exhibition Batik of Java: Poetics and Politics
which presents two Queensland collections
of Indonesian textiles and paintings: batik
textiles from the north coast of Java and a
series of recent paintings by the Indonesian
artist Dadang Christanto entitled Batik has
been Burnt.

22

These qualities are clearly demonstrated in

the Pasisir batiks from the collection of Greg
Roberts and Ian Reed. The textiles represent
the highest achievement of Javanese batik
from the end of the 19th century, stressing
the diversity of regional styles as well as
ethnic preferences for particular textiles. The
collection also contains the best examples
from workshops still operating in this part of
the island.
The highlights are a group of batiks from the
town of Lasem, made in the end of the 19th
and early 20th century, featuring the deep
red colour obtained from the natural dye
mengkudu a colour of such intensity that
it cannot, in spite of numerous efforts, be
replicated with synthetic dyes. The secret of

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

Batik Has Been Burnt #7, Dadang Christanto 2008, Acrylic on Belgium linen, 137.0 x 167.0 cm, Private Collection

well as between the present and memory,

achievement and loss. It encourages viewers
to explore emotions and experiences resulting
from this encounter with two groups of
artworks, each with their own symbolic
and social meanings. While the collection of
Pasisir batiks provides an insight into one
of the greatest textile traditions of the world,
Dadang Christantos series of paintings refer
to his deep, personal experience of loss and
grief emotions that can also be readily
understood at a universal level.
Maria Wronska-Friend is an anthropologist and
museum curator specialising in textiles and costumes
of Southeast Asia. She is an Adjunct Senior Lecturer
at James Cook University in Cairns and has curated
several exhibitions promoting Asian art. Batik of
Java: Poetics and Politics is her latest project.

this unique hue of red colour might perhaps

be attributed to the high salinity and the iron
content of the local water.
The collection also contains excellent examples
of floral sarongs made at Pekalongan, which
used to be worn in the late 19th century and
first half of the 20th century by Eurasian
women of European and Javanese descent,
as well as by Chinese residents of Java.
Batik Hokokai, made in one of the Chinese
workshops at Pekalongan is of exceptional
quality, representing an artistic style that
dominated Pasisir batik during the Japanese
occupation (1942-1945). As cotton cloth was
in short supply during the war, the patterns
of this type of batiks are extremely dense and
complex, usually positioned in two diagonal
fields so that the skirt could be worn in two
ways, each time featuring different designs.
The pinnacle of Javanese skills in the use of
natural dyes is represented by batik from the
group tiga negeri (three countries). Its name
indicates that the fabric was dyed in three
different towns, each of them being famous for
production of a particular type of colour with
natural dyes. For example, following the first
dyeing in Lasem in red colour, the fabric could
have been sent to Kudus to be dyed in blue
and then to Surakarta to be dyed in brown. The
multi-layered designs of these fabrics illustrate
the complex process of their production.
The collection represents as well the continuity
of the batik traditions in the Pasisir area and
the range of high quality contemporary fabrics

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

produced there. The Oey Soe Tjoen workshop

at Kedungwuni near Pekalongan, established
at the end of the 19th century, is probably
the last place in Pasisir to continue the finest
tradition of Chinese batik on Java. The floral
sarongs of soft, pastel colours are famous for
their precise, controlled design, where not
even one drop of wax is left to chance.

The exhibition Batik of Java: Poetics and Politics,

organised by the Caloundra Regional Art Gallery,
will be presented at Caloundra between 10 July and
14 August 2010. In the following months it will
travel to Artspace Mackay, Perc Tucker Regional
Gallery at Townsville, Dogwood Crossing at
Miles and Noosa Regional Gallery. The exhibition
is accompanied by a catalogue.

The port of Cirebon, which for centuries has been

engaged in maritime trade with China, India
and the Middle East, developed a distinctive
type of batik, whose style mirrors the diversity
of cultural traditions that shaped this area.
Old Cirebon designs have been successfully
revived by two batik workshops: Batik Madil
and Batik Masina. In the former, in 2008, the
collectors commissioned batik cloth featuring
12 colours. It took exactly one year to produce
this flawlessly executed sarong, decorated with
bright summer flowers and butterflies which
symbolise the high season of life.
The leitmotif of Cirebon art is the dramatic
megamendung (drifting cloud) design
which on some batiks have been elevated
to paramount position. According to local
tradition, the design was introduced by a
group of Chinese craftsmen who accompanied
a daughter of the Ming emperor when she
arrived at Cirebon to marry the local ruler.
The same design appears several times in the
paintings of Dadang Christanto, to mark the
Chinese ancestry of his family.
The exhibition aims to establish a dialogue
between the textiles and paintings, as

23

COLL E CTOR S CHOIC E : A PAIR O F K E N YAH B E L AWI N G P O L E S FR O M B O R N E O

Michael Heppell
Erecting a belawing POLE in the Apo-Kayan, 1928 from Tillema, H.F., Apo-Kajan Een Filmreis
naar en door Centraal Borneo, van Munster's Uitgevers-Maatschappij, Amsterdam, p.207

he word came through. I was on the

road. A Uma Jalan Kenyah leader
above Muara Ancalong, four days chugging
upriver from Samarinda in Kalimantan
Timur had been trying to sell a couple of 6
metre long belawing poles without success.
He approached someone I knew, who asked
me if I was interested. I remembered an early
photograph of a similar pole being erected
in the Apo Kayan. It signalled that if you
were to erect one in Australia, avoid a union
workforce and occupational health and safety
inspectors. I telephoned my younger son,
explained what was on offer and asked if we
would have difficulty getting it round the
back. No worries! he said.
Traditionally every Kenyah longhouse had
a belawing pole. The pole was the terrestrial
domain of the supreme god Bali Akang. It
was always crowned by a carved figure of a
warrior. The pole played a central part in mamat
ceremonies to celebrate heads taken and to rank
boys and men as warriors. Various sacrifices
made at the pole propitiated Bali Akang to
strengthen male souls in the community.
We decided that the best port from which
to ship the pieces would be Kuching, in
Sarawak, Malaysia. Shipment would be
direct to Melbourne and fumigation there
was recognized by AQIS. We agreed a price
for the poles and asked for them to be dug
out so it was clear they were not stolen and
written testimony provided that we were bone
fide buyers.
Digging them out was simple. Getting them on
one of the river ferries that plied a trade between
Samarinda and Muara Ancalong required the
ferry owner to bring his boat further upriver
from Muara Ancalong. Fortunately, there was
a bank to which the boat could get close. The
belawing had been transported to the bank,
rolled on a succession of logs, with a couple
of men running the ejected log up to the front
to maintain a continuous belt. The belawing
were carved from what the timber trade calls
sinkers, a wood which is so dense that it sinks
in water. Care was necessary. Two teams, one
armed with rattan ropes and restraining, and
the other pushing, rolled the poles onto the
roof of the ferry.
We arrived in Samarinda around four oclock
one afternoon having left Muara Ancalong at
dawn. In no time we had a large labour force

24

to roll the poles off the ferry and onto the

dock. We started looking for a truck owner
to transport them to Kuching. Such a journey
was beyond the imagination of all but a Bugis
owner of the most decrepit truck in the line
waiting for work. He had never been further
than 50 kilometres from Samarinda. We asked
for a fixed price to Kuching. To assist him, we
explained where Kuching was 2,500 or more
kilometres away. He quoted a figure that we
calculated would get us three quarters of
the way there. We haggled and settled for
a lower figure. The truck went down to the
dock where fork lifts placed the poles on the
tray. The carved figures stretched beyond
the tailgate and had a wonderful view of the
passing scenery.
We set off. The journey was constantly
interrupted by police requiring evidence that
the poles had not been stolen. A thousand
kilometres into the journey and after repeated
punctures, we agreed to stand the owner a set
of new tyres. About half way, the truck owner
had worked out that this trip was not going
to be profitable and, as we had expected,
wanted to renegotiate contract terms. We
made it worthwhile for him to continue. Two
hundred kilometres from the Sarawak border,
the truck engine gave up the ghost. Ten hours
later we were on the move again, somewhat
poorer for the experience, but with a much
better diesel engine in the truck. Three weeks
later the poles were on the high seas.

In Australia, our customs agents agreed to

put the boxed poles on a truck with lifting
equipment. We organised a team of strong
athletes, ropes and piano dollies to get the
poles from the truck into our suburban
driveway. No truck arrived. The truck sent
to the docks was too short for the poles. They
would be delivered the following day. We
told the agents that we would have the team
on the following day, but not after that. The
truck on the following day was longer but
still not long enough and we waited in vain.
I told the agents that delivery would have to
include getting the poles off the truck and
into our driveway.
The following day, our door bell rang. A
truckie said he had two poles to deliver and
did I know how heavy they were - he had
weighed them at 650 kilos each. I asked him if
he had lifting gear. He said, no. I asked him
how many helpers he had. He replied, none.
My wife and I were alone at home
The truckie, a giant of a man, said he had a
number of other deliveries to do; so he wanted
to get on his way as quickly as possible. I
explained I would give my son a call. He
reminded me of the weight of each crate. I told
him these guys were all ex-AFL footballers
and were used to bench-pressing 120 kilos.
The truckie looked sheepish but relieved,
admitting that he could only manage 110.

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 1

The belawing poles relocated to suburbia.

Installing the belawing poles from a Kenyah longhouse. Photo: Michael Heppell

I phoned my son. He said he would have a

team round within the hour. I called Tony,
a Canadian, at Kennards. He had participated
in moving a number of lighter poles. I asked
if he could get some dollies, straps and a
roustabout up to our house and he replied he
was on the way.
An hour later we were underway and
followed the formula for getting the poles
onto the roof of the ferry. With the first pole
safely parked on the street, we realised we
could not get the second off the same way
as it would probably go through our picket
fence. We unpacked the second one from
its crate, piled the two crates on each other
and let the second one down onto the crates,
which cushioned its fall. The truckie, a great
bloke, bade us farewell.
It then seemed a simple matter for the
roustabout to lift each pole high enough to
get a dollie under it, manoeuvring them out
into the street (potentially to the annoyance of
drivers who used the street as a rat run) and
then pushing them into our driveway. It had
taken 2 hours and the team was worried it
might be missed from its workplace. The poles
were left on the pavement outside our house.
The team returned that evening and it took
just under an hour to get the two poles into
the driveway where they languished. The
problem with the block of land they had to
negotiate was that it is L shaped. There is
a 0.8 metre wide pathway down the house
winding past various obstructions. That runs
into a 3.8 metre paved area where the 6 metre
long poles would have to be manoeuvred

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 1

to pass under a pergola and up some steps

before turning into the L. The poles did not
move for a long time. Neighbours wondered
about our good sense.
We got a crane hire company to advise. Yes,
they could do it but it would require a 200
tonne crane truck with a 50 metre arm. It
would cost $10,000. We would have to get
the electricity company to cut the electricity
off for the whole street and take the power
line down so the arm would be able to reach
across our neighbours garden. Telstra would
also have to be contacted. No neighbour
regarded this as a solution to our problem.
We got a conveyor belt company to advise.
Yes, they thought they could do it. A number
of belts would snake its way through our block
and get the poles to where we wanted them
at a prohibitive cost. The company thought
that there was a high risk that the weight of
the poles would wreck the belt and told us we
would have to pay for any damage.
We approached our state gallery to see if they
would take the poles. They had a look but
that was the sum of their interest. Ironwood
does not burn all that well. So it seemed that
the poles would be prostrate for good.

Photo: Michael Heppell

The first pole was pushed down the side of

the house on the dollies and manoeuvred
through the 3.8 metre paved area when a
problem emerged. The slope of the steps was
such that at their greatest angle, the head of
the figure on the top of the pole would scrape
along the ground and probably be knocked
off. The problem was resolved by laying the
plywood sheets down the stepped pathway.
Some car jacks were found and jacked up the
lowest sheet. The pole was positioned on the
sheets and winched to a point at which there
was no danger to the figure. It was then lifted
back onto the dollies.
The pole was then pushed to the 1.2 metre
hole that had been dug for it. The roustabout
raised the pole as far as it could go - about 4
metres - sufficient for it to drop into the hole.
However, it sank into the hole at an angle and
would not budge. One person took winch
and rope into one neighbours garden. Two
took a rope into another neighbours garden.
Another held a rope in our yard. Two more
worked on wedging railway sleepers against
the lean. The seventh managed the task of
getting the pole vertical. Eventually the pole
was cajoled into an upright position. It had
taken 7 hours. The second joined the first the
following day.
I met up with my contact in Borneo a couple
of months later. I told him the poles were in.
I laughingly suggested we might look for an
18 metre one in the Apo Kayan like the one
in the old photograph. He went absolutely
ashen. Never again, he whispered.
Dr Michael Heppell is an anthropologist specialising
on Borneo cultures. His 2005 publication, Iban
Art: sexual preference and severed heads, was
co-published by KIT, Amsterdam and C. Zwartenkot
Art Books, Leiden.

Meanwhile the team constantly discussed

the poles because, for them, they were
unfinished business. Eighteen months later,
they reckoned they had an answer. On a
very wet day, they put the plan into action.
A turfer was added to the roustabout, dollies
and straps as were plywood sheets to stop the
dollies sinking into the grass.

25

TRAV E LL ER S TAL E : A SE ACS ST UDY TOU R O F HIS TO RIC KILN S ITES IN FUJ IA N A ND JINGD E ZHE N
Linda McLaren
The Yueji kiln complex, Fujian Province, China, 2010. Photo: Ann Proctor

iln sites and ceramics museums in the

southern Chinese provinces of Fujian and
Jiangxi were the focus of the April 2010 study
tour undertaken by members of the Southeast
Asian Ceramics Society (SEACS). Imperial
and folk kilns and their products were viewed
in ceramics manufacturing districts including
legendary Dehua and Jingdezhen. Among the
many highlights of the trip was the chance
to observe an operational wood-fired kiln
being loaded with ready to fire teapots made
on-site. The manufacturing, glazing and kiln
stacking techniques used in mass production
were observed there first hand.
Singapore based SEACS celebrated its 40th
anniversary in 2009 and has an admirable
record of promoting the study of ceramics by
means of lectures and seminars, exhibitions,
publications and study tours such as ours.
Inaugurated in 1999, the annual William
Willetts Lecture, named in honour of the
founding president, has been delivered by
a succession of eminent scholars. This tour
complemented the Societys main objective
of furthering the study of Southeast Asian
manufactured ceramics, by observing the
Chinese technology and ceramic models
that appear to have been adopted and later
developed by SEA countries. Additionally the
evolution of wares that were popular exports
to Southeast Asia such as greenware, qingbai
and underglaze blue and white was evident.
Our study tour, led by Chen Jiazi, curator of
the National University of Singapore (NUS)
Museum, commenced in coastal Xiamen,
formerly Amoy on ancient trade maps. The
view from our hotel over the bustling narrow
strait to Gulangyu Island with its 16m tall statue
of local hero, Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga), a
pirate, trader and Ming loyalist was a salient
reminder of the rich maritime history of Chinas
southeast coast. This was reinforced by a visit
to the Xiamen Overseas Chinese Museum. Built
in the style of a palace, the displays in its
three exhibition halls convey detailed stories of
pioneering Chinese migrants. The inextricable
histories of migration, trade, commerce and
Imperial influence are brought to life.
A two hour bus trip took us to the Jinjiang
Museum in Qingyang with its stylised
maritime-themed faade. Comprehensive
displays of export wares covering the
Tang to Qing dynasties (618 -1912) gave
us a broad perspective on the evolution of

26

types and styles. Following this we viewed

the Jingjiaoyishan kiln site, which features
four kilns from late Southern Song to early
Yuan dynasties (c. 1200-1368). The excavated
kilns are well covered by a protective roof.
Despite fences, the abundant shards in-situ
were tantalisingly close for impromptu
archaeological analyses (so near and yet
so far), but instead we adjourned to the
museum gallery to view intact pots of the
cizao wares for which the kilns are famous.
Next day we visited the comprehensive
Quanzhou Maritime Museum, which displays
Chinese export ceramics, maps of trade routes
to SEA and beyond, and models of the ships
used on the Maritime Silk Route, as it has
become known. The museum displays again
highlighted the importance of shipping and
the integral role of Chinese ceramics in trade.
The vibrant, cosmopolitan and generally
tolerant nature of Quanzhou as a major
trading port is demonstrated by the Qingjing
mosque dating from the Yuan dynasty (12791368). Islam was one of the many religions
practiced by its foreign residents.
Our last and very important stop in this
province was the renowned ceramics district
of Dehua, often called the porcelain capital
of Fujian. From the Song Dynasty (9601279) onward, Dehua ceramics, particularly
whitewares and qingbai type wares were
exported to many regions, including SEA.
Its highest quality whitewares later became
known as blanc de Chine in the West. We
visited the significant Qudougong kiln on the
slope of Mount Pozhai, which was excavated
in 1976 to reveal utilitarian items, including
stem cups, covered boxes, vases and bowls

all typical of the ceramics exported during the

commercially proactive Yuan Dynasty which
customised ceramics for target markets. This
long or dragon kiln is 57 metres long and
is comprised of 17 firing chambers, each of
which was individually controlled.
At the still active Yueji kiln, we were able to
observe the process of ceramic production
from start to finish. We watched while saggers
(previously fired, reusable ceramic containers)
were stacked into the kiln chambers, each
holding three teapots. Standing at the
highpoint of the kiln and looking over the
sites, the scale of the mass production was
obvious. Stacks of timber were close by, felled
from the surrounding region. Dedicated
areas for moulding, luting, trimming, drying
and glazing were all evident and we eagerly
observed each stage of production.
The members of our group, which included
TAASA committee members, Sabrina Snow
and Ann Proctor, would all assume the
closest vantage points while trying not to get
in the way! We were met with unfailing good
humour and we always hoped that our hushed
comments and flurries of camera clicks were
not a distraction. The skills we observed often
drew our spontaneous applause: the response
was generally a modest, bemused smile.
The nearby Yueji Contemporary Ceramics
Centre provided a fascinating display of
modern products by ceramists from various
countries using the local kaolin stone. By
contrast, the Dehua Ceramics Museum displays
a comprehensive range of excavated ceramics
from Tang to Qing. Several large charts on
the walls state the chemical composition of

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

Throwing pots at the Yueji kiln complex,

Loading teapots into saggers at theYueji kiln complex,

Fujian Province, China. Photo: Ann Proctor

Fujian Province, China. Photo: Ann Proctor

the various clays and glazes and indicate the

modern approach to determining provenance
of ware types. The chemical analysis is
undertaken at Shanghai University.

cobalt bites into the clay! . Expert instruction

such as this triggered rapid-fire questions,
the answers enabling each participant to add
pieces to their own jigsaw of knowledge of
Chinese glazed ceramics.

On the way to the museums we had stopped

at Sanban County, Dehua to marvel at an
operational wooden waterwheel, rhythmically
and unceasingly crushing porcelain stone
virtually unattended, as has been the method
for centuries. River water turns the wheel that
drives a pivoting lever. The end of the lever
has a mallet attached, which pounds the stone.
The vibration of repeated impact causes more
stone to fall from a heap into the hole where the
crushing takes place - simple and very effective.
On day 5 of our study tour we flew from Jinjiang
to Nanchang. Next day our first stop was the
Jiangxi Provincial Museum displaying locally
excavated wares. The earliest are greenwares
dating from the beginning of the 10th century.
Whitewares, qingbai and underglaze blue and
white were also produced. There are many
unique pieces that were excavated from local
tombs. Next, in the Imperial Ceramics Museum
in Jingdezhen, we admired the magnificent
collection of Ming and Qing wares (1368-1912)
produced by Imperial kilns for the courts of
those dynasties.
Still blessed with an abundance of raw
materials, Jingdezhen truly lives up to its
name as a porcelain centre even the citys
lamp posts are made of ceramic! Day 8 arrived
too quickly and our last fascinating visit was
to the Hutian kiln museum and excavations.
Song and Yuan ceramics typical of export
wares, such as the ubiquitous Song Dynasty
qingbai ewer, were on display, as well as blue
and white ware from the Yuan Dynasty.

Neither the inclement weather nor the

unseasonably cold temperatures deterred the
eager shoppers in our group as they searched
for just the right mementos amongst the
plentiful supply of beautiful reproductions
in factory and museum shops and markets.
Lessons learned from Jiazi were put to the test
to enable selection of the most authentic pieces.
A show and tell of purchases after dinner
on our last evening provided the final
opportunity to discuss the types, decoration
and main attributes that distinguish the
various ceramic wares of each dynasty. We
agreed that the rigorous planning by Marjorie
Chu, a stalwart on the SEACS board and
participant on the trip and the expert ceramic
commentary and analysis of Chen Jiazi had
resulted in a very fruitful study tour.
The SEACS and the NUS have a history of
collaboration. The current SEACS exhibition
being staged at NUS Museum until 25 July
2010, Southeast Asian Ceramics: New
Light On Old Pottery, is accompanied by
a commemorative book that also contains a
very comprehensive catalogue. Edited by and
co-contributed to by noted Southeast Asian
scholar, Prof. John Miksic, the beginnings
of the SEACS, the contribution of Roxanna
Brown to SEA ceramics studies, maritime
archaeology, kiln sites in SEA and ceramics
as trade commodities are all covered in its
scholarly and fascinating chapters.
Linda McLaren is an independent researcher interested

Time after time our group huddled around

a glass show-case as Jiazi generously shared
her extensive knowledge with us. Look at
this piece of blue and white. See how the imported

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

in the archaeological study of glazed Chinese

ceramics found on shipwrecks and at terrestrial sites in
Southeast Asia prior to the 18th century.

27

R E C E NT TAASA ACTIVITI E S

TAASA ACT EVENT

TAASA NSW

13 -14 March, 2010

TAASA membership offers the opportunity to

join specialist excursions to view collections
with expert guidance. About 20 TAASA
members - from Sydney, Melbourne and
regional centres as well as Canberra itself
visited the National Library (NLA), the
National Gallery (NGA) and ANU, during
a weekend of lovely early autumn weather.
We socialised as well, with friends from the
Asia Bookroom, and dined together on the
Saturday evening.
At the NLA, curators Sylvia Carr and Linda
Groom took us through some gems from
the Picture Collection including drawings
of Chinese architecture by Hardy Wilson
and some beautiful old Japanese prints. I
didnt see enough of the fine collection of
photographs from pre-revolutionary China,
partly because I was so very absorbed by
the thousands of black and white photos
of sculptures and bas reliefs at Angkor and
Jogyakarta taken by French diplomat Yves
Coffin in the1960s.
In the afternoon we gathered in the
Collection Study Room of the NGA for a
private presentation by Gael Newton, Senior
Curator of Photography, of a wonderful
set of photographs and albums recently
acquired from a Dutch collector, Leo Haks,
documenting the Dutch colonial experience
in Indonesia.
Iranian/Australian artist Nasser Palangi met
us on the ANU campus on Sunday morning.
Nasser is himself a calligrapher and artist
of note, and he and his wife, also an artist,
now run a gallery in Canberra. He gave an
illustrated talk on the aesthetics and meaning
of Islamic calligraphy and the present
popularity of Iranian artists in the West. The
final stop of the weekend was at Humble
House, owned by Roger and Weilian Carter.
Using examples from their shop floor, Roger
and Weilian gave us a fascinating insight
into the history of Chinese furniture and
manufacturing techniques. Many thanks to
Hweifen Cheah and Gill Green for organising
this weekend.
Roz Cheney is a member of the TAASA Textile Study
Group.

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

Textile Study Group Meeting 21 April

About 30 members of TAASAs Textile Study
Group came together to hear a lively report from
several members on their visit to Iran in OctoberNovember last year. Peter Court presented a
slide show of his wonderful photographs, largely
of ancient Achaemenid and Sassanian sites and
their relief sculptures, clearly demonstrating
clothing worn at the time by kings, priests and
soldiers, their horse trappings and headwear.
Peter also showed us some outstanding textiles
including a particularly fine double-sided silk
carpet and a beautiful 200-year-old qualamkar
cloth from Isfahan.
Roz Cheney gave a short talk on the history
of qualamkar printed and painted fabrics. She,

At the Shrine of the Brother of the Eighth Imam in Shiraz

2009. Jen Parsonnage (left) with TAASA members Roz Cheney,
Sandy Watson, Terry Bisley and Briony Forrest

Sandy Watson, Terry Bisley and Sandra Forbes

brought along examples of textiles from Isfahan
and Yazd, as well as some brocade cloth and
household items which are specialities of Yazd.
TAASA QUEENSLAND

Private Exhibition viewing 17 April

A TAASA group, including invited friends,
enjoyed a private visit to an exhibition of
member Marjorie Morriss extensive collection
held at Gallery 159 in Brisbanes The Gap
suburb. The exhibition included items ranging
from hand woven cotton and silk pieces from
Indonesia, Thailand and Laos, with some
from African countries and Mexico. There
were embroideries from different minority
groups in China and Central Asia with some
from India and Pakistan and other items of
interest. Marjorie spoke informally to the
group about the collection and her adventures
in acquiring many of the items.
Gamelan music concert 8 May
At the Brisbane Conservatorium, TAASA
members enjoyed a concert of gamelan
music entitled Javanese Gamelan and China
given by the Queensland Conservatorium
Gamelan Ensemble, conducted by artist-inresidence, Pak Joko Susilo. Gregg Howard,
Senior Lecturer in Music Studies at the
Conservatorium, gave an introductory talk
specifically for the TAASA group.

TAASA M E M B E RS DIAR Y J U N E A U G U S T 2 0 1 0
TAASA NSW EVENTS

NSW Textile Study Group

The Study group meets on the second
Wednesday of the month from 6.00 till
8.00 pm at the Briefing Room, Powerhouse
Museum.
9 June: Carole Douglas on embroidery
from Kutch.
28 July: Terry Bisley and Sue-ann Smiles
on Lotus stem weaving in Myanmar.
No meeting in August.
Further information: Gill Green at
gillians@ozemail.com.au or (02) 9331 1810.
TAASA QUEENSLAND EVENTS

Exhibition floor talk on Batik of Java:

Poetics and Politics
Thursday 8 July, 2010

Members are invited to visit the Caloundra

Regional Art Gallery at 22 Omrah Avenue,
where Maria Friend (curator) and Greg
Roberts (collector) will present a floor talk
on this exhibition of 23 outstanding batiks
from the north coast of Java and a series of
paintings Batik Has Been Burnt by famous
Indonesian born artist Dadang Christanto.
(see pp 22-3 of this issue)
Talk on Hmong costume art
Saturday 14th August
Maria Friend will give a talk on Hmong
Costume Art in the QAG lecture theatre.
Members of the local Hmong community,
originally from Laos, will attend to present
some of their costumes.

29

WHAT S ON IN AUSTRALIA AND OV E RS E AS : J U N E - A U G U S T 2 0 1 0

A S E L E CTI V E R O U N D U P O F E XHIBITI O N S A N D E V E N T S
Compiled by Tina Burge
Life, death and magic - 2000 years of
Southeast Asian ancestral art
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
13 August 31 October, 2010

Features dramatic sculpture, jewellery and

textiles revealing the power of art made for
rituals of life and death from prehistoric
to recent times, drawn from the Gallerys
renowned collection and key loans from
institutions in Asia, Europe and America.
A forum with international and Australian
scholars and curators discussing the works will
be held on 14 August from 1.30pm 5.00pm.
For further information go to:
nga.gov/whatson/highlights.
Robyn Maxwell, Senior Curator, Asian Art, and
curator of the exhibition, presents an overview
of the exhibition on 17 August at 12.45pm.
Niki van den Heuvel, Exhibition Assistant
will introduce recent Gallery acquisitions of
Southeast Asian animist sculpture and ancient
bronzes on 26 August at 12.45 pm.
Facing Asia histories and legacies
of Asian studio photography
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
21-22 August 2010

Facing Asia is a conference organised by the

ANUs Research School of Humanities and
the Arts that will explore the significance of
the camera in the historical depiction of Asian
people. See p28 for details.
For bookings and further information go to:
www.rsh.anu.edu.au/events/2010/facingasia
Asia Art Talks
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Charmane Head, yoga teacher, on the power

of mudras (hand gestures) - 12 June at 2.00pm.
Beatrice Thompson, Assistant Curator,
Asian Art, on an 18thearly 19th century silk
embroidered coverlet from Qing-dynasty
China - 5 August at 12.45pm.
Clement Onn, Assistant Curator of South Asian
art, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, on
designs and meaning of Indian textiles traded to
Indonesia - 10 August at 12.45pm.
For further information go to:
www.nga.gov.au

NEW SOUTH WALES

Dadang Christanto - They give evidence
The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
27 May 25 July 2010

Sixteen larger-than-life male and female

sculptured figures speak eloquently for the
victims of oppression and social justice.
Politically charged, they represent displaced
victims, mutely carrying the bodies of
innocent men, women and children who have
been killed in Indonesia. Based in Australia
since 1999, Christanto is one of the most
prominent Indonesian contemporary artists.
2010 Arts of Asia Lecture Series
Term II - Powerful Patrons
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Tuesdays 1-2pm from 20 July - 19 October 2010

The second half of the 2010 Arts of Asia

lecture series continues to explore the preeminent individuals in Asia who have
shaped the arts, culture and sense of identity
of their peoples. The first lecture of the
second term is by David Templeman on
Tibets 5th Dalai Lama, who oversaw the
efflorescence of Tibetan artistic style and set
into motion the creation of the Potala Palace.
For full program and online booking
www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/events/courses
The Zhongjian: Midway
A travelling exhibition from the
Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong
21 May - 20 July 2010

This exhibition being held at the Albury Art

Gallery includes work by several of Chinas and
Australias most notable contemporary artists.
For further information go to:
www.alburycity.nsw.gov.au and follow
the links to the Albury Art Gallery.
QUEENSLAND
Unnerved: The New Zealand Project
Queensland Art Gallery, Gallery of Modern Art,
Brisbane
1 May 4 July 2010

Explores a particularly rich dark vein that recurs

in New Zealand contemporary art and cinema.
Psychological or physical unease pervades
many works in the exhibition, with humour,
parody and poetic subtlety among the strategies
used by artists across generations and genres.
For further information go to:
www.qag.qld.gov.au

30

Queensland Dragon: Chinese in the North

Cairns Regional Art Gallery, Cairns
21 May 4 July 2010

Includes almost 100 historical photographs

and documents that testify to the importance
of the Chinese community in the early
stages of the development of Far North
Queensland.
For further information go to: www.
cairnsregionalgallery.com.au
VICTORIA
Tea and Zen
National Gallery of Victoria,
International, Melbourne
15 April 29 August 2010

Presents the history of tea in China and

Japan and includes ceramic, lacquer and
bamboo tea utensils alongside Zen paintings
and calligraphy, creating a contemplative
setting evoking the spirit of the Way of Tea.
The exhibition also draws attention to teas
continuing practice in present day Japanese
culture the tea ceremony and its influence
on contemporary Japanese artists.
Various events complement the exhibition,
including a performance of the Urasenke
Tea Ceremony on 30 June at 12.00pm.
For further information go to:
www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whatson
Fluid Borders Ways of Seeing Oriental Rugs
The Johnston Collection Gallery, Melbourne
5 July 22 October 2010

By exhibiting rugs from a wide range of

traditions and styles, Fluid Borders will
explore the impact of oriental rugs on
western dcor, art and thinking, and how
history has placed oriental rugs in the
scholarship of oriental textiles. Susan Scollay
has curated the exhibition with selected
works from the Johnston Collection and
private collections in Melbourne.
A wide range of events associated with the
exhibition include:
Fluid Borders Study Day 10 July 2010
from 10.00am - 4.00pm.
Speakers will include Leigh Mackay,
President of the Oriental Rug Society of
NSW on the Pazyryk Carpet; Roger Leong,
Curator, International Fashion and Textiles
at the National Gallery of Victoria, on the
Trinitarias Carpet; Susan Scollay, Curator of
TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

Fluid Borders on Oriental carpets in Europe;

Elizabeth Cross, Art Historian on Learning
to See about western artists responses to
oriental carpets.
Susan Scollay will also be giving a series
of four lectures on Wednesdays from 7 - 28
July at 10.15-11.45am on the traditional role
of carpets throughout history. In addition,
lectures on Islamic architecture, gardens and
tile work will be held in July and August.
For full details of lectures and booking
information go to: www.johnstoncollection.org.

INTERNATIONAL

IRELAND

UNITED KINGDOM

Muraqqa
Chester Beatty Library, Dublin
25 June - 3 October 2010

The Printed Image in China

from the 8th to the 21st centuries
The British Museum, London
6 May 5 September 2010

A history of 1,300 years of Chinese printing

using the Museums collection, with around 120
images from the 8th century CE to the present.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

For further information go to:

www.britishmuseum.org

Reflections of the Lotus: art from

FRANCE

21 May - 4 July 2010

Presents rare masterpieces including life-size

Buddha images, textiles, ceramics, bronze
and lacquer ware from the Art Gallery's
own extensive collection as well as from
Australian private collections. A highlight
will be the Gallery's own collection of Thai
ceramics, part of which will tour interstate at
the end of the exhibition.
For further information go to:
www.artgallery.sa.gov.au

JAPAN: AUTUMN,
ISLANDS AND ART

For further information go to: www.cbl.ie

JAPAN
The Birth of Chinese Civilization
Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo
6 July 5 September 2010

Thailand, Burma, Cambodia and Laos

Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Focuses on a group of six outstanding

illustrated albums (muraqqas) compiled in
India between about 1600 and 1658 for the
Mughal emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan.

Pakistan Where civilisations meet

1st 6th centuries Gandharan Art
Guimet Museum, Paris
21 April -16 August

Jointly organised by the Guimet Museum

and the National Art and Exhibition Centre
of Germany in Bonn, it includes Buddhist
statues, low reliefs from temples and stupas
alongside terracotta and stucco items from
monasteries or palaces.

Features artifacts excavated from Chinas

Henan province, the home of Chinas
dynastic capitals from the Shang to Northern
Song dynasties.
For further information go to:
www.tnm.go.jp/en

For further information go to:

www.guimet.fr

BURMA: THE
ESSENTIAL
EXPERIENCE

CAMBODIA:
ANGKOR WAT
AND BEYOND

07 November
29 October
24 October
24 November 2010
17 November 2010
09 November 2010
Angkors timeless grandeur is
Japan is a two-sided coin: one Designed and hosted by TAASA
unmissable, an unforgettable
post-modernist side embraces contributor Dr Bob Hudson, our
travel memory. Yet Cambodia
longstanding annual Burma
cutting-edge technology; the
program features extended stays offers a host of other important
other reveres and preserves
cultural and travel experiences:
in medieval Mrauk U, capital
fine artistic and cultural
outstanding ancient, vernacular
of the lost ancient kingdom of
traditions. Ann MacArthur,
and French colonial architecture;
Arakan (now Rakhine State)
Senior Coordinator of Asian
spectacular riverine environments;
and Bagan, rivalling Angkor
Programs at the Art Gallery
a revitalising urban capital in
Wat as Southeast Asias
of NSW, is our experienced
Phnom Penh; interesting cuisine
Japanophile leader. Kyushu and richest archaeological precinct.
and beautiful countryside. Join
Shikoku predominate including Exciting experiences in Yangon,
expatriate museologist, author,
Inle Lake, Mandalay and a
the Setouchi International Art
Siem Reap resident and TAASA
private cruise down the mighty
Festival based on the islands
Ayeyarwady are also included. contributor Darryl Collins on this
of the Inland Sea. A lengthy
latest, updated version of our
stay in Kyoto, home to 20% of
Land Only cost per person
Japan's national treasures, is
twinshare ex Yangon $3795 highly evaluated 2008 and 2009
programs. Prasat Preah Vihear
our spectacular autumn finale.
visit scheduled subject to access
Land Only cost per person
restrictions.
twinshare ex Fukuoka $9500
Land Only cost per person
twinshare ex Phnom Penh
$3575
HERITAGE DESTINATIONS

BACKROADS
OF BURMA

LAOS: LAND OF THE

LOTUS-EATERS

16 November
02 December 2010
One trip to Burma is never
enough. Backroads of Burma is
ideal for the second-time visitor
or indeed first-time travellers
desiring remote and rustic
locations. Starting and finishing
in Yangon, our schedule wends
south into Mon State, visiting
Kyaiktiyo and Moulmein
before heading north to Sri
Ksetra, the ancient Pyu capital.
Mystical Mount Popa, Bagan,
Monywa and the spectacular
cave temples of Po Win Taung,
Sagaing and Mandalay follow.
Dr Bob Hudson is program
leader.
Land Only cost per person
twinshare ex Yangon $4150

27 January
10 February 2011
Enigmatic and relatively
undeveloped, landlocked
Laos offers travellers an
intimate glimpse of traditional
Southeast Asian life. Gradually
emerging from tumultuous
recent history, Laos is a gem of
Indochina with interesting art,
architecture, French and Lao
cuisine, intricate river systems,
and rugged highlands. Darryl
Collins, long term Southeast
Asian resident, has designed
and will guide a comprehensive
tour of Laos which includes the
wonderful historic royal city of
Luang Prabang and Wat Phu
Champasak.
Land Only cost per person
twinshare ex Vientiane $4400

N AT U R E B U I L D I N G S P E O P L E T R AV E L L E R S

PO Box U237, University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia

p +61 2 4228 3887 e heritagedest@bigpond.com
ABN 21 071 079 859 LIC NO TAG 1747

TAA S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 1 9 N O . 2

For a brochure or further information phone Ray Boniface at Heritage Destinations

on +61 2 4228 3887 or email heritagedest@bigpond.com or visit our website
www.heritagedestinations.com.au

31