Medicine Container – Naga Morsarang – Batak – Indonesia

Wonderful medicine container, very well carved from the Batak, Indonesia. Among the Batak people of Sumatra, the datu, or ritual specialist, required a variety of containers made of different materials to hold his supernaturally powerful mixtures and potions. This vessel, known as a naga morsarang, consists of the hollow horn of a water buffalo, its outer surface incised with curving foliate designs. In the interior of the horn, the earth deity Boraspati Ni Tano is represented in the form of a lizard, a motif that occurs on other ritual objects such as divination books.