Toraja Doors

The door pictured is one of our most prized and rare pieces. Over 100 years old, it is a Toraja door from central Sulawesi (also called Celebes), an island in Indonesia.  The Toraja are one of the minority indigenous people of Sulawesi, with rich artistic and spiritual traditions.  This is an old door to an "ancestral house" (or "tongkonan"), where rituals and dances as well as sacrifices were performed to honor ancestors. Traditionally, each Toraja family had an "ordinary house" (where the family lived) and also an "ancestral house" (for ceremonies).The ceremonies of the Toraja are somewhat related (though distant) to those of Balinese Hinduism.  This piece was acquired through a very good Indonesian friend from a Torajan native in Jogjakarta.  The doors are in excellent condition, but the rest of the ancestral home imploded and these pieces were salvaged. These doors are truly exceptional pieces that would be prized by any collector.