Wood, pigments, fur & paper
19th century
Length: 31 cm.
The Yao are Daoists, but their religion contains many practices that date from an earlier animistic period. This Yao minority shaman's mask would have been worn by the shaman/Daoist priest in rituals that are largely unknown in the West, but typically involve posession by the spirit that the mask represents. Many masks have a prominent "horn" that may be a borrowing from Buddhist representations of the ushnisha (topknot) of the Buddha.
Price on request
