Very old wooden Nepalese mask, completely handcarved. Beautiful in its rustique, authentic appearance. An amazing piece of tribal art, but most of all a wonderful home for a benevolent spirit.
A mask such as this could have been used as a spirit house by a traditional Nepalese shaman, but could also have been hung in a family house, where it would have been the house of a good-natured spirit such as a family's ancestor with the task to protect the house and family against intruders such as malevolent spirits and diseases. In any case, it would have been regularly fed with offerings of ghee or wodka and the smoke of incense.
This handcarved mask is approximately 15 centimeters wide and 23 centimeters high. Its exact age is hard to say, but it can roughly be determined around the late 19th or early 20th century. This very old mask has been made from a dark hard wood and of course shows some minor signs of its respectable age, but it is overall in very good condition and will no doubt make a great spirit house once again. On both sides of the face a small hole has been drilled, making it possible to thread a cord through to use it as a wallhanging object.
