Antique Nepalese wooden mask with rudraksha and yak hide

Masks such as this beautiful example are used by animist tribes all over Nepal and parts of Tibet. 

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 benevolent 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.

Considering is respectable age, this item is in very good condition. It is made from wood which has been treated with natural pigments to attain a beautiful dark color, which has deepened over the years with the patina of ageing. The mask is decorated with pieces of black haired yak hide and dark rudraksha beads.

This handcarved mask is approximately 16 centimeters wide and 25 centimeters high. It weighs 631 grams. In quite recent times a simple hanging system has been made by driving a screw into it on the backside.

The exact age of this mask is hard to say, but it can roughly be determined somewhere around the middle of the 20th century, or maybe even a little bit earlier.

Unique item, only one available