#G9B9O501
Reserved (TX)
Baga
Tshol Shrine Figure: Wood, cloth, pigments
16" x 22" x 7" (assembled)
$170 + $30 (S&H)
In the past each Baga clan was led by one of its elders. He had the responsibility to for protecting the clan and was the keeper of the clan regalia. The most important object in the clan shrine was the shrine figure "a-Tshol". It would be placed on an altar or a board - never should it touch the ground. Shrine figure was represented as a bird-like head with human features, a long beak, a thin neck resting on a ball. Often the ball is covered in a red cloth. There could be two or three such figures in a shrine. Wine was kept there as well. If anyone plotted a misdeed, they were brought into a shrine and ordered to drink the wine. To the plotters wine was poison - yet it was just wine to the innocent. If a child was sick - it was sent to visit the a-Tshol. A-Tshol is translated as "medicine". Other groups' name for the figure are "Elek" or ""Nach".
Of all the Baga sculptures used in ritual, a-Tshol has been most enigmatic and shrouded in secrecy.
