The Master Pieces

WORSHIPPED ANCESTRAL STATUES  

         Worshipped statues of the Moluccas, commonly known as “ancestor statues”, are mostly made of wood. The type of wood is called “salimuli” (Lat. Cordia subcordata) where on the islands of Serwaru (Leti, Moa, Lakor) known as “kayu kanwa”. The statues were made in various types, forms and size; some very simple and others complicated adored with beautiful carvings.

            Long before the coming of western people to Maluku, ancestral statues held an important and central role in the live and rituals of the people on the islands of the Moluccas.  During the process of Christianization, most of those statues were destroyed by western missionaries. Some others were shipped to Europe and became precious collections of famous museums in Holland and Europe.

            However, some were hidden in caves and found again recently by Dutch and Belgian researchers. Some of them were seized and became the first collection of  Siwalima Museum in Ambon. Through these findings, religious thoughts, local wisdom and many other social life aspects of the past are revealed. Religious values in combination with traditional aesthetic values become real through statues of ancestral worship