Unmasking the Lives of the Ancient Indonesians
Masks are generally worn as a disguise or to be frightening. There are an almost limitless variations in traditional masks. Varieties include those that people wear to conceal an element of themselves that they don't want to share with the outside world. There are also literal masks, the kind that people wear to costume parties, or the masks worn by children for Halloween. If one were to explore the original nature of masks, that person would undoubtedly discover that they weren't always meant to frighten. Although masks from some ancient cultures may appear frightening to some, by in large, they were part of cultural traditions that were meant to tell stories and entertain. So was true with the masks of the ancient cultures of the Indonesian Archipelago. Indonesian wooden masks are only one category of a vast array of originally crafted cultural works of art offered for sale by Dewi Artisans International a company that was inspired by Dewi Sianturi (Dewi means ...