Jörai Guardian Figure (Kut) from a Funerary House, Vietnam

with a round paper label printed:
MATTHIAS KOMOR WORKS OF ART NEW YORK
and inscribed:
D361 M01

Matthias Komor, New York
Morris and Camilla Pinto, New York

Good condition for an object of this type and age. Marks, nicks, scratches, abrasions, small chips, worming and surface losses. Vertical age cracks, including open cracks through knees and one elbow. Open cracks to proper right side of integral base. Proper right leg broken and glued. Fine various aged and encrusted patina with remains of white pigment on face. Permanently fixed to modern metal plate base.
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Discussing a closely related figural post previously in the collection of Fred and Rita Richman, and today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Capistrano-Baker (1994: 110) notes: "[...] the squatting human figure is a motif widespread in Island Southeast Asia; its meaning has been the subject of much speculation.  The most common interpretation is that it replicates both the burial and the fetal position, thus symbolizing death and rebirth.  Another possible meaning is that, as a position frequently assumed by the living, its use in funerary figures alludes to the continuity of life after death."

She continues (ibid.): "This carved Jörai funerary post [= the Richman post], which portrays a squatting human figure in the knee-elbow-chin position, with elbows resting on knees and hands on chin, is said to represent a follower of the deceased who was sacrificed so that he could continue to serve his master in the afterlife.  It was formerly part of a rectangular funerary house, or pösat, each corner of which was guarded by a similar figurated post, or kut. Crossbeams inserted into the aperture below each kut restricted access to the tomb by forming a kind of fence around the funerary structure.  The carving of the posts was considered a sacred activity, and all other work by artists was forbidden while they were being made.

"The occurence of the squatting figure in central Vietnam is intriguing, for the indigenous peoples, such as the Jörai, are among the earliest known inhabitants of a region that lies in the general direction of ancient migrations that populated the Indochinese peninsula and the Indonesian and Pacific Islands.  One theory proposes that these groups, originating in the northwest, may have been the ancestors of those who came to be known as Indonesians."