Dec 22, 2018

Jarai tomb house, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology

Jarai tomb house

It was built in 1998 by five Jarai Arap men from Mrong Ngo village, Chu Pa district, Gia Lai province.
Thirty dead people can be buried in this large tomb house in the village. The decorated sculptures are carved from tree trunks using axes, chisels, and knives. Statues of men and women showing off their secret parts and pregnant women symbolize fertility and birth. The wooden roof is covered with plaited bamboo planks on which designs are painted natural red pigments. Figures on the roof depict activities of the tomb abandoning ritual.
It is thought that the tomb house is for the dead in the afterlife. Broken dishes, bottles, cups, trays, and wooden tool models are put inside the tomb to provide necessities to the deceased in their other world. After the ritual, the bomb falls into oblivion.

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