Wooden Kareau statue
- Made:
- 1880-1925 in India and Nicobar Islands
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Science Museum Group Collection
© The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum
Kareau figure of carved and painted wood, anthropomorphic, representing standing male with wings and top hat, from Nicobar Islands, Bay of Bengal, 1880-1925
This kareau figure, or ‘scare-devil’, is from the Nicobar Islands in Southeast Asia. It was created to deter spirits believed to bring bad luck or disease. Nicobarese people placed them outside their homes. Carved by a spiritual healer called a menluana, the figures took various forms. This statue is wearing traditional dress with top hat, reflecting encounters with western colonisers. Its wings represent ancestral spirits.
The figure was presented to the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum by R. F. Lowis, a colonial administrator in the Andaman Islands, which neighbour the Nicobar Islands.
Details
- Category:
- Asian Medicine
- Collection:
- Sir Henry Wellcome's Museum Collection
- Object Number:
- A655619
- Materials:
- wood
- type:
- statue
- credit:
- Lowis, F.
