Toraja Gate, Island of Sulawesi (Celebes) Indonesia Wood Height: 98 cm (without hinges) Width: 51cm Provenance: Former Fargeix collection The Toraja traditionally bury their dead in caves nestled in cliffs. These burial cavities are sealed by impressive wooden doors, richly carved with representations of venerated ancestors and buffalo heads, the latter, known as kerbau, symbolizing both fertility and prosperity. The symbolic significance of these carved doors also meant that they were used to close granaries. Set in wood for eternity, these totemic representations of stylized buffalo honor sacrificial animals and accompany the deceased to the world beyond. The rectangular door features the classic representation of the bovid, whose high-relief head is largely dominated by long, curved horns that meet in the center. The animal's face, whose gaze is represented by two diamond-shaped eyes, is framed by large ears. The vertical element carved between the buffalo's horns could evoke a possible connection with Indonesian cosmology, linked to the Tree of Life or the Tree of the World.