Carved Hardwood Relief Panel from East Timor

A carved hardwood relief panel, likely an architectural element or granary door panel from the Indonesian archipelago, most probably Sulawesi (Toraja) or Timor-Leste.

Ponderously heavy for its moderate scale, this piece was adzed in a traditional fashion from a single thick plank of dense hardwood, the composition centres on an ancestral anthropomorphic figure carved in high relief. The figure stands with arms upraised and elongated torso, poised atop the carved head of a water buffalo—an animal of profound ceremonial and spiritual significance across eastern Indonesia, symbolising wealth and passage to the afterlife. The ground is decorated in shallow relief with stylized lizards or geckos, common protective motifs, framed by a beaded border. The surface exhibits an aged, dry dark patina with light highlighting across the raised relief from handling.