Beautiful tribal bone and wood piece. A kalaf or Kalat is a Shaman’s containers for lime powder, made from water buffalo’s bone, horn, or wood, and topped with a carved wooden stopper. In Borneo and Timor’s ceremonies, hosts and guests share betel nut with a pinch of powdered lime, pepper and leaves from the Sireh plant (Piper betle), and a slice of the nut of the pinang palm (Areca catechu) as a sign of hospitality and goodwill.

Each kalat is carved with a unique combination of anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, and geometric patterns, which often echo local traditional designs. Men carry their kalat with them in a traditional cloth bag called aluk. A man`s aluk will also carry Pinang nuts and other betel chewing ingredients, and a feku, a cow whistle. Each man carefully trains his cows to respond only to the particular sound of his feku.

We brought these unique pieces directly from a Timorian family in Indonesia who had a vast personal collection of Timorese tribal art. Each one of them is unique and slightly different from any other made.