Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Dogon art. Sculpture with raised arms. The purifying the universe in Mali.

The Dogon live 250 km south of Timbuktu on the cliffs of Bandiagara in Mali.



The Dogon have been isolated for centuries and were able to conserve their ancient religious habits. Each village built an altar. The Hogon who is chief priest is in charge of all religious and agrarian rituals.

But many families possessed individual altars.

One kind of individual shrine is a rain-making altar. This altar called andugo is equiped with wooden sculptures which represent Nommo. Dogon mythology tells that Nommo was the first living creature created by the sky god Amma. Nommo is master of water and symbolizes rain falling from sky and all water on earth.

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