The Asmat wood carving is one of the national cultural treasures that already has a name for foreign tourists. Characteristic of carving of Asmat tribe is unique and naturalist pattern. From the patterns it looks the complexity of how to make it to make their carved works of high value and quite a lot of interest from foreign tourists.
In terms of models, Asmat tribe carvings are very diverse, ranging from human statues, boats, panels, shields, tifa, kaswari eggs to poles. Asmat tribe usually adopts the experience and everyday environment as their carving patterns, such as trees, boats, animals and boating people, hunting people and others.
Carving is a tradition of life and ritual that is closely related to the spirituality of life and respect for the ancestors. When the Asmat tribe carves, they do not just make patterns in wood but carry a living spirituality.
Asmat sculptures include naturalist streams because the models of carvings are living things like birds, fish, frogs, trees, monitor lizards or humans embodied in their wooden sculptures.
The Asmat community is comprised of 12 sub ethnicities, and each has its own characteristic in its artwork. So also with the wood used, there are also differences. There are prominent sub ethnic carved statues, some of which stand out carving my salaw or shield, others have carvings for wall hangings and war equipment.
If purchased on the market, Asmat wood carving is expensive. But not so when we buy directly in the place of origin. The long distances and the difficulty of transportation are one of the reasons why the carving is expensive.
The most special and unique is that every carving has nothing in common or duplicate because they do not produce the same patterned carvings on a large scale. So, if we have a carving of Asmat with a certain pattern, it is the only one that exists because the Asmat does not make the same pattern in the engraving. Shapes may be the same, such as a shield or panel, but the exact pattern will be different. That is the uniqueness of Asmat carving.
For ethnic-style carving lovers, Asmat carving is an option for home decoration. But be careful and careful when buying carving Asmat tribe in the market, because many irresponsible people who falsify their carvings.
