carved Doors from Timor
Doors in Timor mark the boundary between spaces that carry cosmological meaning, and their placement follows ritual prescriptions. The doors here come from different structures: horizontal panels from the lopo, the communal granary and meeting house, hatches closing the loft of a dwelling, and conventional vertical doors.
Decoration follows the motifs found throughout Timorese carving: geometric patterns, labyrinthine designs, and figurative subjects including crocodiles and human figures. Crocodiles are a recurring subject: they are regarded as sacred ancestors and appear in origin myths across the island.
