Tupilak. Tupilaq with a seal. Inuit Art

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Interesting carving by Nicolai Abelsen. The story tells that a tupilak was created in sorcery to kill two brothers. It has devoured the other one when coming home from the ice with a seal. The tupilak has transformed in his dead body and will follow the path to his camp were the other brother stays. It will not sneak in easily. The tupilak is in its nature powerful but yet stupid and cannot see that its head is not right. Carved from best quality reindeer antler. Measurements: 4.8 inches tall (12 cm) tall. Shipping is fixed $ 8 worldwide for up to 4 items in a combined packing What is a Tupilak? Its origin lies in the remote past of Greenland´s culture, when the Tupilak was an imaginary animal, made up of a bundle of bones, peat and skin. A certain magical power was attributed to the Tupilak. When the first white man, the Greenland explorer Captain Gustav Holm reached Ammassalik in 1884, one of the things he asked was what a Tupilak looks like. The people of Ammassalik found it difficult to make a sketch of it, and tfore they carved it in wood. This was the start of the Tupilak production in wood, bone, tooth and antler, gradually spreading all over Greenland. Tupilak figures are made in most town and settlements in Greenland. However, the main production and the best carvers are to be found in the Ammassalik district in East read more