Champa Art Gallery: Kha Tribal Art

Kha Tribal Art - Laos/Vietnam

An extremely rare tribal art collection from an African-descended civilization that survived for thousands of years in the "Golden Triangle" of Southeast Asia before perishing in large numbers.

The Kha tribe (wrongfully meaning "savages" in Laotian), also called Mois in Vietnam, was established in south Laos and southern Vietnam long before the coming of the Vietnamese and their fight with the Champa kingdom in the 8th century. Pierre Harter, a French leprosy fighter who visited the Kha tribe between 1958 and 1960, recorded the history of the last survivors of this ancient civilization. He recorded and published his memoirs in Primitifs, a Belgian publication edited by Philippe Guimiot, in issue no. 5 dated July 1991, under the title "Les Proto-Indochinois dit Moïs" (The Proto-Indochinese called Moïs (pronounced mo-ees)).

Pierre Harter states in the Belgian magazine Primitifs that the art of the Kha tribe ressembles closely the funeral pillars of the people of North-East Africa, namely the Konso and Gato from Ethiopia, the Bongo of Sudan and the Geriama of Kenya.

This also includes artistic influences from the Sakalave and Mahafaly of Madagascar, extending up to the people of South-East Asia such as the Bontoc and Ifugao of the Philippines as well as those of the eastern islands of Indonesia.

Sculpture figures are carved as part of a living tree, over the extension of a trunk. Some figures represent ancient thinkers watching over the area, others are drummers, naked men or women admiring the valley, many having goiter (like double-chin), a disease common among the mountain people of Laos and Vietnam.

One of the statues represents a Thinker. In this statue the artist was able to give a pleasant nuanced face working it with fine cuts; with very little means, the artist gave beautiful variations of volume to superior limbs. The average height of Kha statues is about 70 cm.

Some statues represent women with their hair twisted into a bun, as common in the Kha tribe. Statues have always their head turned away from the dead.

Women of rich families had the right to have individual tombs marked by two "kui" in the form of elephant defense and two others in the form of birds. The legs are carved in three plans, the egret (bird) is particularly nervous, and the details of the head are barely suggested, but effectively visible.

Pierre Harter reported that he never saw personally a single mask, despite having travelled extensively among the Jorai, Banhar, Sedang, Halang, Djieh, Rongao, Rhade, Bonhum, Maa, Sre and Mnong sub-groups.

In 1912 Henri Maitre, while visiting the Jorai of South-Vietnam, saw some masks called "Bram". They looked like a face wearing a heavy beard and were worn during funeral ceremonies. J.N. Lajoux, in a community house Bodrung, that was just rebuilt, photographed another pair of masks.

Masks were carved before the conspiracy of terminal deceases had taken toll of the people and had to be destroyed after having served their purpose. Dournes photographed a couple of masks around 1967 with the Banhar. They were always long face masks slightly concave, of about forty centimeters high, with or without ears and the front overlooks two brow arcades painted in black. A mouth and a heavy chin are painted with a succession of moustaches.
Few masks called Bodrung have survived and were exposed in the Barbier-Mueller Collection.

One of the statues represents a bearded man in a resting position, hands crossed on his knees. Henri Maitre recorded that it was a man wearing a Mask. One statute represents a person, with a turban, trying to hide or protect his sex.