page_title: Taiganja
section_title: Archaeology
hierarchical_section_title: Taiganja / Archaeology
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Repronegatief. De 'Marego' dans te Kulawi, Donggala, Celebes
context_page_description: Taiganja are precious metal ornaments found in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, especially in the Sigi Regency. They are used as a kind of jewelry to enhance the status of the wearer, or as protective amulets. The core shape of the taiganja, reminiscent of the female genitalia, is an endemic shape that has been found throughout the Southeast Asian region.
context_section_description: Taiganja are made of brass, or bronze, or silver or the rarest, gold. They are produced using lost-wax casting method with mostly brass or bronze as their ingredients. Manufacturing sites of taiganja-like objects have been found throughout the eastern part of the Indonesian archipelago as well as the Southeast Asian islands to the north of Indonesia. 
  The shape of taiganja, with the hole in the center and a slit running from the center of the circle toward the bottom (reminiscent of a keyhole), represents the female genitalia. This omega-shape form is similar to other ornamental objects discovered throughout the archipelago, one example is the mamuli of the west Sumba people. The omega-shaped form of metal artifacts is also known as the "open oval". The open oval shape is thought to symbolize fertility, the ability of the female member of the community to create life through birth. The shape is endemic throughout the region of Southeast Asia. Open oval shape first appeared around 500 BC in the Southeast Asian region where the Austronesian culture flourished e.g. in Taiwan, in the Philippines, and in the southern and central region of Vietnam. There is a connection with the flow of other bronze objects discovered in the same time period e.g. the Dong Son drum and the bronze axes. Manufacturing sites for "open oval" objects have been discovered in excavation sites throughout the region.
  In the eastern part of Indonesia (e.g. Flores, Southeast Maluku, Sumba, and Central Sulawesi), these objects reach the greatest variety of form and dimension. Here the objects would reach enormous size, functioning as a very valuable heirloom object. Open oval objects have been found in excavation sites or handed down generation to generation. 
  The taiganja of Central Sulawesi are still found and used ritually in the tribe of Kulawi and Kaili in Sigi Regency.
caption: The Kulawi people of Central Sulawesi, where taiganja are still used as a kind of valuable heirloom objects handed generation to generation.
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