page_title: Naga morsarang
section_title: Potions
hierarchical_section_title: Naga morsarang / Potions
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Medicijnhouder. Houder voor de opslag van pupuk. Pupuk is een tovermiddel dat afweerbeelden, beschermbeelden en toverstaven een magische kracht geeft. Priester-genezers die in het bezit waren van pupuk hadden meerdere houders om pupuk in te bewaren, zoals potjes van hout, porselein of lood en uitgeholde hoorns van een waterbuffel of van een berggeit. De houders waren vaak rijk versierd met uitgesneden mens- en dierfiguren. Pupuk verkreeg de datu door een uit een naburig dorp ontvoerd kind in te graven tot het hoofd. Nadat het kind had gezworen zich in te zetten voor het welzijn van het dorp, goot de datu vloeibaar lood in de mond van het kind. Op deze wijze wist de datu de geest van het kind voor zich te laten werken. Uit het lichaam van het dode kind werd de pupuk gemaakt (Sibeth 1991: 136, 138).. Toverhoorn voor de opslag van pupuk Unknown language: Naga Marsarang
context_page_description: The naga morsarang, also known as sahan, is a container which is used to store medicine in the culture of Toba people of North Sumatra, Indonesia. The naga morsarang is created out of the horn of the water buffalo.
context_section_description: Toba people believed that the spirits of the dead were able to influence the fate of the living. To gain favor from the spirits, the Toba performed elaborate rituals or sacrifices with the help of the datu, a male ritual specialist  who acted as intermediaries between the human and supernatural world. The datu created magic books known as the pustaha which was used by him and by his disciples as a reference for his magic rituals. Among the contents of the pustaha are methods to create different kind of potions used for both white magic and black magic in a kind of complex magic ritual. Naga morsarang are used as container for these potions. 
  One example of a white magic potion is the pagar, a potion used as a kind of amulet to protect from evil. The creation of pagar is very difficult, and can only be done on certain auspicious days. Most of the ingredients of a pagar are derived from plants, although sometimes chicken head, its entrails, and its feathers are included in the mixture. The ingredients for a pagar can only be gathered on certain sacred sites known as the sombaon. Creation of a pagar took days or weeks. All the ingredients are then cooked and finely crushed into a kind of paste which is then stored in the naga morsarang.
caption: A naga morsarang
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