mask (dance & live theatre)

Lakhe mask, made of moulded clay and painted papier-mâché with a fabric face-ring behind. It is made in the shape of a flattened circle. The mask has a red complexion, eyeholes with black pupils, white eyeballs with black rims above and red rims below, and black eyelashes on a green ground. It has pronounced eyebrows with black hairs on green, a tika mark of yellow dots and circle between eyes, yellow loops on the nose, and a yellow circle with a red border in the centre of the forehead.

It has a wide open mouth with white teeth and two long fangs, and a border of a green band with black stripes passes around the cheeks and chin. The hairline is decorated with five loops outlined in yellow bands and dashes. The black hair is outlined in white. The two disc earrings are yellow, with a border of white dashes.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk