This textile features the motif of a horse sewn by using tufted embroidery technique. Textiles in Sumba play a crucial role in many areas of their social life. They are used in ritual exchange for weddings and peace waging ceremonies where their exchange validates alliances between the clans. They also carry cosmological symbolism based in local animist concepts and are crucial in the rituals of the Marapu (ancestral) belief system.
