I am Ruth Barnes, the curator in the Indo-Pacific Department here at the Yale University Art Gallery.

Right at the entrance to the Gallery is a wooden structure that once was part of an ancestral home built to commemorate a female ancestor. It would've been raised about three steps above the ground. There would be steps leading up to it, and behind it would be a normal-sized door. This particular structure would've been placed just at the front of the main door.

The ancestors are extremely important in Southeast Asia, all over Southeast Asia. In an agricultural community, they can influence the harvest, the quality and the abundance of the crop. They can make sure that the community is healthy and that people do not experience too much misfortune. They really continue to have an important hold on people's lives, and that is why it is believed that you have to commemorate your ancestors. You must not forget them.

I also want to say a few things about the carving itself. You see that it is extremely intricate. It has interlacing scrolls. It's made up of very intricate curved, interlacing shapes, and that is something that is really very basic to and very much liked in maritime Southeast Asia. You find that echoed in the textiles, for example, that you see on the walls around you.

But you will also see that there is part of an animal represented in each of these two panels. There was once an addition to each of these two wings. There was an upper part, and unfortunately, that has been lost. So what we see now still is just the body of an animal that looks sort of like a horse or a very large dog. It would've had its head carved into the upper panel. But we know from similar carvings that this would've represented a mythological being, an animal that was a combination of a horse with serpent features and dragon features. It probably had its mouth wide open, a tongue coming out, and possibly a human being or another animal attached to the mouth. It represents a spirit animal that lives in the forest but can be brought into the communities. And if it is treated well, it has a very important and positive effect on the community.