About

Object Number: E798

Collection: Ethnography

This powder horn, used to hold gunpowder, was collected by Frederick Duncan Raikes in the late-nineteenth century from the Chin Hills, in the north of Burma bordering India. Whilst he was serving in the Anglo-Burmese War of 1886 he fought alongside some Chin communities and praised what he saw as their martial attributes. The horn may have been acquired by Raikes as an example of the supposed warlike traits that he admired. Chin peoples make these horns from that of Bison, decorating them with red and black lacquer.