Disease mask

*colour information is available for this work – please get in touch for access to this file!* Disease masks like this one were used in Singhalese healing rituals, where demons believed to be responsible for illnesses were exorcised from the sufferers. These complex night-time ceremonies, accompanied by beating drums and burning resin, involve the suffering patient being confronted with the incarnation of the malady in the form of the masked shaman, or ‘edura’. A label on the mask indicates that it might have been used to treat diarrhoea.