From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the festival in Indonesia, see
Tabut.
Tabot (Ge'ez ታቦት
tābōt, sometimes spelled
tabout), is a Ge'ez (as well as Ethio-Semitic) word
referring to a replica of the Tablets of Law, onto
which the Biblical Ten
Commandments were inscribed, used in the practices of the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church. Tabot can also refer to a replica of the Ark of the
Covenant. The word tsellat (Ge'ez: ጽላት
ṣallāt, modern ṣellāt) refers only to a replica
of the Tablets, but is less commonly used.
According to Edward Ullendorff, the word
tabot is derived from the Jewish Aramaic, or
more specifically the Aramaic, word tebuta
(tebota), which in turn is derived from the Hebrew
tebah.[1] "The
concept and function of the tabot represent one of the
most remarkable areas of agreement with Old Testament forms of
worship."[2]
A tabot is usually six inches (15 cm) square, and may be made from alabaster, marble, or wood from an acacia tree -- although David
Buxton states the maximum length of 40 cm is more common.[3] It is
always kept in ornate coverings to hide it from public view. In an
elaborate procession, which has often reminded literate onlookers
of the sixth chapter of 2 Samuel where King David leads the people dancing before the
Ark,[4] the
tabot is carried around the church courtyard on the patronal feast day, and also
on the great Feast of Timket (known as Epiphany or Theophany in Europe).[5] Buxton
describes one such procession, on the festival of Gabra
Manfas Qeddus:
- To the uninstructed onlooker the climax of the service came at
the end, when the tabot or ark was brought out, wrapped in
coloured cloths, carried on the head of a priest. As it appeared in
the doorway the women raised the ilil, a prolonged and piercing cry of
joy. At first the tabot remained motionless, accompanied
by several processinal crosses and their attendant brightly colored
canopies, while a group of cantors (dabtara) performed the
liturgical dance so beloved of the Abyssinians. The dancing over, a
procession formed up, headed by the tabot, and slowly
circled the church three times in a counter-clockwise direction.
Finally the tabot was carried back into the sanctuary; all
was over and the assembly broke up.[6]
Although Ethiopia was
never colonized by the British, many tabots were looted by
them during the 1868 Expedition to
Abyssinia, which is a cause of anger among Ethiopians. During
the looting of the Ethiopian capital of Magdala in 1868, British soldiers took hundreds of
tabots. The return in February 2002 of one of these,
discovered in the storage of St. John's Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, was a cause of
public rejoicing in Addis Ababa.[7][8]
See also
Notes
- ^
Edward Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible (Oxford:
University Press for the British Academy, 1968), pp. 82, 122
- ^
Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible, p. 82
- ^
David Buxon, The Abyssinians (New York: Praeger, 1970), p.
162
- ^
For example, Ullendorff, Ethiopia and the Bible, p. 83;
Buxton, The Abyssinians, p. 32.
- ^
Donald N. Levine, Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in
Ethiopian Culture, (Chicago: University Press, 1972), p.
63.
- ^
Buxton, The Abyssinians, p. 65
- ^
"Ethiopian joy as church
returns Ark of Covenant; Handover may" by Jenifer Johnston,
The Sunday Herald, January 27, 2002
(hosted by Find Articles)
- ^
"Ethiopia: Returning a
Tabot" by Odhiambo Okite, Christianity Today, 22 April
2002
Further
reading
- C.F. Beckingham and G.W.B. Huntingford, "Appendix III, The
Tabot" in their translation of Francisco Alvarez, The
Prester John of the Indies (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1961),
pp. 543-8.
External
links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
