Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

DAHenkel · 20th November 2012, 07:33 AM

More or less you've correctly identified the piece...a brand of parang from the Northeast Malay Peninsula. The name is a bit more tricky though. First off the term "Parang Ginah" (which I think comes from Stone's or some other misguided and rather careless colonial ethnologist) is orthographically way off the mark. The locals have a variety of names for these including "parang Pattani" or "parang jenguk". The latter is probably the term from which the Parang Ginah name is probably derived. It is pronounced more like JERNG_ook...a Malay word which describes the rather curious shape of the blade and which translates more or less along the lines of the verb "to crane" as in ones's neck.

I put up a bunch of pictures of examples of these and there was some inconclusive discussion on them in a thread on the old UBB forum:

http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000598.html

I believe there are probably a variety of specific names for the different forms but I've never gotten around to explore these in more precise detail. I do remember a further discussion in Kelantan where it came out first off that these were multi-purpose fighting weapons that could serve as work knives, with the larger more elaborate ones more likely for show and the simpler heavier examples being of a more practical sort. Its said they were carried and worn unsheathed (thus the complete absence of scabbard examples...aside from the odd modern one off), with the handle tucked into the sarong or waistband and the blade jutting out to the front. It also appears given the large number of these and their relatively uniform age that these were something of a "fad" at some point probably in the mid to late-19th century but that carrying them went out of fashion probably not long after the imposition of British colonial hegemony. You do still see the occasional old codger using the heavy choper types like yours but most rural Malays in the area prefer the usual run of China (or other) made machete type blades which are cheap and plentiful in any local marketplace or hardware shop.

20th November 2012, 07:33 AM	#8
DAHenkel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 125	More or less you've correctly identified the piece...a brand of parang from the Northeast Malay Peninsula. The name is a bit more tricky though. First off the term "Parang Ginah" (which I think comes from Stone's or some other misguided and rather careless colonial ethnologist) is orthographically way off the mark. The locals have a variety of names for these including "parang Pattani" or "parang jenguk". The latter is probably the term from which the Parang Ginah name is probably derived. It is pronounced more like JERNG_ook...a Malay word which describes the rather curious shape of the blade and which translates more or less along the lines of the verb "to crane" as in ones's neck. I put up a bunch of pictures of examples of these and there was some inconclusive discussion on them in a thread on the old UBB forum: http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000598.html I believe there are probably a variety of specific names for the different forms but I've never gotten around to explore these in more precise detail. I do remember a further discussion in Kelantan where it came out first off that these were multi-purpose fighting weapons that could serve as work knives, with the larger more elaborate ones more likely for show and the simpler heavier examples being of a more practical sort. Its said they were carried and worn unsheathed (thus the complete absence of scabbard examples...aside from the odd modern one off), with the handle tucked into the sarong or waistband and the blade jutting out to the front. It also appears given the large number of these and their relatively uniform age that these were something of a "fad" at some point probably in the mid to late-19th century but that carrying them went out of fashion probably not long after the imposition of British colonial hegemony. You do still see the occasional old codger using the heavy choper types like yours but most rural Malays in the area prefer the usual run of China (or other) made machete type blades which are cheap and plentiful in any local marketplace or hardware shop.