OK, the bus is leaving and I've just jumped in the back door.
Thanks for your invitation Ferry, but I'm still not going to get too much involved in this.
Every week I get several queries into my personal email box asking for opinions on keris. This has gone on for years. Over the last few years, since people in the western world have become aware of tangguh the queries often include a request for a tangguh opinion. My usual response is that I'm sorry, I'm not prepared to try to classify a blade on the basis of a photo or photographs, no matter how good those photos are, because there is much, much more to giving a supportable tangguh on a blade than just looking at form. If you are going to give an opinion that you can defend on a blade you need to hold it in your hands and let it talk to you --- sorry for the phrasing, but I'm in Solo right now and this sort of thing rubs off on you after a few weeks.
Ferry, I know you to be an intelligent man, and a man with at least one foot in the modern world. Your other foot is probably poised halfway between a kampung in Solo and the modern world of Jakarta. You have undoubtedly heard "tangguh ngak sungguh" , and this is an absolutely correct position to take, when tangguh is applied as a method of blade dating. The fact is that tangguh is a method of blade classification that forms a part of the keris belief system, and that belief system in the 21st century cannot be divorced from the Kejawen world view.
The way I was taught tangguh was to look for indicators in a blade and then to make a decision based upon the weight of the indicators, but the man who taught me was 100% Kejawen in his beliefs and totally Surakarta Karaton orientated. I never, ever debated anything with him, when I was with him I adopted a world view that was in complete agreement with his own. However, when I stepped out of that world and back into my own world I reverted to my normal rational, logical, investigative nature.
When we consider tangguh we need to ask ourselves a few questions, beginning with the probable point in history when the Modern Keris, ie, the keris as we know it now, came into being, and we place that into a historical context.
Then we need to consider when the tangguh system began to be applied and why it came into being.
These are just starting points, if we wish to understand the keris as it truly is.
However, another quite valid way of looking at the keris is to accept the Keris Belief System. Why do I say a system of belief is a valid way to look at the keris? Because perception is reality for the people who accept the beliefs.
Good Christians do not question their beliefs. Nor do good Muslims, nor Buddhists, nor Hindus. If somebody needs a belief to complete their life it is their business alone and no concern of anybody else to try to convince them otherwise.
So you choose your path:-
if you wish to understand the keris in a supportable, rational way, you do the research and form ideas of your own
if you wish to be a fellow traveler on the road of Javanese Keris Belief you accept what older, more experienced and respected people tell you and you do not question it.
It all depends upon your own chosen path.
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