[A. G. Maisey]

Good questions Jaga.

In this Forum we have mostly stayed away from discussion of the esoteric elements associated with the keris. Understandable to some degree. There is a tremendous amount of nonsense that does get spread around, about keris, and there are numerous shysters out there, both with an online presence, and working face to face in the community. I know personally some of these people who are in Jawa, and really, I'd like to see most of them gone. They purport to sell things that in fact cannot be sold under any circumstances, and if payment does happen to be involved it should be done in the appropriate way, which is face to face.

At the moment these people only damage the image of the keris and detract from the real esoteric element that some keris might possess.

I'll try to answer your question Jaga, and any others along these lines that you might have, but my answers must not be read as my own opinions, my answers should be understood as repetition of what I have learnt from people who have, or had, a far greater understanding of the esoteric nature of the keris than I have.

In respect of "isi".

When people talk of a keris having "isi", or of having something contained in it, they are talking of that keris being inhabited by a spirit. That spirit might be good, it might be bad, or it might be bad and good, depending upon circumstances.

In old Javanese belief the spirit will be a nature spirit, the same type of spirit that might inhabit a tree, or a rock, or a place, or it could be a spirit that takes the form of an animal, the form the spirit takes is really only so that it can be seen or imagined by a person, it might be a tiger spirit, for instance, but that does not necessarily mean that it is the spirit of a tiger. The form is only for the sake of visualisation.

Such an isi might be of some assistance to the custodian of the keris or it might not be, but the assistance cannot be of a physical form, only of a form that assists helping to solve problems or to present oneself as one wishes to be seen.

How an isi comes to be in the keris is open to argument. It might have lodged there by accident, or it might have been called into the keris by a dukun (shaman). The type of dukun who was able to do this seems to have disappeared from Central Jawa today. In the late 1980's, maybe 1988, I met a man who was in the process of searching for such a dukun, the first time I met him was at a friend's house and at that time his search had taken him over most of Central Jawa and into East Jawa. I met him again about 12 months later, and he still had not been successful.

My pembantu (helper, housekeeper) in Palur was a very simple woman, she had absolute belief in ghosts, spirits, and every possible symbol or token of good & bad luck. She could not read or write, could not tell the time from a digital watch face. She was totally, totally grassroots Jawa. I had a lot of conversations with her about the mystical magical things of Jawa and about dukuns. According to her, all the genuine dukuns had disappeared before she was born, of the ones currently practicing in the districts around Solo that she knew, there was only one dukun who had some power, and he was known as a healer and somebody who could prepare little bags of leaves & petals that would ward off the unwelcome attentions of evil spirits. But he was not able to contact or call spirits.

I had a relative who had the belief that every keris he cared for had an isi that was either a kyai or a pangeran. He would sleep with each new keris he acquired until the spirit in the keris revealed itself to him, if it was not a kyai or a pangeran, he would sell that keris. The problem with this belief is that according to the beliefs of the people I learnt from, a keris cannot have the spirit of a kyai or a pangeran, it can only have the old, indigenous nature spirits.

In recent times and in parallel with the rise of radical Islam in Jawa, people have begun to believe that genies (djinn) & servants (khodam) can be the isi of a keris, but again, this belief was not a part of the beliefs of my teachers. Pauzan Pusposukadgo (Alm.) regarded such beliefs as sinful, he was a very good and observant Muslim. Pak Parman ( Empu Suparman) was committed to the philosophies of Kejawen, a distinctly Javanese blend of Islam and indigenous beliefs, and he thought such beliefs to be laughable and to only indicate the lack of understanding of those who believed in these things.

I know why Pak Parman thought in this way, and it was because it was his firm belief that no keris could have any power at all unless it had been made by an empu who had followed correct ritual and who had used the appropriate mantras during the making of the keris. By following these traditional and long established rituals the power of the keris was made obvious by the dhapur & pamor that had been used, and the power of the empu was sufficient to ensure that evil spirits did not enter the keris. He was scornful of the idea that anybody could actually call anything into a keris, he firmly believed that only those keris made by an empu and in accordance with ritual, could have any power. That power is represented by the dhapur & pamor is known as "tuah".

Tuah must not be confused with isi :- isi is not connected with talismanic qualities, tuah is only connected with talismanic qualities.

What is very obvious to me is that the grassroots common people, the farmers, factory workers, becak drivers and just ordinary people who are lowly placed in the social hierarchy do mostly believe that an isi can be called into a keris, but the higher up the tree of the keris hierarchy you go, the less you will find this folk belief. When you get to the top of that keris hierarchy it might be very difficult to find anybody who has any belief at all about isi and tuah that varies much from the beliefs of Empu Suparman Supowijoyo & Empu Pauzan Pusposukardgo. But when you go into the desas and talk to people at a grassroots level you will find some people who do have these folk beliefs, this is probably not all that different from the situation in other parts of the world.

The really sad part about all of this is that a genuine, longstanding Javanese belief system that is tied to the indigenous beliefs of Jawa has been corrupted by the pressure of Islam to change the keris from a Javanese icon into something that has to a large extent lost its original nature and has become something that Islam is more comfortable with. This began more than 500 years ago, and it continues today.

Again, not much different at any time and anywhere to what happens when a new belief system attempts to replace an existing belief system.