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Old 11th October 2006, 05:22 PM   #84
David
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
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Well, Steve seems like a nice chap and he sure does move pretty well, but i think it's fair to say that he doesn't know squat about keris. Firstly this keris, or at least the dress that he comments on is a very typical form of Madurese keris, not Lombak or Bali. He moves the blade quickly so it is hard to see, but it doesn't look all that impressive and my feeling is that this is a piece "made for travelers" so i doubt this would be a piece with much life energy in it. Hard to say without handling it though. The winged horse is a symbol rather specific to Madurese form an is post-Hindu as far as i know. Infact it may well be a European influenced symbol as the Madurese incorporated quite a bit of that into there dress designs.
Also i dare say that for someone who has traveled so much in Indonesian he hardly treats the blade in the manner i would expect to see from a person claiming to be knowledgable of the tradition. None of this, of course, necessarily reflects on his knowledge or abilities in silat.
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