Theo's chapter 7 keris are certainly not particularly old keris. In fact, for at least 100 years these larger keris in the form of a keris sajen have been produced specifically for collectors, some of the really recent ones professionally aged, can be a real trap for young players. There are probably a few truly old ones around, but I very much doubt that even these can be attributed to the Majapahit era.
Jean, you ask '---what is left?---' .
We have a plethora of art works.
We have a good quantity of monumental works.
We have a multitude of literary sources that deal with history, culture and society.
One thing is certain:- we can learn only a very limited amount from sources that deal specifically with keris. We must recognise the Javanese keris for what it is:- a cultural icon.
Quote:-
If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you always got.
I'm sure somebody famous gave us this quote, but I don't know who. However, it is particularly relevant to the study of the keris. We keep on reading keris books because we want to learn about the keris, but we invariably only get rehashes of the same information, much of it drawn from the same limited sources.
If we want to learn about the keris we must look in a direction other than the books about keris.
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