Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 8th March 2019, 02:29 AM

Darren, there are a couple of things that possibly need some clarification.

I understand that the quote from the Ificah publication refers to Bali, in Bali rajahan are used as a part of everyday life and in many applications, so if a particular smith wishes to use them in the making of a keris, that should not surprise us, but if he does, any marks made on the metal used will disappear with the first heat in the forge.

Prior to Dietrich Drescher's kick-start of the Keris Revival in Central Jawa, there was somewhere between no keris manufacture and very little keris manufacture anywhere in Indonesia. That revival commenced in the first half of the 1970's, I was in Solo, on and off, during the entire period of the revival, I saw it happening.

In Bali, the revival of the keris started a bit later, all through the 1970's and 1980's nothing was happening, I think that probably the first Balinese keris of the modern era was made by Mangku Pande Made Wija in about 1983 or 1984. This keris was made as an order for Dietrich Drescher, I handled it when I visited Mangku Pande Made Wija just after the completion of the keris. As far as I am aware he only made this one keris for Mr. Drescher, when I spoke with him at a later time he told me that he could make a much better living by producing ceremonial axes and ordinary tools than he could ever make from producing keris.

In the period following the puputans the Balinese people lost faith in both their rulers and seemingly the ability of their Gods and Ancestors to protect them against the evil forces of this world. It is told how when faced with the attacking Dutch forces, the Raja of Klungkung struck the earth with his keris and called upon his Ancestors to open the earth and swallow the Dutch aggressors. This did not happen, so the Klungkung Court took this as an indication that it was time for the present era to end, and they embarked upon puputan.

From about 1974 through to about the mid-1990's I searched consistently for people in Bali with Balinese understanding of keris. I could find none, even though I had better sources than most other people. I met a pande in Blahbatu in the mid-1990's who had begun to forge keris, and after that it seemed as if keris interest in Bali began to rise again, but during the period of about 1974 to 1993 keris knowledge in Bali was very difficult to uncover, and it seems as if there had been no person to person transmission of knowledge since well before WWII.

Now we have in Bali a blossoming of pandes who are turning out keris, and keris authorities who seem to have materialised out of nowhere.

I sometimes wonder just exactly where the current Bali keris knowledge has come from. I'm inclined to believe much of the current keris knowledge has come from divine sources, and been delivered in the form of dreams.

Now, I know personally a couple of Balinese pande, I have known very well the two most prominent Javanese empu of the post 1980 period, I use the past tense because both have now passed. I know personally a number of other Javanese pande keris and keris craftsmen. I have worked with some of these people.

In Jawa and Bali that which a casual enquirer is permitted to see, and what he is told, is nearly always different to reality. It gets back to the "club" idea that I have previously mentioned, this, combined with the well known propensity of both Javanese and Balinese people to provide responses to questions in the form of an answer that they believe will please you means that most things that we read in books or reports written by outsiders about matters to do with Jawa and Bali must be taken only as possibilities, not realities. Read Margaret Wiener's "Visible & Invisible Realms" and consider what this Professor of Anthropology needed to do in order to complete her field work, consider her own doubts about some of the information she was given.

In fact, this characteristic of questionable "keris knowledge" is not limited to Jawa and Bali, it permeates the entire bank of keris knowledge, but the quantity of questionable belief and knowledge that has been generated since about 1990 seems to have grown exponentially.

In other words, don't believe everything you read.

8th March 2019, 02:29 AM	#34
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,708	Darren, there are a couple of things that possibly need some clarification. I understand that the quote from the Ificah publication refers to Bali, in Bali rajahan are used as a part of everyday life and in many applications, so if a particular smith wishes to use them in the making of a keris, that should not surprise us, but if he does, any marks made on the metal used will disappear with the first heat in the forge. Prior to Dietrich Drescher's kick-start of the Keris Revival in Central Jawa, there was somewhere between no keris manufacture and very little keris manufacture anywhere in Indonesia. That revival commenced in the first half of the 1970's, I was in Solo, on and off, during the entire period of the revival, I saw it happening. In Bali, the revival of the keris started a bit later, all through the 1970's and 1980's nothing was happening, I think that probably the first Balinese keris of the modern era was made by Mangku Pande Made Wija in about 1983 or 1984. This keris was made as an order for Dietrich Drescher, I handled it when I visited Mangku Pande Made Wija just after the completion of the keris. As far as I am aware he only made this one keris for Mr. Drescher, when I spoke with him at a later time he told me that he could make a much better living by producing ceremonial axes and ordinary tools than he could ever make from producing keris. In the period following the puputans the Balinese people lost faith in both their rulers and seemingly the ability of their Gods and Ancestors to protect them against the evil forces of this world. It is told how when faced with the attacking Dutch forces, the Raja of Klungkung struck the earth with his keris and called upon his Ancestors to open the earth and swallow the Dutch aggressors. This did not happen, so the Klungkung Court took this as an indication that it was time for the present era to end, and they embarked upon puputan. From about 1974 through to about the mid-1990's I searched consistently for people in Bali with Balinese understanding of keris. I could find none, even though I had better sources than most other people. I met a pande in Blahbatu in the mid-1990's who had begun to forge keris, and after that it seemed as if keris interest in Bali began to rise again, but during the period of about 1974 to 1993 keris knowledge in Bali was very difficult to uncover, and it seems as if there had been no person to person transmission of knowledge since well before WWII. Now we have in Bali a blossoming of pandes who are turning out keris, and keris authorities who seem to have materialised out of nowhere. I sometimes wonder just exactly where the current Bali keris knowledge has come from. I'm inclined to believe much of the current keris knowledge has come from divine sources, and been delivered in the form of dreams. Now, I know personally a couple of Balinese pande, I have known very well the two most prominent Javanese empu of the post 1980 period, I use the past tense because both have now passed. I know personally a number of other Javanese pande keris and keris craftsmen. I have worked with some of these people. In Jawa and Bali that which a casual enquirer is permitted to see, and what he is told, is nearly always different to reality. It gets back to the "club" idea that I have previously mentioned, this, combined with the well known propensity of both Javanese and Balinese people to provide responses to questions in the form of an answer that they believe will please you means that most things that we read in books or reports written by outsiders about matters to do with Jawa and Bali must be taken only as possibilities, not realities. Read Margaret Wiener's "Visible & Invisible Realms" and consider what this Professor of Anthropology needed to do in order to complete her field work, consider her own doubts about some of the information she was given. In fact, this characteristic of questionable "keris knowledge" is not limited to Jawa and Bali, it permeates the entire bank of keris knowledge, but the quantity of questionable belief and knowledge that has been generated since about 1990 seems to have grown exponentially. In other words, don't believe everything you read.