Hi Kai Wee. Sorry to take so long to respond. I perhaps responded too absolutely on you web page. I am sure there are many who would agree with you that this hilt is a representation of a raksasa. I certainly have no arguement with you that it is indeed a disguised figure, i'm just not prepared to name all representational figurative hilts as raksasa. Certainly most of the major hilt forms are based on some abstraction of a figurative form. Does that mean that they are all intended to be raksasa? These floral motif figures have been around for some time on the northern costal region of Jawa (Pasisir) and Madura. My question is, why are they necessarily raksasa? I can clearly see the figure, but what you see as fangs could just as easily be facial hair or something else all together. The eyes are clear, but they certainly don't bulge in the demonic way of the standard form of raksasa. I also wonder how much of the floral motif is a response to Islamic law. I say this because i have also seen many of these floral hilts where the features aren't all that abstract leading me to the opinion that the floral motif is not necessarily meant to obscure the figure as much as embellish it in a locally decorative way. These hilts make me think of the European representations of the Green Man, making me wonder if they are not meant to be some kind of nature deity. Just a thought. To my mind these 'Floral Men" don't seem to project the same kind of menacing energy the that the more obvious raksasa do. They seem much more still, serene, at peace. That is, of course, only my subjective opinion.
