Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - P a t r e m -- The Smaller Keris

ganjawulung · 15th July 2007, 04:49 AM

Hi Hana,
This is only an additional illustration, related to the Javanese measurement. I will take analogy of measuring candi or temple, for illustrating the measurement of kerises.

According to the late Mr Parmono Atmadi (formerly the Dean of Technical Faculty of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta), the basic units measurement used in building temples in Java is the "tala".

One Javanese tala, according to this architectural research, is the length of a normal face measured from the top of the forehead to the tip of the chin, which is the same as the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the middle finger when the hand is stretched to its maximum length. The Javanese tala was used in measuring ornaments, statues, and alcoves of buildings as well as the temples themselves...(Some Architectural Design Principles of Temples in Java, Gadjah Mada University Press 1988 -- page 182)

If we take the tala as the basic unit of measurement for this study, clearly it would be difficult to standardize it in term of metric measurements, since it would be different for each person. Even if we take the average measurement for Javanese today, we cannot be certain that this is the same as the average measurement for the Javanese at that time. So, the design principle (in building candis, or maybe making kerises) simply stresses the ratio between building components (keris components), since the guide is not dependent on any unit of measurement... (Parmono Atmadi)

Ganjawulung

15th July 2007, 04:49 AM	#44
ganjawulung Member Join Date: May 2007 Location: J a k a r t a Posts: 991	Javanese Tala Hi Hana, This is only an additional illustration, related to the Javanese measurement. I will take analogy of measuring candi or temple, for illustrating the measurement of kerises. According to the late Mr Parmono Atmadi (formerly the Dean of Technical Faculty of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta), the basic units measurement used in building temples in Java is the "tala". One Javanese tala, according to this architectural research, is the length of a normal face measured from the top of the forehead to the tip of the chin, which is the same as the distance from the tip of the thumb to the tip of the middle finger when the hand is stretched to its maximum length. The Javanese tala was used in measuring ornaments, statues, and alcoves of buildings as well as the temples themselves...(Some Architectural Design Principles of Temples in Java, Gadjah Mada University Press 1988 -- page 182) If we take the tala as the basic unit of measurement for this study, clearly it would be difficult to standardize it in term of metric measurements, since it would be different for each person. Even if we take the average measurement for Javanese today, we cannot be certain that this is the same as the average measurement for the Javanese at that time. So, the design principle (in building candis, or maybe making kerises) simply stresses the ratio between building components (keris components), since the guide is not dependent on any unit of measurement... (Parmono Atmadi) Ganjawulung