[DaveA]

Ideal musing that may become something interesting:

I have found the book by Donn F. Draeger, "The Weapons and Fighting Arts of Indonesia" to be a useful source of information on the great many weapons of the region. While the book focuses primarily on the (to me, dizzying) array of Silat forms, each of those is tied to a region and to preferred weapons. (As is usual, one has to see beyond non-standard transliterations of certain words.)

Viz. the topic of this thread, all of the pentjak-Silat forms of West Java are named with the prefix TJI. "Tji" is a Sundanese shorthand for the word "tjai" which means "water from a river". All of the older forms originated (or were perfected) in lowland basin areas of Java The suffix of the name of the Silat form is a word that identifies an animal whose characteristics are thought to match and inspire the distinctive martial mechanics of the form.

The sword making hamlets of West Java, identified earlier, also all have names prefixed by "TJI".

It would be interesting to discover if there is a linkage between the hamlet name, a particular silat style, and that style's preferred (or unique) weapon. This might be through particular animals or their characteristics. Doing so may shed light on common weapon forms, design and decoration, and influence on other weapons and the martial styles that employed them.

Almost all the styles utilize the golok, so that is not much help!

Your thoughts and rumination? As always, I acknowledge lack of my own expertise. Information from experts is most welcome.