[A. G. Maisey]

The societies that I know well in Indonesia are not like the societies that I, and I would guess, most people who contribute to this discussion group live in. A man might earn his living as a farmer, or a truck driver, or a bank clerk, but he often has other skills as well that can see him earn extra money as a entertainer, as a court dancer, or as a carver. The people who work in metal --- silver-smiths and so on --- follow dedicated trades, that's what they do for a living, but wood carving seems to be a skill that many people have.

In the early 1980's I found I had a need for somebody who could work reliably on wrongko work for me. I'd tried a few of the well known tukang wrongkos, and for a number of reasons I was very dissatisfied with their work or their ethics.

I asked Pak Parman (Mpu Suparman) for a recommendation and he sent me to a gentleman named Agus Irianto. He told me that Agus was honest, reliable and trustworthy. I asked about the quality of his work, I was told that Pak Parman had only seen one example of wrongko repair that Agus had done, but that Agus was the grandson of one of the really great m'ranggis, and had a family line of m'ranggis that stretched back a couple of hundred years. Pak Parman was confident that Agus could do the work I needed.

I ordered a Solo gayaman from Agus --- I'll post a pic of it in a couple of weeks. When it was delivered I asked Agus how long he had been working at doing wrongko work. He told me that he had only just started and that the gayaman that I had ordered was the first complete wrongko he had made.

Prior to working at wrongko work, he had worked on a road gang spraying bitumen, but this was in Malang, a day's journey from Solo, and his family was in Solo, so he came home. I asked him who had taught him to make wrongkos. His answer was "naluri". "Naluri" is instinct, inherited skill. He was channeling his grandfather.

Agus worked for me for 12 years, and in my opinion his work was the finest that I have seen done by any tukang wrongko of the present era. The reason he stopped working for me was because he needed more money, wrongko work pays barely enough to keep body & soul together, certainly not sufficient to keep a family.

I do not think that this idea of inherited skill is unique to only people in Indonesia. My father was a fine art cabinet maker. His father was a timber carter, but his grandfather was a cabinet maker, and many generations of his family before that were littered with cabinet makers.

I myself had a side job doing custom built rifle stocks. I made one for myself, nobody taught me how, I just took my time and did it right. I then got orders from my mates and from others. I was working by pure instinct, with a little bit of input on finishing that I had picked from my father.

Nobody is one dimensional, we all have skills that we do not normally use, and maybe never even know we have until we try to do something outside our taught experience.

In the islands of Maritime South East Asia in the long past, carving was a skill that all men used and was used by their group as a measure of the sensibility of a man. I think that probably the last society in which this idea was alive is Dyak society, where a woman was measured by her skill in weaving, a man by his skill in carving. Dyak mandaus and other weapons had the blades made by skilled craftsmen, but the hilt and scabbard was carved by the owner, and the skill in carving was used as an indication of the man's nature, and thus his fitness as a partner.

If I brand something as "folk art", it is simply because I use a modern easily understood idea to convey a message. I do not want to have to write or speak 5000 words every time I comment on some piece of art, SE Asian or otherwise. In fact, the only reason I've written this lengthy post is because I have time to fill, and writing takes my mind off the oppressive heat and humidity.

Yes Kai, I think this example of dress is probably 1900 - 1940. It might be a little bit earlier, it is certainly no later.

Yes, there are many examples of old, sometimes very old, carved wrongkos with animal and floral motifs floating around. I myself have several.

I have never regarded this hilt as exceptional. it is nice, competent carving, I have seen many that are similar. If I remember I'll have a close look at it when I get home and see if I can make further comment.