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Old 21st March 2019, 10:02 PM   #10
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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Detlef, I do not know the correct name for this wrongko. I did ask the previous owner if it had a special name, but he was very much a village man he did not speak nor understand Indonesian very well, and I could not speak his dialect. According to him it had been carved by his grandfather, but this could have been any "grandfather" back for a few generations.

As to the word "capil". This is a variation of "caping". Caping appears in Old Javanese, in Modern Javanese and either "caping" or "capil" -- I forget which -- appears in Balinese and also Indonesian. A "capil" is a hat, specifically a wide hat made out of palm leaves, the sort of triangular shaped one that farmers and becak drivers wear.

I have never heard this word used for a type of wrongko, but if we consider the leaf motif on this one, I can see why somebody might have decided that "capil" was a good name for it. Maybe they just forgot to mention this to the people who wear them --- or maybe my informant was not all that interested in keris terminology.

Yes, I think it must qualify as folk art.
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