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Old 30th June 2018, 08:18 PM   #10
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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During the 1930's, and continuing after WWII, keris dealers from Central Jawa used to go to Bali to buy Balinese keris that could be reshaped into Javanese keris. They did this because good Javanese keris were becoming scarce and Balinese keris at that time were very cheap. Balinese keris were cheap because the Balinese had lost faith in the keris, and thus in the power of their Gods and Ancestors to assist in times of trouble. Their leaders had engaged in puputans (a Puputan is a "finishing") Balinese society was being reshaped by the Dutch. There was no place for the keris in Bali.

In Bali these dealers encountered a type of keris that they had not seen before, they called this keris "tangguh Kupang".

They did not know where it actually came from, except that Bali people knew that it came from somewhere off to the East, past Lombok.

This keris under discussion has about 90% agreement with what a Solo dealer of pre-1980 would call "Tangguh Kupang". It was called Tangguh Kupang, because all they knew about Kupang was that Kupang was off to the east somewhere too.
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