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Old 19th June 2018, 03:25 AM   #29
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 6,700
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I would suggest that even if the word "sarimanok" --- or whatever equivalent spelling we care to use --- can be understood as "beautiful bird", that perhaps it really does not mean what the direct translation tells us it means.

Very often in keris related terminology we find that there are layers of knowledge. The first and most obvious layer gives a meaning that will satisfy those who have only a slight level of knowledge, the layers that follow will be intelligible to those with correspondingly higher levels of knowledge.

Maybe something similar is going on with our sarimanuk.
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