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Originally Posted by Jussi M.
Yes, it was a serious question. I have better things to do with my spare time for enjoyment than writing questions I expect not to be answered to in a keris forum.
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Jussi, i didn't ask you if you had intended this question to be a serious one. I merely stated the if
I were to take the question serious, then ....
Your intentions were not being questioned.
That being understood, i think you have not quite understood what i have asked/written from there. Of course a keris
could be made from solid gold. My question is,
why would it be? Simply because gold is a precious and valued metal? You also seem to be assuming that gold was somehow considered more magical in the culture than iron and pamor. I have read nothing as of yet that leads me to believe this. I am also not convinced that simply because a blade is not intended to be used for physical piercing/cutting that such attributes of the blade become unimportant in a ceremonial context. The following passage from Weiner's Visible and Invisible Realms (pgs. 163-164) might be a good example, when the Dutch presented a gift of a dull sword to the Dewa Agung in Bali in 1840:
"Fondling the sword the Dewa Agung remarked that it was not sharp. Huskus Koopman promptly responded with an impromptu moral lesson on symbolic value: the sword was not sharp because European princes had no need to defend themselves, as they were loved and therefore protected by their subjects. (Balinese, of course, presumed rulers loved and protected their subjects with their weapons). Huskus Koopman explained, weapons only serve 'as a pomp'. His explanation was received by the Dewa Agung 'with an affable laugh of self-satisfaction' whereupon the audience was adjourned. Given the significance of regalia weapons in Bali, the Dewa Agung might well have been amused; if European notables really thought as Huskus Koopman did, they understood little about power. Moreover, for the Dewa Agung the sword might well have carried a rather different symbolic message. A blunt sword was hardly worth the dignity of the Dewa Agung's position."