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Old 18th August 2012, 09:59 PM   #13
David
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Location: Nova Scotia
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Here are a couple of more likely images of dukuns. They are traditional healers, shaman of a sort. Many dukuns are no doubt trained in the martial art of silat, but their use of the keris does not tend to be a martial one as depicted in your photograph above. Their craft involves trance and meditation as well as herbalism and spirit communication and exorcisms. They might bless your farm and your crops or practice divinations. A few have been know to practice the darker arts of malicious magic. But we are not likely to see any fine examples of keris in photographs of them at work. Here are a couple of shots, one older from the 1920s that shows no keris and a more recent shot, probably staged specifically for the photo.
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