Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 18th February 2015, 02:54 AM

I can add nothing of any value to what has already been offered.

Currently I'm in Solo, but before getting here yesterday I was in Bali for a few days. When this question was once again raised by David, I asked a couple of keris conscious friends to have a look at the hilt form posted and give an opinion. One of these friends is a man of 69 years who has collected and dealt keris for most of his adult life.

Neither of my friends had any definitive answer. All the most knowledgeable friend was willing to say was that :-
"it is clearly a woman",
so OK, what woman? deity ? someone from myth or legend? can we name the woman?
" I' ve never heard anybody with any true knowledge give a name to that woman or that handel form"

This just about boils down to what I've been told in Solo years ago:- "wadon"

Possibly the answer may lay in the function of the keris as a cosmic bond , with the blade having masculine character, the scabbard having feminine character, the pesi as lingga, and the feminine enclosing the lingga, so we have the female wrongko enclosing the male wilah, and the female jejeran enclosing the male lingga. As a totality we have a representation of society.
The female has no face, because she is representative of the female element, not any specific female.

Don't take what I've just written as any accurate explanation. Its not. Its just an idea based upon the nature of the keris and the way people here can think.

18th February 2015, 02:54 AM	#10
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,703	I can add nothing of any value to what has already been offered. Currently I'm in Solo, but before getting here yesterday I was in Bali for a few days. When this question was once again raised by David, I asked a couple of keris conscious friends to have a look at the hilt form posted and give an opinion. One of these friends is a man of 69 years who has collected and dealt keris for most of his adult life. Neither of my friends had any definitive answer. All the most knowledgeable friend was willing to say was that :- "it is clearly a woman", so OK, what woman? deity ? someone from myth or legend? can we name the woman? " I' ve never heard anybody with any true knowledge give a name to that woman or that handel form" This just about boils down to what I've been told in Solo years ago:- "wadon" Possibly the answer may lay in the function of the keris as a cosmic bond , with the blade having masculine character, the scabbard having feminine character, the pesi as lingga, and the feminine enclosing the lingga, so we have the female wrongko enclosing the male wilah, and the female jejeran enclosing the male lingga. As a totality we have a representation of society. The female has no face, because she is representative of the female element, not any specific female. Don't take what I've just written as any accurate explanation. Its not. Its just an idea based upon the nature of the keris and the way people here can think.