Jean:- artistic expression; this is a hilt that was created purely for art:- if you need to stick gemstones onto it, you need an excuse to accommodate the gemstones.
David:- speaking only for myself, I'm quite confident that I'm looking at a figure that is intended to be a pamangku, my confidence is based in the fact that every figure of this type that I have ever seen and asked about has been identified by a Balinese person as a pamangku, many different Balinese people have been asked. As for everybody else, well, quite obviously they cannot be certain.
I rather feel that this particular pamangku style hilt is a pretty recent creation, I cannot recall ever having seen a truly old one.
|