Rasdan, I cannot give a definite, factual response to that question, all I know for certain is that amongst the people who were close friends & associates of PP, and amongst some older people whom I know well, there are a couple of things that should not be done:-
1) no open display of a personal keris to strangers
2) no display of personal belongings, wealth, or self ever; one should always appear to be less than what one really is; the idea behind this is, I think, that if a person is truly a force to be reckoned with, that will be obvious to all, no matter what the eyes might see of the person concerned.
None of this gets down to specifics or regulated instructions, it is all part of an overall pattern of behaviour.
Here is a little story, personal experience.
About 30 years ago I was invited to a wedding dinner. It was the marriage of an Indonesian relative to the son of an Indonesian gentleman who had made his wealth through timber concessions and had then diversified into manufacturing & tourist accommodation. The family was one of the wealthiest in Indonesia at that time.
As seems to be customary for a lot of Indonesians who have one foot in Indonesia & one foot in some other country, this couple did not have a single wedding, they had several, a couple in Indonesia in different locations, a couple in Australia, one in Sydney, one in Melbourne, I attended the Sydney one.
At the wedding dinner, the father, a gentleman of about 70, weighing no more than about 60kg & standing no more than about 5'2" tall, was wearing a badly fitting, crumpled, dusty, worn, blue pinstripe suit. His watch was a black plastic Casio. No personal jewellery, not even a wedding ring. His wife looked as if she had spent the entire day before the dinner in Sydney's most talented beautician's premises, she wore a simple black frock that I was later told she had ordered from her regular supplier in Paris. She wore only one piece of jewellery, a simple pendent:- the chain was gold and about as thick as my little finger, the pendent itself was a single diamond, about the size of a large pigeon egg.
Was the father of the bride a powerful man?
Well, by himself nobody would take the slightest notice of him, but in company with his wife anybody with half a brain would know to step very carefully indeed.
In Javanese society statements are never made directly, one needs to be able to understand that which is not spoken, that which is not obvious. One speaks by not speaking.
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