View Single Post
Old 12th June 2018, 10:37 AM   #11
jagabuwana
Member
 
jagabuwana's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 275
Default

I never thought of the mendak as a practical shock absorber, very interesting. Funnily enough my decent command of Bahasa Indonesia means that I am aware of how to action/verb a noun, although I do get confused then when mixing English and Indonesian (eg if menangguh is the verb in Indonesian, then I am unsure if it is doing or giving tangguh in English). Not that it matters, seeing as it's not an English word anyway, and I think you all got what I meant. Thanks for all that info regarding mendak and tangguh, Alan.

So yes Rick it does seem that the collapsed mendak that it came with seems to have come under some sort of stress from above. Makes me wonder if this keris was ever used to stick anyone, though I guess it's more likely that whoever fit this new ukiran may have pushed it in way too far and hard and thus depressed the mendak. Still, I always wonder where a keris has been, whose hands it's passed through and what it has seen and done in its heyday, for no reason other than curiosity and fascination. Of course I know there is no way of knowing this in most cases.

But back to tangguh Tuban. I understand that there is no agreement (or perhaps consensus is a better word?) as to whether tangguh should be, or is a classification according to the keris' style or type, period, or perhaps all three.

So Alan, when you personally say that it's a pretty safe bet that this is keris tangguh Tuban, are you making a statement on the time period of when it was potentially created ie. during the time of Kerajaan Tuban, or that it was made in this period but not necessarily in Tuban and that it is simply a Tuban-style blade, or none of the above and perhaps "tangguh Tuban" can only mean that this is a keris that fits the parameters of what is said to be Tuban keris with no attempt given about it's location of manufacture and age?

For clarity:- I am only trying to get a better understanding of both (1) tangguh itself and (2) precisely what you mean and when you say that this could be tangguh Tuban.
jagabuwana is offline   Reply With Quote