Introduction

[Gajah]

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the warm welcome!

So far I have studied the following books:

Bambang Harsrinuksmo - Ensiklopedi Keris
Frey - The Kris, Mystic Weapon of the Malay World
Gardener - Keris And Other Malay Weapons
Ghiringhelli - The Invincible Krises 2
Ghiringhelli - Kris Hilts - Masterpieces of South-East Asian Art
Gronemann - The Javanese Kris
Kerner - Keris-Griffe aus dem malayischen Archipel
La Nyalla - The Power of Iron
Solyom - The World of the Javanese Keris
Tammens - De Kris I

I'm therefore familiar with the terminology to a certain degree, but have trouble memorizing all those "alien words". But even the Indonesians do, as I found out recently. When using ukiran for the hilt, an Indonesian friend told me that only the carving is meant, the hilt itself is called hulu. Only after sending him a link to a website explaining it in both English and Bahasa Indonesia did he accept my usage of ukiran. With him, I didn't use the term ganja so far …