Indonesian swords

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Marcus

There has been a lot of interesting discussion but I am still unsure of the answer to my basic question. Give that the keris and pedang were both common on Java, who would choose a Keris over a pedang and visa versa? Would it be village to village, tribe to tribe, based on religious differences, social status, or just random?

I think that the question isn't easy to answer. The keris belong to the dress and is more a status symbol as a weapon (of course it is also a weapon and surely also used as that) while the pedang is clearly a weapon. In old times every man (or nearly every man) have had a keris but not every man have had a pedang IMHO. This don't have to do something with the ethnicity (tribe is here the wrong word) or religion but maybe with social status. Javanese culture is difficult to understand and your question can't be answered in short words.