Introduction

David · 29th July 2014, 04:09 PM

Welcome to the forum Gajah. You have presented two nice first entries in your post.
I am not sure how versed you are so far in the terminology, but the Bali keris has a pamor called Tambangan Badung in Bali, but probably known to more folks as Buntel Mayat in Jawa. Frankly i find this dress less opulent than what we see sometimes in Balinese dress. Bejeweled, yes, but nicely understated by comparison to some.
The Surakarta dress has lovely wood. The sheath appears to be iras (all on piece) as opposed to having a separate stem (gander) and top sheath (wrongko), which is a somewhat rare occurrence. The flashing grain of the chatoyant wood is probably very pleasing in person. I am also enjoying the slanted grain of the hilt (ukiran, defer, hulu are all acceptable terms).
On language, please feel free to simply use English terms to describe parts. I think some collectors feel that in order to show what they know they need to master all the native terminology. The trouble with these names is that they often change from island to island and era to era. And the names of pamors come and go. There are certain keris parts i find easier to point out with traditional names though. I might have trouble describing what the gonjo (also spelled ganja) is in English for instance, but if i say gonjo to someone who knows anything about keris they immediately know what i mean. The same might be said of parts like sekar kacang, sokogan, greneng, etc., the various aspects of the carving of a blade that help identify its form or dhapur. But i see nothing wrong with calling a hilt a hilt, a sheath a sheath and a blade (wilah) a blade. I might suggest that of the languages you mentioned in your post that basa Jawa would probably the most useful to study for understanding terminology, and perhaps more specifically, Old Javanese.

29th July 2014, 04:09 PM	#2
David Keris forum moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 7,219	Welcome to the forum Gajah. You have presented two nice first entries in your post. I am not sure how versed you are so far in the terminology, but the Bali keris has a pamor called Tambangan Badung in Bali, but probably known to more folks as Buntel Mayat in Jawa. Frankly i find this dress less opulent than what we see sometimes in Balinese dress. Bejeweled, yes, but nicely understated by comparison to some. The Surakarta dress has lovely wood. The sheath appears to be iras (all on piece) as opposed to having a separate stem (gander) and top sheath (wrongko), which is a somewhat rare occurrence. The flashing grain of the chatoyant wood is probably very pleasing in person. I am also enjoying the slanted grain of the hilt (ukiran, defer, hulu are all acceptable terms). On language, please feel free to simply use English terms to describe parts. I think some collectors feel that in order to show what they know they need to master all the native terminology. The trouble with these names is that they often change from island to island and era to era. And the names of pamors come and go. There are certain keris parts i find easier to point out with traditional names though. I might have trouble describing what the gonjo (also spelled ganja) is in English for instance, but if i say gonjo to someone who knows anything about keris they immediately know what i mean. The same might be said of parts like sekar kacang, sokogan, greneng, etc., the various aspects of the carving of a blade that help identify its form or dhapur. But i see nothing wrong with calling a hilt a hilt, a sheath a sheath and a blade (wilah) a blade. I might suggest that of the languages you mentioned in your post that basa Jawa would probably the most useful to study for understanding terminology, and perhaps more specifically, Old Javanese.