Sukarno's keris gift to Fidel Castro

David · 9th July 2020, 08:28 PM

I don't think the colour photo is necessarily a fake. That is how brother Raul on the far right and he seems an appropriate age for the older Fidel in this photo.
Note the Sukarno is nowhere to be seen in this image. I image this might have been some ceremonial re-enactment of him receiving the keris. The B&W version is certainly photoshopped with the younger Fidel from the original ceremony with Sukarno. Not sure why this was done.
I tried searching for other images of this keris, but can't find any. It is possible it is keris sepang, but hard to tell for sure. It does indeed seem to have kinatah. It is also possible that the wrongko might be ivory, though i can't tell the form of it from the resented angle. It does seems an unusually long keris for Jawa. It looks keris panjang length in fact, but wavy. So maybe this keris is from Sumatra? But i don't think there is enough evidence here to make any decisive assessment.

9th July 2020, 08:28 PM	#3
David Keris forum moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 7,213	I don't think the colour photo is necessarily a fake. That is how brother Raul on the far right and he seems an appropriate age for the older Fidel in this photo. Note the Sukarno is nowhere to be seen in this image. I image this might have been some ceremonial re-enactment of him receiving the keris. The B&W version is certainly photoshopped with the younger Fidel from the original ceremony with Sukarno. Not sure why this was done. I tried searching for other images of this keris, but can't find any. It is possible it is keris sepang, but hard to tell for sure. It does indeed seem to have kinatah. It is also possible that the wrongko might be ivory, though i can't tell the form of it from the resented angle. It does seems an unusually long keris for Jawa. It looks keris panjang length in fact, but wavy. So maybe this keris is from Sumatra? But i don't think there is enough evidence here to make any decisive assessment.