20th Century Solonese Keris

[Boedhi Adhitya]

Actually, there are some money for keris protection. There is also an Action Plan for Protection, Revitalization and Development of Indonesian Keris. But Unesco will not give the money until Indonesian government signed/ratified the Unesco's convention for protecting cultural heritage. The document is already in the secretary of states office, waiting to be passed to the DPR/parliament for ratification. SNKI has been trying very hard to push it, but as we all know, the bureaucracy work very slow, not even to consider the parliament's priority today. It is also worth to note that the fund would be considerably reduced, as Unesco is trying to tighten their budget now.

Today's kerismakers would be more concern to the low acceptance of newly made keris than to patenting the design. We all know that people would love the old blades more than the new ones. It is hard to sell the new keris 'as it is'. Irresponsible dealer (and makers too) would be artificially aging the blade, to make it look older. Many makers also trying very hard to copy the nem-neman (than making their own styles), as it is easier to sell to the inexperienced ones. So, it is easily understood that many makers, as Alan said, would like to keep their works and themselves anonymous, because once their works easily identified by the market (as a new blade, certainly), it will be harder for them to sell their works. Sukamdi is one among very small keris makers who enjoys the niche market of the new-keris collectors. Even so, only small amount of money go into his pocket, as the larger amount would go into the dealer's.

Actually, the real threat to keris culture is the popular misunderstanding that keris is a dukun's tool, and thus, an evil things. This misunderstanding amplified by massmedia such as TVs and movies, and keep alive by those who make living from it. This misunderstanding leads to two ends : 'keris avoidance', that is, peoples are reluctant to deal with keris/tosan aji, even if they inherit it. Other is the tendency of some religion leaders/priests, whom are lack of understanding, against the keris/tosan aji.