Is gold or suasa 'better'?

[kai]

Hello all,

Sorry for chiming in late. I believe that Alan's initial response sums it up quite nicely:

Originally Posted by Alan

If we say "better", my immediate question is "better in what way"?

What we know is that gold is most certainly the very best and most highly regarded material to adorn a blade, and it is the material of choice to calm the disturbing or evil influences that may inhabit a blade.

If suasa is preferred over gold as a material for dress purposes, my own feeling would be that those who say or indicate they prefer it are making a virtue of necessity.

In the culture of Jawa , gold holds a place above all else as a material of honour. Historically rulers used to give gold in huge quantities to buy support.

Within Javanese society gold has historically been used as the measure of all value:- a debt of currency will be expressed as a weight of gold, and you repay the gold weight extressed as currency when you repay the debt. This has been the case for a very long time.

Gold is firmly fixed in the Javanese mind as the only thing of true worth --- even my own daughter-in-law will not wear any jewellery unless it is gold. I know people whom I consider to be relatively poor who will save every spare rupiah until they have sufficient to buy some gold, and along the way, they will refuse to wear costume jewellery, because if they can't wear gold, they will wear nothing.

If Javanese royalty preferred suasa to gold, I feel that perhaps a few stories may have been invented to justify that preference.

It is beyond doubt that gold was the major store of wealth and status throughout all of the SEA archipelago from ancient times on (maybe except for very remote cultures); cultures with own gold deposits had an edge... Also the female part of the population, from all accounts that I know of, relied on gold jewellery to independently store wealth (if possible at all).


However, I'm with Maurice that Rumphius' account certainly needs to be taken into account since it is one of the few very early *and* extensive sources and actually quite similar to the important Chinese reports.

Note that he also mentions gold keris hilts filled with resin in an earlier passage. When talking about suasa, he first mentions two other ethnic groups: "Therefore the Malays and Makassarese like to use suasa for keris and their weapons, for luck in war" - obviously this is specifically addressing weapons and not general storage of wealth. I'm not sure wether Rumphius' concept of "Malays" includes Aceh and possibly even Palembang. However, it should be noted that together with these 2 additional spheres of influence, peninsular Malay and Bugis/Gowa weapons are among those which do exhibit suasa decoration most often (and of course, there are many royal/state pieces which are clad in high-carat gold as well)... So there may be some truth to this account.

When he goes on to discuss Jawa, he also first focuses on weapons: "the Javanese can produce suasa in thin sheets, and use it to mount their keris sheaths" - with very few surviving examples and likely non-random sampling from that period this may be difficult to verify (pieces remaining inside the Javanese cultures had to be redressed at least several times and this will be done according to the latest fads wiping out any earlier preferences).

Only his statement "The Javanese esteem suasa more highly than gold, and their emperor, the Susuhunan, wears it more than gold." seems to run against what we believe to know. I still need to check wether the original context was possibly meant to be restricted to weapons rather than a general comment; since he also mentioned gold keris hilts, I don't think we are forced to decide between 2 different takes on history here...

Regards,
Kai

[David]

For those who would like to access this source, this entire volume of Rumphius is available on line. Really wishing i knew Dutch at this point because using google translator line by line is an extremely arduous task to say the least when you cannot copy & paste the material, but those with a handle on the language might like to find these quotes in context.
https://archive.org/stream/DAmboinsc...e/202/mode/2up

[Maurice]

Thank you all for participating, but I'm afraid that I also am too busy, and therefore no time to discuss it deeply furthermore.
But I think it was good discussing this Rumphius suassa text, and maybe in future if somebody finds out more about this, could add it in this thread.
Or maybe friendcollectors here in the forum have some kerisses with suassa to show us here in this thread?

I just want to say that Rumphius arrived in Batavia in 1653, and as far as I can make out of the story, he left there in 1657, so he spent several years on Java.
Also when you look at his work (David posted the link), I can't say this is work for an amateur.
I'm afraid that if you would like to translate, it would not work out as the text is in old style Dutch. And even I, as a Dutchman, am not reading it easily.

Alan, David and Kai thank you for participating, and Loedjoe thank you for alerting us about Rumphius and his suassa findings.
And whatever is the truth, maybe we will find something more lateron to add here.
Anyway it was a remarkable text what Rumphius is writing, and I still have the feeling it will not be unfounded. : )


Best wishes,
Maurice

[David]

No worries Maurice, but of course, no reason for the discussion to end. I should hope these discussions never depend on the back and forth of just a couple individuals and the thread will, of course, always be here for you to return to.
While Rumphius was indeed in Batavia for for 4 years from 1653-7, where he began as a midshipman and ended as an engineer and ensign, i am not convinced that he began his ethnographic studies until he left the service to continue as a civilian employee of the VOC. He didn't begin his serious studies of the flora and fauna of Ambon until 1662, 5 years after his arrival there. The book linked above wasn't published until 1705, 3 years after his death. His masterwork, Herbarium Amboinense, wasn't published until 39 years after his death in 1741. What a shame not to have seen all his efforts come to fruition in his lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Eberhard_Rumphius
Not really pertinent to this discussion, but just because i find it odd, i wonder why the version of his portrait that you posted (also included on the Wiki page) is identical to the one included in D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer except that it is missing the animal hanging on the wall.

[kai]

Hello David,

While Rumphius was indeed in Batavia for for 4 years from 1653-7, where he began as a midshipman and ended as an engineer and ensign,

There are quite a few conflicting dates regarding Rumpf's biography - I'm not sure if it is feasible or necessary to dig into this? It seems that he left for the Moluccas in 1954 at the latest (the recent account by Baas & Veldkamp 2013 stating him leaving Batavia "after some weeks" only!). Despite him (possibly early on and definitely later on) staying connected to Bataviaasch VOC circles, it seems fair to state (judging from the corpus of his notes) that Java was not his major playground and we may have to accept it being more likely for him to include some erroneous info, too.

i am not convinced that he began his ethnographic studies until he left the service to continue as a civilian employee of the VOC.

There are also ample natural history notes from his earlier "stay" in Portugal. He had a high-level education and obviously was one of those homo universalis (Universalgelehrte, i. e. scientists interested in just about everything) of days past. Thus, it seems very reasonable to assume that he was always collecting data...

He didn't begin his serious studies of the flora and fauna of Ambon until 1662, 5 years after his arrival there. The book linked above wasn't published until 1705, 3 years after his death.

It's a wonder that (most of) the manuscript got compiled as well as survived at all: author becoming blind, earthquake & tsunami, ship sunk in transit, VOC declaring it a trade secret...

BTW, I'm fairly sure that he started observing and collecting right after his arrival - arguably, it will be difficult to ascertain how much time he could spend while serving for the military arm of the VOC (which he left in 1657 and settled down as a VOC merchant).

His masterwork, Herbarium Amboinense, wasn't published until 39 years after his death in 1741. What a shame not to have seen all his efforts come to fruition in his lifetime.

It was not unusual in those times to have the magnum opus published posthumously, especially with many visiting the tropics passing away within a few years. FWIW, he already got recognised as one if not the leading authority on tropical plants during his life time; I guess this helped to face the many adverse events during his life.

Regards,
Kai

[A. G. Maisey]

MAURICE, I do understand that you have indicated your desire to leave this discussion, but you have asked me specific questions, and I would be quite ill-mannered were I to ignore your questions.

Thus:-
Do you have such old information written about gold, that this had been preferred over suassa considering its talismanic aspects?

No.

Or is it for collectors assumably because more gold is found instead of suassa?

I do not understand the question

I really do have some considerable difficulty in understanding just exactly what is being thrown back and forth here.

It seems that the point being examined is whether or not some people, at some time, in some place preferred suasa to gold because of some supposed talismanic qualities possessed by suasa.

We have no definite, supported evidence to confirm that this is so, merely the comment of a European visitor to the Dutch East Indies, 300 odd years ago. Yes, the man who made the comment was a trained observer, yes, he had a reputation as an ethnographer as well as a considerable reputation as a naturalist, but the fact remains that his comment on suasa appears to be just a passing comment.


I do not believe that anybody who has been party to this current discussion has challenged the possibility that suasa may have been preferred by some people at some time, and that possibly the preference may have been based upon some reputed talismanic qualities rather than the desire to keep one's head, or for one to appear more wealthy than was truly the case.

Let us never forget that at some places and during some times, in the region concerned, the wearing of gold on keris, and for other purposes, was very strictly confined to certain people.

So is there any element of dispute or disagreement in this discussion?

Perhaps David is a little sceptical of this suasa talismanic thing being a wide ranging belief; perhaps I am a little sceptical of the comments being anything other than common gossip, but our scepticism is not at all important, simply because the possibility of talismanic properties being associated with suasa is virtually a foregone conclusion, bearing in mind the cultural and societal beliefs and practices of the peoples concerned.

The comments of G.E. Rumphius are entirely in concert with the social and cultural elements of the time and place. These comments are neither remarkable, nor are they important, they are simply one more smidgen of information of this type to add to our already bulging basket that is overflowing with comments, remarks and rumours concerning the possible and probable beliefs of peoples with a magical world view.

However, in spite of what I have written above, I do have a couple of further matters that I would like to address:-

MAURICE:-

Rumphius mentions the word "Susuhunan" (Sussuhunam), and "Javanese", thus he is quite clear that he is referring to a specific societal group. The Javanese people lived, and live, in "The Land of Jawa", this is not the same as "The Island of Jawa". So, although Batavia was located on The Island of Jawa, it most definitely was not located in The Land of Jawa.

It is my firm belief that G.E.Rumphius did not ever venture far outside Batavia, or the lands under VOC control.

In the 1600's, and even much later, it would have been quite unwise for a European to have done so. Although the Dutch had the The Wheel, and similar ingenious methods of justice, the indigenous peoples of The Island of Jawa were not far behind the Dutch in their application of physical pain to whatever Europeans they could capture. Old reports tell of saplings being bent and the ankles of unfortunate Europeans being attached to these saplings, as the saplings slowly straightened, the Europeans were slowly separated into two bundles of bleeding, quivering flesh and entrails. No, G. E. Rumphius would not have gone wandering off into Mataram seeking information, he would have remained within the territories under Dutch control.

Thus, his references to the Javanese and the Susuhunan would have been garnered at some remove from the actual place concerned.

But here we have a problem.

The word "Susuhunan" is a Javanese word, it is the word that is used to refer to the Ruler of Surakarta, as far as I can ascertain, this word does not exist in Old Javanese, so it would appear to be unlikely that this word was used in reference to any ruler prior to the establishment of the Karaton of Surakarta Hadiningrat. The Karaton of Surakarta Hadiningrat was established in 1745 (or 1742) by Pakubuwana II. However, supposedly this word "Susuhunan" appears in text that was written some time prior to 1700.

To my mind there are just too many questions associated with this supposedly original comment made by G.E. Rumphius. Bearing in mind that the publication of his works, some time after his death, needed to be a commercial success, I really do think that examination of his original text would be needed to confirm some of the comments attributed to him, comments that would be of interest to a general readership.

KAI:-
You mention:-

" However, I'm with Maurice that Rumphius' account certainly needs to be taken into account since it is one of the few very early *and* extensive sources and actually quite similar to the important Chinese reports."

Would you be so kind as to provide the references for these Chinese reports?

Thank you.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

The word "Susuhunan" is a Javanese word, it is the word that is used to refer to the Ruler of Surakarta, as far as I can ascertain, this word does not exist in Old Javanese, so it would appear to be unlikely that this word was used in reference to any ruler prior to the establishment of the Karaton of Surakarta Hadiningrat. The Karaton of Surakarta Hadiningrat was established in 1745 (or 1742) by Pakubuwana II. However, supposedly this word "Susuhunan" appears in text that was written some time prior to 1700.

To my mind there are just too many questions associated with this supposedly original comment made by G.E. Rumphius. Bearing in mind that the publication of his works, some time after his death, needed to be a commercial success, I really do think that examination of his original text would be needed to confirm some of the comments attributed to him, comments that would be of interest to a general readership.

Alan, if you noticed my post #36 you will see that i have placed a link to this published text in the original Old Dutch. Tricky to translate, but certainly doable i suppose. If you go to this text you will see that it is a searchable database. However, searches for "Susuhunan", "Sussuhunam" and "Sussuhunan" produce no hits whatsoever. I realize that Maurice is busy and my not return to this discussion anytime soon, but i am curious where the English translation he provided came from that uses the word "Sussuhunam" and what word was actual used in the original text in it's place.
Btw, just to clarify, i am not in the least skeptical that suasa as a talismanic metal could be wide ranging. My skepticism lay in the claim that it would ever be preferred over purer gold materials.

[kai]

Hello Alan,

Would you be so kind as to provide the references for these Chinese reports?

E. g. Ma Huan (earlier than Rumpf's account though); those Chinese annals seem to have a quite similar perspective than the VOC and other early European accounts; certainly, all have to be taken with a lump of salt.

Regards,
Kai

[kai]

Hello Alan,

The word "Susuhunan" is a Javanese word, it is the word that is used to refer to the Ruler of Surakarta, as far as I can ascertain, this word does not exist in Old Javanese, so it would appear to be unlikely that this word was used in reference to any ruler prior to the establishment of the Karaton of Surakarta Hadiningrat. The Karaton of Surakarta Hadiningrat was established in 1745 (or 1742) by Pakubuwana II. However, supposedly this word "Susuhunan" appears in text that was written some time prior to 1700.

Rumpf's text mentions susuhunan several times; in the middle of page 206 he specifically mentions "Sussuhunam Amancurat" when reporting on a military episode in April 25th, 1680. [This fits well with the Dutch helping to reinstall Sunan Amangkurat II during this period and also his adversary "rebel troenajaja" aka Raden Trunajaya is mentioned.]

While it is possible that one of the editors of Rumpf's work did sneak in the title susuhunan before its publishing in 1705, I believe this to be pretty unlikely. Are there really no other sources on the use of this title during late Mataram reigns?

Regards,
Kai