New Moro Kris Sheaths and handles for Comments

[Ian]

Originally Posted by alexish

My personal own observation based on availability of old antique Moro krises for sale or on auction, is that Maranao is the most common, followed by Maguidanao and then Sulu. Do you guys have similar observations?

What we see online is not a fair representation of the Moro kris that have been created over the last several hundred years.

The kris from the Sulu Archipelago are likely to be under represented because of a relative lack of contact and trade between U.S. and other Western groups with the Sulu Moros compared with the Moro groups based on Mindanao. In particular, US servicemen and others were interacting with relatively friendly Moro groups on Mindanao (notably those Maguindanao controlled by Datu Piang around Reina Regente) in the early 1900s, and Col. Pershing established reasonable relations with Maranao groups of the Lake Lanao region following some punitive expeditions in the early 1900s.

The Moro groups of the smaller Sulu Archipelago islands were more troublesome and led to several major armed conflicts, with many ongoing skirmishes. While some weapons were confiscated in these conflicts, the opportunity to obtain Sulu kris via trade or barter was less than among the Mindanao groups. What we do see online are more barung than kris coming from the Sulu areas, and this may have reflected a preference by the Sulu groups for the barung, but, again, such observations need to be interpreted cautiously.

It's an interesting question you raise but one that cannot be answered with any confidence based on the relative numbers of weapons showing up online.

Ian.