What Constitutes a Kraton Keris?

[BluErf]

Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge on this issue, Boedhi Adhitya. We had almost given up hope of anyone discussing authoritatively on this issue.

The inverted pictures threw me off, and it took me a while before I realized what was wrong with them. I was surprised that they allowed these kerises to be published. There was an equivalent book published on the Surakarta kraton, and I noticed there were no direct pictures of the kraton's kerises, as expected.

I agree with your last remark - that there is more than meets the eye to the Sultan's keris, hence, I placed the word 'unspectacular' in quotation marks. The keris occupies both the seen and unseen world.

It is interesting to note that the Sultan's personal collection is not equivalent to the Court's collection. Is that to say that the Sultan's personal collection may sometimes hold kerises that do not pass the Court's standards for judging keris? (For example if the Sultan liked a certain keris that do not meet the Court's standard, but he acquired it anyway?)

Thank you.

[Boedhi Adhitya]

Originally Posted by BluErf

It is interesting to note that the Sultan's personal collection is not equivalent to the Court's collection. Is that to say that the Sultan's personal collection may sometimes hold kerises that do not pass the Court's standards for judging keris? (For example if the Sultan liked a certain keris that do not meet the Court's standard, but he acquired it anyway?)

The Sultan's personal collection based mainly on his taste, and of course, his knowledge and interest. While every sultan (likes every royal family members)have personal collections, the qualities may vary since not all sultans (and royal family members) 'keris-literate', but most of them (the sultan collection, and immediate royal family members in the old day) honestly, are good. Yes, their collections may sometimes (or many times ?) hold kerises that do not pass the court's standards, but the court standards is so high that any blades which didn't pass was not necessarily bad. When the sultan pass away, his personal collection will be inherited by his sons, and so on, and so on. That's how a good blades 'seep' into the world

best regards,

boedhi adhitya

[drdavid]

Hi all, a very interesting thread.
Boedhi adhitya when you said:

The book bear some error: the keris pictures inverted, and some swapped

which particular pictures were swapped, page numbers would be helpful if you have the book to hand. (Or maybe you can help Blue Erf).

I have found at least one other thing in this book that I can't agree with and that is the Golok La Nggunti Rante (pge 79) which they say comes from Bali or perhaps Sri Lanka. I just discussed this piece with another forum member and we both agree it has to be a piha kheta which originated in Sri Lankan .

DrD

[Mudi]

This is good post Pak Nechesh

You ask

1. Are kraton kerises referring to the royal pusaka, or simply any keris that may be used/worn by a person working in the kraton, including the guards?

My reply is that any keris worn or in Kraton is Kraton keris. They may not be pusaka. All Kraton guards wear keris, but they are not all pusaka.

2. Must kraton kerises necessarily come out of the kraton armoury, or is it a reference to a certain level of quality?

My reply is that none of these are fact. There is no such kraton armoury, but all keris for kraton use are well made.

3. Are kraton kerises made by empus, or could they have been kerises owned by founding sultans/sunans of the kraton, which may not have been made by an empu?

Many keris in kraton very old. All made by empu.

4. Can kraton pieces be 'inducted'? i.e. purchased from somebody and added to the armoury? If so, how long must it be inside the kraton to be considered a kraton piece?

If Sultan buy keris then it is part of Kraton collection. Kraton koleksi di Yogyajakarta Surakarta have many keris not from Java.


5. "Rejected" kerises made by empu associated to a kraton - are these kraton pieces?

No.

[Boedhi Adhitya]

Originally Posted by Mudi

This is good post Pak Nechesh

2. Must kraton kerises necessarily come out of the kraton armoury, or is it a reference to a certain level of quality?

My reply is that none of these are fact. There is no such kraton armoury, but all keris for kraton use are well made.

I do regret that I have to disagree with you, Pak Mudi. There were a kind of workshop which would be classified as 'Kraton Armoury' or in Javanese word 'Besalen' (which has no translation in Bahasa), the place where the empus worked. Every court in Java had it. The famous empus were Riyokusumo (Jogjakarta, HB V), Tarunadahana, Supadahana (HB VII - VIII), Jayasukadga, Wirasukadga (Surakarta PB IX-X), Karyodikromo (Jogjakarta, Pakualaman). The Besalen itself taken place inside the court, fully supported by the court, and their products were used by the court. Supowinangun was the empu of prime-ministry office of Jogjakarta. We see here, even the prime-ministry office (kepatihan) had empus. I could show you some anvil (or 'Paron', in Javanese, which, once again and strange enough, has no similar word in Bahasa to explain this massive block of iron) and hand-powered blower which still being kept in Jogjakarta Court, to show you some facts. Unfortunately, I cannot show you the court's kerises
It was the court responsibility to maintain and develop the 'arm and armour' technology, with obvious reason. After the occupation of Japan in Java and the struggle for Independence, the empu stop working and passed away before they handed down their knowledges, and the keris culture has fallen so deep, that it could be classified as 'extinct'. Today, after Empu Jeno Harumbrojo (the son of Supowinangun) passed away just 3 days before earthquake stuck Jogjakarta last May, once again, no empus works as they ancestor did. Even if someone do, some critical knowledges has realy lost, and this knowledge, unfortunately, has lost forever.

3. Are kraton kerises made by empus, or could they have been kerises owned by founding sultans/sunans of the kraton, which may not have been made by an empu?

Many keris in kraton very old. All made by empu.

4. Can kraton pieces be 'inducted'? i.e. purchased from somebody and added to the armoury? If so, how long must it be inside the kraton to be considered a kraton piece?

If Sultan buy keris then it is part of Kraton collection. Kraton koleksi di Yogyajakarta Surakarta have many keris not from Java.

All made by empu is correct. 'very old' is debatable There are NO Jalak/Bethok Budha, Pichitan, 'Sombro' or 'keris sajen/keris majapahit' in Jogjakarta Court's Pusaka Collection. All kerises are 'standard' kerises, with the best iron, steel, pamor and workmanship possible at the time the keris was made. And some could be considered as 'newly made', as it was made during the reign of HB VII/VIII, when the empus still work. NO kerises attributed from outside of Java was held in Bangsal Prabayeksa, the most sacred building in Kraton Jogjakarta where main pusakas (these are, 150's kerises, spears, 'The Holy Fire', etc) were kept.

About the book, drdavid, I could only comment on 'Keraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat' specifically on heirloom section. I don't know the pages, but the pictures which were swapped are Kyai Toyatinaban and Kyai Purboniyat. The one which captioned as 'Toyatinaban' should be 'Purboniyat', and vice versa.

As Rick said, " Buy the keris, not the story, and no matter if it's a new keris or old keris, always buy quality kerises."

wish may help,

boedhi adhitya

[A. G. Maisey]

Pak Boedhi, I endorse your comments.

In my experience the Javanese courts did maintain armouries in both the English sense of a place where arms are kept, and the US sense of a place where arms are made. Note the variation in Standard English :"armoury", and US English: "amory".

The "armoury" where weapons were made was, as you note, a "besalen". I believe this would come into Bahasa Indonesia as "bengkel tukang besi" (or pandai besi).

It would come into English as "blacksmith's forge" or "smithy".

The "armoury" where weapons were kept would come into Bahasa Indonesia as "gudang persenjataan".

The Bahasa Indonesia for "anvil" is "landasan". A "paron" is an anvil, thus I feel that an adequate translation of "paron" to Bahasa Indonesia would be "landasan".

The hand powered blower used by smiths in the old days in Indonesia is called an ububan, it consists of two upright bambu tubes fitted with plungers set with feathers. Raising and lowering the plungers forces a stream of air into an expansion box which , when under pressure, delivers a continuous stream of air to the fire.

The fire itself was (and is) often no more than a depression in the ground, and was side blown.

The last time I saw ububan in use was about ten years ago in a coach builder's workshop in Kartosuro.

I`d guess some of the people in the blacksmith`s community up at Boyolali would still be using ububan.

An adequate translation of this word "ububan" to English would be "bellows".

[Montino Bourbon]

New things are discovered every day, and some of these are rediscoveries of old things.

Wootz technology, which seemed to disappear a long time ago, has been re-discovered and even improved upon. Certainly Richard Furrer and others have made new wootz which is as good as the old. All it lacks is antiquity, and that is only gained through time. Give one of Richard's works a few hundred years, and if it is kept in good condition it will even have that.

Likewise, spiritual rediscoveries are made even now; witness the 'tertons', the Tibetan spiritual rediscoverers of old yogas and other things that disappeared at one time only to emerge for a reason at this time.

So why not admit that the spiritual and physical art of the empus can be rediscovered, and has? I believe that there are masters now making objects that will in the future be considered 'pusaka'. Certainly the work that I put in with an object that responds to me makes it function as a pusaka, and I feel the energy from it. I may call it by another name, but the cause and effect are the same.

Now a 'kraton' keris is, no doubt, a keris that has a particular place in Javanese society, and a very refined and particular one. I believe, however, that in this thread we are talking about an energy more than anything else, and one that is part of a keris that is (or was) made in conjunction with a spiritual outlook and practice. I also believe that this type of energy is in various modern works, including some made right here in the USA. It may not have the exact flavor of a 'kraton; keris, but it is absolutely tangible and useable.

I hope that I have not strayed too far from the original purpose of this thread.

[Boedhi Adhitya]

Thank you very much for your kind comments, Mr. Maisey. I have to admit that my English has not improve further than spelling A, B, C,

About the 'ububan' we discuss, it is certainly correct, as you describe. I choose to use 'hand-powered blower' to describe 'the things' belongs to Jogja Court because it is not a traditional 'ububan' style bellow as you describe, but an european-made bellow, likes a very big squirrel-cage blower, but powered by a single-hand. You just have to turn the pedal in circular motion. Technological improvement, I believe A little bit to add, IMHO, 'ububan' is a javanese word. A non-javanese Indonesian would not understand the meaning easily. Believe me, because I myself is not a Javanese. It was the keris which push me to learn Javanese language, because all described in Javanese, not to mention if you meet some 'ningrat' (royal families), they may use the 'kromo' which make my head dizzy

'landasan' has general meaning in Indonesia, just like 'base' in English. It cannot translated exactly to 'anvil', unless you add a comment/context. Without context, it might means anything, likes 'landasan pesawat terbang' (runway). On the contrary, 'anvil' and 'paron' are a single word which directly describe 'the thing', that is a block of iron where the smith use to forge the iron. Any other meaning of 'anvil' and 'paron' may need a comment/context.

The reasons why I emphasize on this 'wording case' because some philosopher argue that the knowledges of someones or even a culture reflected from the words they have to describe a things. If they don't have a single word to describe 'the thing', than it is very likely that they don't familiar or even know 'the thing'. (please don't ask me the name of philosopher )

Thus, IMHO, Indonesian culture in general, doesn't familiar with iron processing technology. You cannot just go to Jakarta and meet the peoples there and asking "Do you know the meaning of Besalen, Ububan, or Paron ?" Most of them see paron only on Roadrunner and Coyote Cartoon, but may only describe 'the thing' as 'a big-black-heavy-iron block where the smith forge the iron' or 'a big-black-seems heavy-block that crack the Coyote head', but not 'landasan' as most dictionary entries may describe