How would you define this kris

[A. G. Maisey]

Michel, I am remarkably untalented in the area of language. I used to get marks as low as 9---out of 100---in my school French examinations. I would get that 9 for reading because my accent was apparently almost perfect, but all the rest of the language was a mystery to me. Later on I learnt to read French cycling magazines fairly well. What I needed was the motivation. I could see no use for wasting time on learning French, so I never gave it any time---until I decided I wanted to read the cycling magazines.

I had a similar experience when I started to learn Indonesian. I initially went to formal classes, language laboratories, etc, etc, etc. I got absolutely nowhere. So I designed my own program that involved extensive reading and writing in a vocabulary that was somewhat more adult than the brand of Indonesian taught in a classroom situation.This foundation was added to by live conversation when I was in Indonesia.

Believe me, it is not a difficult language to learn to a level where you can more or less understand a book, or carry on basic conversation.If all you need to do is read the captions in your book, you will handle that easily with the assistance of a dictionary.

Yes, your understanding of the difference between pamor mlumah and pamor miring is correct. The work involved in creating any pamor miring is multiples of that needed to create any pamor mlumah. Not only is the time and effort much greater to create pamor miring than it is to create pamor mlumah, but the level of skill required is also much greater.

[PenangsangII]

Greetings to all keris lovers,

Michel, the term Beko comes from a leave called beko. The profile of a keris beko can be described as like any other sepukal dapur, but with certain characteristics:
1) Less protruding aring (ganja)
2) Dapur jalak (Javanese) at the middle of the blade
3) Rounded tip (compared to very narrow tip of Bugis Sepukal)
4) Overall mata / bilah is wider
5) Normally without contrasting pamor metal / or one metal type only
6) Jawa demam (peninsular / Pattani) style hilt
7) Sheath can be saribulan (Kelantan/Sumatra) or tebeng (Bugis / Pattani)

Keris beko originates from Kelantan, Northern Malaysia and Pattani, Southern Thailand. Often produced to function as fighting keris....

[Michel]

Thanks you Alan,
You give me courage and motivation to go and purchase an Indonesian dictionary. So far I had downloaded an Indonesian-French dictionary on the web but have had very little success with it. The first word I wanted to understand was "antara" and I could not find any translation. I guess it means: "between" in the Title Keris Jawa, antara Mistic dan Nalar.
I will pursue my efforts with a good dictionary !

Thanks a lot PenangsangII,
for this very good description of the keris Beko. Many very interesting elements in your description. Your way of analyzing and "reading" a Keris, reminds me of Nik Rashiddin Nik Hussain of Kota Bahru, he "read" kerisses as you can read a book, a thing one can do only with a very large keris culture.

Thanks again to both of you for sharing your culture about keris.

[David]

Originally Posted by PenangsangII

Greetings to all keris lovers,

Michel, the term Beko comes from a leave called beko. The profile of a keris beko can be described as like any other sepukal dapur, but with certain characteristics:
1) Less protruding aring (ganja)
2) Dapur jalak (Javanese) at the middle of the blade
3) Rounded tip (compared to very narrow tip of Bugis Sepukal)
4) Overall mata / bilah is wider
5) Normally without contrasting pamor metal / or one metal type only
6) Jawa demam (peninsular / Pattani) style hilt
7) Sheath can be saribulan (Kelantan/Sumatra) or tebeng (Bugis / Pattani)

Keris beko originates from Kelantan, Northern Malaysia and Pattani, Southern Thailand. Often produced to function as fighting keris....

Given this description i am confused as to why this blade would definitely be called keris beko. It certainly wasn't made to be a fighting blade, it definitely has a contrasting pamor and i am not so sure that the blade is particularly wide. Dimensions of the blade would be helpful.
Given the finger imprints (picit, pecetan), the hole in the pesi and the gold crescent and star i would venture that this is a purely talismanic blade. The hole might imply that it was never meant to have such dress, but was instead meant to hang in an auspicious place in the home.
BTW, just to avoid confusion in the future i believe it would be more correct to define "aring" as the tail end of the gonjo, not the entire gonjo itself.

[Michel]

Hi David,
Interesting remarks you are making !
First the facts :
the blade is 4 cm wide at the star/crescent decoration level and 2 cm before the the end of the blade.
The length is 31.5 cm, blade only without peksi.
A partial analysis:
1) A fighting keris ? The blade is 5mm thick in its center under the ganja iras. does it qualify for a description of a fighting keris ? A little thin for me.
I have 2 fighting keris (at least I consider them as such) their blades are 7.5 mm just below the ganja and their length is 31 and 31.5 cm but sturdy blades.
2)Dapur Jalak . There again my ignorance is a problem. Fom Keris Jawa antara Mistic dans Nalar, page 116, the dapur Jalak seems to describe a strait blade with a clear center edge. I do not understand exactly what PenangsangII meant, I had the intention to dig a bit in my books to learn.
3) the hole in the peksi was not meant to hang the blade. What was explained to me was that these holes were rare and were for royal family only and were generally on short keris pajang (< 45 cm), the ultimate finish was to have the hole at the end of a twisted peksi !
4) the others points of PenangsangII, are more or less respected:
short ganja, rounded tip, Wide mata not respected, witout contrasting pamor, (very interesting and correct. I do not see two metals),Jawa demam Patani style, the sheath saribulan or tebeng , (I do not know because again I do not know these Malay words and their meaning.)
At the time of the purchase I was living in East malaysia and had no camera, so this is the way I recorded my purchase.
Michel

[David]

Originally Posted by Michel

... the hole in the peksi was not meant to hang the blade. What was explained to me was that these holes were rare and were for royal family only and were generally on short keris pajang (< 45 cm), the ultimate finish was to have the hole at the end of a twisted peksi !

Sorry to disagree with you here Michel, but while there might be some scenerio where a hole in the pesi is related to the royal family it is one i have never heard before. These holes are unusual, but i have seen many examples that definitely do not relate to royal ownership. This is not to imply that your keris wasn't meant for the royal family. Frankly i have no comment on that either way. But i personally own an old keris picit with a twisted pesi and a hole. It is a smaller keris than yours and it is my understanding that the hole was intended to hang the keris by. It was not owned by any kraton member AFAIK. :-)

Originally Posted by Michel

....witout contrasting pamor, (very interesting and correct. I do not see two metals)Michel

hmmm....you don't? I see more than one metal here. I believe that if you stained this keris with warangan that it might become clearer to you.

BTW, very nice sketch. You have some artistic talent.