Balinese Wedung

[marto suwignyo]

The names I have been given by Balinese people in possession of, and using this type of knife are :- blakas pengentas, caluk, madik, and arug.

A number of differently shaped knives are used for the same and similar purposes, and I have not been able to get anybody to differentiate in the name used for any of them. Some people will use pengentas, others blakas pengentas, others blakas,others madik, others caluk, others madik, all for the same knife, and for different knives.

Do the dictionary exercise and you`ll find that they have similar meanings in different language levels.

Possibly the "correct" name varies according to current use of the knife and the hierarchical levels of the persons involved in using it and whether they are speaking, being spoken about, or being spoken to.

When we try to give a "correct" name for any Balinese or Javanese item, be it weapon or other than a weapon, we are really attempting to do something that is often almost un-do-able.

I suggest that the use of a term understood by all participants in a discussion is adequate.Wedung if you wish, but my preference would be "Balinese knife".

Incidentally, in my opinion this is a very good example of this type of knife, certainly it is a little more utilitarian than the highly decorated published examples, but these published examples hardly exist outside the covers of books, and they certainly are not common in Bali.

[VVV]

Thanks Marto for your feedback!
And also for confirming that this in fact is a proper Balinese knife.
I have so far only seen the highly decorated versions.
Maybe because those where the ones that the Dutch prefered to "bring" with them home in the old days as exotic souvenirs?

Michael

[Henk]

Michael,

Justin gave the right answer. It is a balinese golok.
Stone shows a similar piece with a different hilt.

I had the honour to admire and hold one with a polychrome painted sheath and same hilt like this one in the collection of a member of Tammens study group that Tammens mentioned in his books.

[marto suwignyo]

Well, Henk, I suppose it is barely possible that all those Balinese people I have spoken to over the years who were using, or who owned one of these knives, were wrong.

Equally, I suppose it is possible that Mr. Stone was right, even though his record demonstrates that he was often, very often, wrong.

[VVV]

Marto,

Please correct me if I am wrong but isn't golok originally a local term for a short Javanese(!) sword before it became "bastardized" by us Western collectors?

Michael

[Justin]

As far as I have assertained through a few books and people, comments, and questions here on the forum; ' golok ' can described a variety of Indonesian knives/short swords.I didn't mean to say that this was definately anything,I only meant to offer an alternative to 'wedung' which I thought was a distinctly different type of knife.

[Rick]

A Wedung is a 'Javanese' cultural artifact .