silver keris toli-toli ( comments pls)

A. G. Maisey · 27th May 2013, 11:56 PM

David, I'm running on memory here, and I read the source some months ago, so I could be incorrect, but in the book on Bugis keris that came out a while ago I seem to recall that the reason given for the use of toli2 was that when somebody came into the presence of the ruler, the toli2 needed to be in place , and if it were not in place, the offending person got whacked right there with no questions asked.

Effectively it was to ensure that a succession by assassination did not occur.

There might have been subsidiary reasons also given, but what I seem to remember is what I have written. Anybody who has this book can check it easily.

I cannot check this book at the moment, as I have lent it a friend.

In fact, I have never seen an old example of one of these lavish toli2, the only ones I've ever seen have been made from plain, soft cord. I've seen a couple of pics of the extravagant work of art ones that were probably a bit old, but I've never the real thing in front of me.

27th May 2013, 11:56 PM	#11
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	David, I'm running on memory here, and I read the source some months ago, so I could be incorrect, but in the book on Bugis keris that came out a while ago I seem to recall that the reason given for the use of toli2 was that when somebody came into the presence of the ruler, the toli2 needed to be in place , and if it were not in place, the offending person got whacked right there with no questions asked. Effectively it was to ensure that a succession by assassination did not occur. There might have been subsidiary reasons also given, but what I seem to remember is what I have written. Anybody who has this book can check it easily. I cannot check this book at the moment, as I have lent it a friend. In fact, I have never seen an old example of one of these lavish toli2, the only ones I've ever seen have been made from plain, soft cord. I've seen a couple of pics of the extravagant work of art ones that were probably a bit old, but I've never the real thing in front of me.