Introduction

[A. G. Maisey]

Good to have you on board Gajah.

I don't have much to add to what David has already said.

Terminology alters from place to place and from time to time, and assessment of blade age with any degree of possible accuracy will take you a very long time to come to terms with.

For postings to this discussion group English is quite OK, but Bahasa Indonesia at a level sufficient for comfortable communication is perhaps the world's easiest language to learn, as you are resident there I'm certain that you already have more than sufficient Indonesian for comfortable communication.

The Javanese language is something quite different. After going on for 50 years of contact with Indonesia, and using a mixture of English-Indonesian-Javanese every day in domestic communication, I am still a very long way from being proficient in Javanese, in fact I have come to the conclusion that you need to be born Javanese in either a rural setting, or an aristocratic setting to be a good speaker of Javanese.

As for Old Javanese, it does help if you can gain some understanding of it, but I rather doubt that you will be able to find anybody who can help you with this, it becomes a self-driven effort involving Romanised Old Javanese text and dictionaries and lots of patience.

To go a step further you might consider learning the old alphabet:- aksara jawa, hanacaraka, however, as with the spoken language there are problems with this, because Javanese is a non-standardised language and in speech, Romanised text and aksara jawa there is a good deal of variation in the way words are presented.

[Gajah]

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the warm welcome!

So far I have studied the following books:

Bambang Harsrinuksmo - Ensiklopedi Keris
Frey - The Kris, Mystic Weapon of the Malay World
Gardener - Keris And Other Malay Weapons
Ghiringhelli - The Invincible Krises 2
Ghiringhelli - Kris Hilts - Masterpieces of South-East Asian Art
Gronemann - The Javanese Kris
Kerner - Keris-Griffe aus dem malayischen Archipel
La Nyalla - The Power of Iron
Solyom - The World of the Javanese Keris
Tammens - De Kris I

I'm therefore familiar with the terminology to a certain degree, but have trouble memorizing all those "alien words". But even the Indonesians do, as I found out recently. When using ukiran for the hilt, an Indonesian friend told me that only the carving is meant, the hilt itself is called hulu. Only after sending him a link to a website explaining it in both English and Bahasa Indonesia did he accept my usage of ukiran. With him, I didn't use the term ganja so far …

[David]

Originally Posted by Gajah

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the warm welcome!

So far I have studied the following books:

Bambang Harsrinuksmo - Ensiklopedi Keris
Frey - The Kris, Mystic Weapon of the Malay World
Gardener - Keris And Other Malay Weapons
Ghiringhelli - The Invincible Krises 2
Ghiringhelli - Kris Hilts - Masterpieces of South-East Asian Art
Gronemann - The Javanese Kris
Kerner - Keris-Griffe aus dem malayischen Archipel
La Nyalla - The Power of Iron
Solyom - The World of the Javanese Keris
Tammens - De Kris I

I'm therefore familiar with the terminology to a certain degree, but have trouble memorizing all those "alien words". But even the Indonesians do, as I found out recently. When using ukiran for the hilt, an Indonesian friend told me that only the carving is meant, the hilt itself is called hulu. Only after sending him a link to a website explaining it in both English and Bahasa Indonesia did he accept my usage of ukiran. With him, I didn't use the term ganja so far …

Well again, words are only a means of communication. What is important is understanding, so i would not sweat the "alien words" too much. Regarding understanding, i would also recommend you try some books that are not so directly about the keris itself, but the culture that surrounds it. Some excellent books in this regard are Visible and Invisible Realms - Margaret J.Wiener and Sekala and Niskala - Fred B. Eisman, Jr.
You may also find Malay Magic - Walter W. Skeat helpful. Historical background of the region found in books such as Bali Chronicles - Willard Hanna and The Seen and Unseen Worlds of Java - M.C. Ricklefs can also be useful for greater understanding of the dynamics of the area.

[A. G. Maisey]

Much of the keris lexicon is Javanese, rather than Indonesian, well, at least in Jawa it is, and even then, the words will change according to the situation. As David has said, in this discussion group English is fine. In fact, keris words change as we move from place to place, but that seems to be only on a local level, it appears that the modern Javanese terminology has become pretty much universal for communication about keris on an international basis.


I would add a couple of references to the ones David has recommended:-


Krisses---A critical Bibliography-David van Duuren

Kebudayaan Jawa--- Koentjaraningrat

The Religion of Java--- Clifford Geertz

David van Duuren's bibliography is extremely comprehensive and assists by giving a review of the material prior to reading it. It is probably essential for anybody with an interest in keris.

The other two books have nothing at all to do with the keris, but they are invaluable in assisting in an understanding of Javanese society and culture, and in the absence of that understanding it is probably impossible to gain an realistic understanding of the keris.

[Gajah]

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll look out for those books!

[Sajen]

Welcome to the forum! Two very nice keris for start a collection.

Regards,
Detlef