Christmas Presents!!! Kris & Barong

[Rick]

Jealous,
I covet that Malay Sundang extremely.

Very nice acquisitions.

[werecow]

Ooh la la, very nice.

I also made an Asia-themed Christmassy purchase today: a Nepalese kora. Not received yet, but looking forward to it.

[Battara]

Nice pieces. I LOVE the Malay sundang. The Sulu kris is nice too.

And the barong looks like it deflected 2 bullets.

Looking forward to the kora!

[JeffS]

Nice. For the Malay piece, the pommel would be a later Moro addition?

[SanibelSwassa]

Originally Posted by JeffS

Nice. For the Malay piece, the pommel would be a later Moro addition?

The hilt on the Malay Kris appears to be original and the collar is correctly slotted for where the copper retaining strap would have connected the asang-asang, although it is missing. The style of the silver wrap and the carving of the pummel is also consistent with Malay kris. I will post a couple of others with similar characteristics from my collection and a more detailed pic of the subject kris.

On the Barong, the bullet idea is a real possibility as the blade is very well forged and the two “divots” would have been clear imperfections. The blade actually has a very defined nickel lightning pattern that runs up the blade length.

Super excited for all three additions!

Thank you all for the comments… Merry Christmas and happy hunting!!!

[kronckew]

I suspect the two bullets were from a revolver. Very cool detail tho. A very good Xmas present.

[JeffS]

The hilt on the Malay Kris appears to be original

The reason I asked is that the kakatua has such a similar form, including the "wings", as seen on Moro hilts. The (admittedly few) Malay sundang I have seen in photos have had more abstract kakatua forms. How parallel was the development of sundang and kris? The general theme I've read here is that the kris evolved from the keris, gaining size and heft to become a slashing weapon as it adapted to Moro fighting style and requirements. Are Malay sundang a copy of moro kris or did they evolve closely together?