Swish of the Kris - For Wayan :)

[kai]

Hello Mick,

Actually Sulawesi has a beautiful form of Bima in gold as one of thier Keris Handles.

I guess you're referring to that gorgeous keris which is shown for example in van Zonneveld (p. 58). However that one was "collected" by the VOC before the middle of the 18th century or more likely during the 17th century. Thus, this is probably a pre-islamic piece...

I don't doubt that some of these hilts persisted after the conversion of the Bugis to Islam but are there any later examples (like 19th c.) known?

Regards,
Kai

[Mick]

Here is a scan of one piece in the museum in Jakarta. I took it from Hamzuri's Petunjuk Singkat Tentang Keris.

A dear friend of mine (who has departed this earth) had a piece which was similar to this one. I do not know where this piece is today.

Don't know what happened. I'll try again.

[Mick]

One more time.


Looks like I'll have to read the instructions again. This thing is under 100kb. I don't know why it isn't taking.

The one from Hamxuri's booklet (based on the Jakarta Museum) is much better than the one in Zonneveld's. However, if I don't get this one to take after I mess around with it a bit, you all get the general idea.

[Rick]

800 max width ?

[Mick]

Thanks Rick. It waas 847.

[nechesh]

Thanks for the extra effort Mick. Well worth the wait.
Do you have any idea of the age on this piece. Obviously we DO have figurative hilts from Jawa and Madura that were made well past those island's conversion to Islam. I wonder if the same holds true for Sulawesi.

[BluErf]

According to Pelras' "The Bugis", the Bugis people retained their pre-Islamic belief of white-blooded divine rulers and red-blooded commoners, as set out in the I La Galigo sacred text, even after conversion to Islam. The old Bugis religion was somewhat in a class of its own. The white-blooded rulers were descendants of Bataru Guru, who in turn was the descendant of Datu Patoto, who in turn was the descendant of a pair of solar deities who were the descendants of another pair of solar deities, who were created by the original supreme god in the Bugis context (talk about pedigree. ). Bataru Guru had a grandson - Sawerigading, who in turn sired La Galigo, the character after whom the epic was named after. Actually, the story mainly revolved around Sawerigading.

The famous calabai (transexual men) Bissu priests were still very much in existence, even today. A couple of years back, there was a play based on the I La Galigo cycle that came to Singapore. The play was blessed by a Bissu priest at the beginning, and I read that the Bissu priest also insisted on finding the exact centre (the 'navel' of the earth) of the Esplanade Theatres to perform his rites before the rehearsals could begin.

Most Bugis carried out 2 wedding ceremonies, one in accordance to Islamic requirements, another according to tradition, involving the Bissu (if the couple are 'white-blooded'), which is reminiscent of the courtship trials of princess We Cudai by Sawerigading. Some more Islamically-inclined Bugis only carry out the Islamic wedding ceremonies, while some non-Muslim Bugis only carry out the traditional wedding ceremonies.

My understanding is that when the Bugis rulers were contemplating whether to convert to Christianity or to Islam, they considered which religion would accord more flexibility for them to retain their 'divine ruler' status. Christianity had an early advantage because the rulers thought it was more flexible. However, they were mistaken, and the Christian instituition was slow to follow-up with the conversion of the rulers, which resulted in the King of Luwu, the legendary 1st Bugis kingdom, converting to Islam. The conversion had profound impact on the rest of S. Sulawesi, which had always regarded Luwu as the spiritual leader state of sorts. And hence, most Bugis became Muslims. However, the old deities did not disappear; they were accorded lower status, and sometimes, given different names.

[kai]

Did you clicked on the upload button?