Another Surakarta Keris

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Adeg Wengkon, according to what I was told by those who were more knowledgeable than myself, is a misnomer, in fact, Adeg Wengkon should be called Tejo Kinurung, but that is only when the line of border pamor is unbroken, if it fails to meet in the point area, then it becomes adeg tiga.

Tejo Kinurung is a pamor that was/is favoured by karaton & government employees, it is not the pamor that was given to newly appointed bupatis. However, going back a few years --- maybe twenty odd --- it was a popular belief amongst some collectors that the so-called "adeg wengkon" pamor was actually given to the bupati to protect that bupati, whilst others had the idea that the adeg was representative of the populace of the province and it was the populace that the border was protecting.

The function of a wengkon understood as a border is protective, where it encloses any other pamor, then the other pamor is read as the thing being protected, where it does not enclose another pamor then it is protecting the enclosed area of the blade which is then read as the wengkuan>wewengkon>wengko, ie, the province. The function of a bupati is the governance & protection of a province or region, so it is the line of pamor that then represents the bupati.

When a wengkon encloses a line of standing (adeg) pamor, it is enclosing and protecting against disaster, curses, black magic & so on.

Alan, is this relatively new information that you have received from "those more knowledgeable" than you?

[A. G. Maisey]

No David, the tejo kinurung thing goes back sometime in the 1980's, but since everybody believes that adeg wengkon is OK, I go with the flow, I don't see it as my job to give lessons with every variation in names, for one thing, I would not have time, for seconds I do not want to get into long debates/discussions for no real purpose.

In fact, most of the understanding and information I have is dated back before year 2000. Pak Parman got his promotion in 1995, Pauzan moved on in 2014, Hardjonagoro bought a ticket out in 2008. All the people from whom I learnt moved on some time ago, and all I have to learn from new people is how much their ideas have changed & been added to since my friends & teachers left us.

Names vary, anybody who has any understanding of keris knows that, so we use whatever suits the occasion.

But this is a discussion group, Gustav raised a valid question in discussion so I gave an answer that maybe filled the gap.