Two Tajong?

[Jeff Pringle]

"Pekaka" is not the correct term to use for tajong hilts.

I’ve gotten the feeling from the last week of occasional websurfing on the subject of keris that it could be an endlessly fascinating subject of study. Coming from my (perhaps western?) inclination to understand things by appending names to them (or rather, “find the correct name and you understand the thing” sort of thinking, which is not my only goal in understanding things (especially patterned steel & traditionally made tools ), but which may form the framework on which I hang my understanding, you understand ), the complete, overlapping sets of jargon and multiple points of view combined with the multifarious variation of form, intricate delicacy of execution and astonishing dedication to the spirit of the steel by generations of remarkably skilled smiths is quite bewildering & kinda cool.

But it tends to make the answer to the questions “what are these, where and when were they made?” somewhat elusive. A survey of what is easily available on the web reveals that the keris with the darker hilt has a blade conforming to the Patani tajong norm, but the sheath is non-standard (although common enough in conjunction with the hilt, see for example:
http://www.klefisch.com/index.php?pa...=1&itemid=4580
and:
http://www.antiqueswords.com/bq1050.htm )
The lighter-color, more nicely carved hilt with the more tajong-standard scabbard has a non-standard blade, or so it seems…which all makes sense, perhaps- looking at blades of other cultures around the world the blade is the important part, and nice blades might get to cycle through several hilts and sheaths over their useful life, so one would not expect neat, tidy packages all the time, but just how peripatetic were these keris over the last few hundred years? My point of view is, of course, skewed by whatever info is on the web right now, so it’s hard to gauge the relative import of information like the second link above – Sumatran?! The rest of the info points towards a peninsular origin for this style, what’s up? How far into the islands do these hilts go? Far enough to get scabbards from Sulawesi? What makes that one Sumatran?
Pardon my confusion, you are probably not enjoying it as much as I am!

I like Garuda

The tajong form is unique to Kelantan and Pattani. Those tajong-like hilts found in Sumatra or Kalimantan are most likely copies of the archetypal form found in Kelantan/Pattani.

Yes, this makes sense, but are the hilts that started this discussion tajong (they seem to be, based on various web photos)? and do non-standard sheaths and/or blades make them not tajong? ...or is that just a clueless way to look at it?