The basics of keris understanding?

[Jussi M.]

Up!

Greetings. Thought of reviving this thread with the hope it would get more attention than it did last year. Mr. Maisey as well as some others have mentioned that both time and place are of great importance in understanding the keris. My question now is, is there a known lineage of designs that can be put onto a timeline of different Javanese kerises? Something like this:



I do not mean to reinvent the Tangguh system. What I am after is a simple timeline with the development of the major designs. Does this exist and if it doesnt, can it be formulated?

Thanks,

J

[Rick]

Jussi, I believe there is a timeline of sorts ; getting all to agree on when and where could be problematic though .

Where would we start ?
When should we start ?
Majahpahit ?
Candi Sukuh carvings ?
India ?

We will need what is called a 'Fog Knife' here in New England, to cut through the haze of time ..

[ganjawulung]

Originally Posted by Jussi M.

...My question now is, is there a known lineage of designs that can be put onto a timeline of different Javanese kerises? ...

I do not mean to reinvent the Tangguh system. What I am after is a simple timeline with the development of the major designs. Does this exist and if it doesnt, can it be formulated?

Dear Jussi,

(I try to respond this interesting question, in my limited ability in expressing English)
I hope, yes there is. But we must work hard to draw this timeline of the development of the major design in Javanese kerises, by ourselves..

Why workhard? Because sometimes we must draw more than two different major designs in one time frame. Tuban style -- for instance. Kerises which were made by Tuban keris makers, or empus (located around Surabaya now), they are (supposed to have) different styles depending on the location of the making and the time frame: Tuban Pajajaran (by Tuban empus in West Jawa, in Pajajaran era), Tuban Majapahit (in East Java, in Majapahit era), Tuban Mataram etc... Say it, Tuban keris makers migrated to certain centers of power at certain time frame to earn their lives...

So the timeline must be based on certain center of powers in the past, for instance -- timeline of design in Pajajaran (West Jawa -- before 13 century), or even Segaluh (older than Pajajaran). Timeline of Cirebon design in the north coast of West-Central Java (14-15th century), Banten Design in West Java, Demak design in the north coast of Central Java etc... Cirebon-Demak and then Banten, developped in almost one time frame -- Islamic era in the northern coast and west Java

Where do we begin the time line? I don't know. But maybe around 10th century, with the form of "keris budo" (believed to be oldest form of keris, although no pictured source on it...). But, I hope don't confuse it with the form of what mistakenly mentioned by certain Western writers as "keris majapahit" (although locally in Java, call them "keris sajen"...). Locally, Majapahit style (13th-15th century) regarded to be one of the best style in javanese keris, the golden era of Javanese keris making...

GANJAWULUNG

[Jussi M.]

Greetings,

Thanks Mr. Rick and Mr. Ganjawulung. As to where to begin I´d say it is best to begin from the beginning, pun intended. That´ll be India or if you will the first verifiably known specimen found in the island of Java. Not West Java. Not East Java. Java as a the whole island. Now we need few boundaries for this if we want to proceed on a fruitful manner. Therefore I propose we work from the widely accepted facts first and concentrate on the more questionable or less known artifacts later. I know this can be understood on a pretty wide scope but it is the principle on which I propose we should begin our study with.

I further propose the following method of work: Please identify

1) keris
2) time
3) place
4) argumentation for the 3 above being true

Of course other methods are to be prioritized will they provide more sense.

Thanks,

[Jussi M.]

Time for the yearly bump!

[Jussi M.]

And a new to the rest of 2011.

[Montino Bourbon]

I know very little about Keris; I have collected a few, and I probably have some decent ones. My favorite one came from a pawn shop here in Santa Barbara. About 10 years ago, I happened to walk in, and saw some Keris hanging on the wall. There was one that I immediately felt an affinity to; the handle was in the shape of Petruk, very finely carved, the scabbard was very finely painted, and the blade seemed old. The layers looked quite fine, and there were some interesting details in the Pamor. I offered them money, but they turned me down.

I went home, and that night I had a very vivid dream about that Keris, a dream in which I owned it and it was my friend. (!?) Yes, I know, it seems a little bit strange, but I kept going into the shop and offering them more money, in $50 increments. Finally I told them that this was an Italian auction; I would get to a point where I would simply not bother coming back. They would not know what my maximum was; all they would know is that I was finished bidding.

That was when they decided they would sell it to me. Since then, I've sent pictures of that particular Keris to Alan, who has been kind enough to give me quite a bit of information on it.

My decision was based on several things:

A– the beauty of the handle carving, the fineness of the Pamor, and the unbelievable fineness of the painting;

B– the affinity that I felt. Call it psychic, call it spiritual, call it whatever you want; I just KNEW that this was my long-lost friend. Although I own several Keris, this particular one speaks to me without the shadow of a doubt.

I know almost nothing about Tanguh, Dapur, and other particulars of the Keris; I just know what I like, and what I feel.

[Jussi M.]

Originally Posted by Montino Bourbon

I know almost nothing about Tanguh, Dapur, and other particulars of the Keris; I just know what I like, and what I feel.

What a fascinating story! Thank you for telling it to us. I bet you felt good when you finally were able to give home to your friend

I have absolutely no clue whatsoever on the particulars either but I do know what something feels to me. - My answer now moves along way to what was discussed a while back in the "Appreciation" thread, yet I feel (pun intended) we are tightly within the topic of this thread also as I stated on the opening post that.

In your subjectively objective opinion what forms the core of the understanding of the keris? What areas should be addressed? - How, what, why?

The attempt of trying to gain a complete understanding on such a vast subject as the keris is - in my opinion - a futile task. It cannot be achieved. Much how ever can be achieved and the joy of learning is the best reward.

Now from my personal perspective I tend to look at the keris with four different set of eyeglasses: as a cultural phenomena, as a time machine, as a story teller and lastly but not least, as an object of art. The first three are related to studying the keris as a hobby and whilst I do give these views space when deciding on possible acquisitions it is the last that either makes or breaks my interested on any keris. That is the "feel" I get from it. A keris for me has to have "cadence". It does not matter whether it is steady, broken, fast or mellow it has to evoke a feel of movement or a pause in between that I like. If I do not like the "cadence" of a keris it most likely is not going to play part in my little ensemble of pointy gamelan. Yeah, consideration is given to "tonality" also but for me the appreciation of tonal characteristics is more of a learnt thing whereas good cadence is something I appreciate intuitively.

So "cadence" it is for me. The rest is more learnt appreciation behavior that stems from studying the subject. To express the same in other words I tend to look at kerises very "monochromatically". Basically what I am saying is that being personally drawn to a keris regardless on how it stacks on other criteria should always count if not for another reason for the fact that this cannot be avoided.

Did a bit messy writing above but I hope you get my drift. Something like this is a bit difficult to bring across right for a non native English writer.

Thanks,

J.