PARANG PANDIT

fearn · 29th April 2009, 04:50 AM

Hi Willem,

When you compare the baiwan and the dayak blades, I think you might be seeing echoes of a shared ancestral culture.

The archeologists and linguisted showed that the ancestral Indonesian/Polynesian culture originated in Taiwan, spread south through Indonesia, then west along the coasts into Polynesia.

These cultures share motifs of canoes, headhunting, and similar. One can see the canoe prow both in the scabbards and in the tips of some of the swords. I suspect it's supposed to be the silhouette of a war canoe in all of these blades, although I'm not sure exactly why.

As for the bifurcated tip, I'd guess it's supposed to be something like a crocodile mouth, but I'm not sure.

Still, the pandit's definitely one of the 10 weirdest blades on the planet, and I'd love to know what it's like to hit something with it. All that square-edged metal in the handle might be painful.

F

29th April 2009, 04:50 AM	#11
fearn Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,247	Hi Willem, When you compare the baiwan and the dayak blades, I think you might be seeing echoes of a shared ancestral culture. The archeologists and linguisted showed that the ancestral Indonesian/Polynesian culture originated in Taiwan, spread south through Indonesia, then west along the coasts into Polynesia. These cultures share motifs of canoes, headhunting, and similar. One can see the canoe prow both in the scabbards and in the tips of some of the swords. I suspect it's supposed to be the silhouette of a war canoe in all of these blades, although I'm not sure exactly why. As for the bifurcated tip, I'd guess it's supposed to be something like a crocodile mouth, but I'm not sure. Still, the pandit's definitely one of the 10 weirdest blades on the planet, and I'd love to know what it's like to hit something with it. All that square-edged metal in the handle might be painful. F