Krisses Jalak Buda

A. G. Maisey · 11th July 2010, 05:54 AM

Yes, this is my understanding, Kai Wee.

I have been present on two occasions when farmers brought badly corroded keris budho to a dealer for sale.

I have also seen, handled, and bought from a trove of archaic tools and weapons (?) that had been found during farming activity. Many of the pieces I bought from this trove were far too damaged by corrosion to be of any possible use, so they were welded and forged into a single piece that will be made into a keris budho.

In my experience, archaic and talismanic keris can be passed on as an inheritance (warisan), but not as a family keris (pusaka).

In Bahasa Indonesia "pusaka" can be understood as "heirloom" , but in Javanese the meaning goes much further than this, and depending upon the context it can be understood as "revered object", "inheritance", "ricefield", and it has powers atached to it that make it a symbol of authority and validation, for example, in Javanese history a number of instances can be found where possession of the royal pusakas was interpreted as God's endorsement of the holder of those pusakas as the rightful heir to the throne :- if God did not agree with him being in possession, God would not permit him to retain the pusakas.

The keris budho form originates too far back in time to be relevant within the context of family pusaka.

11th July 2010, 05:54 AM	#17
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,737	Yes, this is my understanding, Kai Wee. I have been present on two occasions when farmers brought badly corroded keris budho to a dealer for sale. I have also seen, handled, and bought from a trove of archaic tools and weapons (?) that had been found during farming activity. Many of the pieces I bought from this trove were far too damaged by corrosion to be of any possible use, so they were welded and forged into a single piece that will be made into a keris budho. In my experience, archaic and talismanic keris can be passed on as an inheritance (warisan), but not as a family keris (pusaka). In Bahasa Indonesia "pusaka" can be understood as "heirloom" , but in Javanese the meaning goes much further than this, and depending upon the context it can be understood as "revered object", "inheritance", "ricefield", and it has powers atached to it that make it a symbol of authority and validation, for example, in Javanese history a number of instances can be found where possession of the royal pusakas was interpreted as God's endorsement of the holder of those pusakas as the rightful heir to the throne :- if God did not agree with him being in possession, God would not permit him to retain the pusakas. The keris budho form originates too far back in time to be relevant within the context of family pusaka.