The things we cannot see

[Green]

The literal meaning of the word Tuah in Malay (and bahasa Indonesia) is Luck.
When you add the prefix ber as in bertuah it means Lucky or fortunate.
Hence a keris that is deemed bertuah would give luck or fortunes to the owner. That is at least the theory. The opposite is a keris that is cursed, i.e bringing bad luck. Many people believe there exist both types of keris. How a keris has tuah or a curse is something I have not heard people explain .


One time a woman friend told me her friend wanted to let go of a keris. She and her friend have no interest or understanding about keris and hence offered it to me. It is a very old spokal type from the state of Perak Malaysia. She did not tell me about the background of the keris but I quite liked it and hence bought it. Much later I met again with her friend and asked him why he wanted to sell it. He told me that it was a pusaka in his family and has been handed down for several generations but nobody wanted it now. And I asked him why? this time he told me. It is because every family that kept this keris always had fights and bad fortunes. Basically it is a cursed keris! The bugger didn't tell me this when he wanted to sell it before!

But it didn't seem to give either bad or good luck to me as far as I can tell. It is still with me.

[David]

Originally Posted by Green

The literal meaning of the word Tuah in Malay (and bahasa Indonesia) is Luck.
When you add the prefix ber as in bertuah it means Lucky or fortunate.
Hence a keris that is deemed bertuah would give luck or fortunes to the owner. That is at least the theory. The opposite is a keris that is cursed, i.e bringing bad luck. Many people believe there exist both types of keris. How a keris has tuah or a curse is something I have not heard people explain .

In this case every Javanese to English online dictionary also seems to translate "tuah" as "luck", though i must say that i never quite trust these source (and strangely STILL have not obtained a good Javanese to English dictionary for myself!). But it should be noted that whenever we look at these words related to keris they are almost always of Javanese origin so we need to go to that source rather than BI or Malay, since even when these words appear in all three languages they sometimes have different definitions and/or implications.

[A. G. Maisey]

In post #21 this is what I wrote:-

"There are two very basic concepts that need to be clearly understood before we can advance, those two concepts are encapsulated in two words:-

tuah and isi

perhaps we could express our understandings of those two words within the context of keris belief?"

To consider the word "tuah".

In Malay the word "tuah" does mean "luck", just as Green has written, but not just any kind of luck, to use the word "tuah" to refer to luck, that luck must be luck that is pure good fortune, the word cannot be correctly used to refer to luck that has been generated by hard work or foresight.

In Bahasa Indonesia, "tuah" has several understandings attached to it:-

1) good luck, good fortune, 2) magic power, 3) respect, honour, prestige. Prefixes & suffixes used with the word convey similar, related understandings.(Echols & Shadily)

I asked three native speakers of Bahasa Indonesia, ordinary people, not academics nor even particularly highly educated, how they understood the word, two people gave the meaning as "a blessing", in the sense that one has been blessed by some happening or other, like finding a $100 note. The third person understood the meaning as any kind of "good fortune", not necessarily by chance, just good fortune, good luck, generated by anything at all.

In Javanese the word "tuah" does not exist, but in Modern Colloquial Javanese it might be used as a loan word from Malay/Bahasa Indonesia. The word does not exist in Old Javanese. I have been unable to find it, even with variant spellings in any dictionary of Modern Javanese

The word "tuah" does not exist in Balinese

In Sundanese (Rigg) it means a sin, a crime, an offence.

All the above is dictionary, conventional usage.

The word "tuah" in the context of keris, as explained to me by Empu Suparman is that it refers to the inherrent talismanic and/or magical qualities of a keris that are expressed by the pamor and dhapur of the keris, these qualities probably existed in the iron and other material used to make the keris before they were used to make the keris, but it took an Mpu working according to the sanctified way by using selected days of work, offerings (slametan), prayers and mantras to release the energy of the materials into the finished keris.

ONLY an Mpu has this power, no ordinary smith has the power, not even if he might know a prayer or two, or a mantra or two. This is what Mpu Pauzan Pusposukadgo meant when he refused to be called an Mpu, he considered the powers believed to be held by an Mpu to be contrary to the dictates of Islam.

The power of tuah is not necessarily restricted only to the person for whom the keris was made, the power in always there in the pamor and the dhapur, but it might not be available to everybody, the keris needs to be suited to the custodian of the keris, and the custodian needs to be suited to the keris.

For the person for whom it was made, this suitability is not a matter of chance, it is his keris, perhaps it will become pusaka in his family, for that one person, the power is certainly always accessible. For others it might be, it might not be, it depends upon the suitability one unto the other.

The true Mpu had extraordinary powers, part craftsman, part shaman, part magician, in Javanese "dukun". He could bring to life the power that was inherent in the material of the keris, and this life force was evidenced by the dhapur and pamor that he created.

Just because a keris is old, just because it might be a work of art, that does not mean that it has necessarily been made in a way that will provide the essence of its power to any custodian. The keris itself must be the production of a genuine empu, it must have been made by the sanctified method, it must be suited to its custodian, and the custodian must be suited to the keris.

All keris with tuah are good keris, "good" in the sense that when the keris was made it was made to provide a benefit to somebody, the pamor motif, and the dhapur, whether the product of an Mpu or not were never made with evil intent, only with intent to benefit the custodian.

So "evil" keris do not start that way.

Since it is obvious that not all keris can comply with the pre-requisites needed to be a keris that might have the possibility of providing some benefit to somebody, the question must then arise as to how we can identify such a keris. Again I must refer to Empu Suparman. His belief was that the quality and characteristics of a keris were the indicators of a keris made by an Mpu.

These days the art of pattern welding is understood by many people and there are references available that provide information relating to dhapurs.

There are gas forges, and I can tell you from personal experience, that welding & even pattern welding in a gas forge is not in my opinion as difficult as making a good chocolate cake.

But this was not always so.

The secrets of making complex pamors were secrets held closely by the Mpus, and only passed to their own children, either blood children, or adopted.

The correct forms of specific dhapurs were known only to Mpus.

So the ONLY keris that can be expected to hold some sort of genuine tuah are those keris that were made by a genuine Mpu and at a time when the relevant traditions were intact.

That is the starting point, but only the starting point. Even though a keris might have been made by a genuine Mpu, at a time, and in a place where there is a possibility that the keris concerned might have some special qualities, we cannot know if that keris does indeed hold those qualities until we have some indication that it does.

There are a number of ways that this matter of the power possessed by a keris might be able to be known, or at least suspected. I do not want to discuss these various methods, except to say that the person who can identify at will the power, or perhaps more properly, the force, is very, very rare.

These genuine people will not ever be specific about the force, and the idea that comes to them of this force does not seem to be something that they can summon at will, the idea can be elusive, and it will not be of the presence itself, but of something that represents the presence. The indicator might be a fleeting, spontaneous idea, it might be a feeling that penetrates consciousness, it might be a dream, but whatever it is, it will not be of the power itself, it will be a symbol of the power.

Here we need to understand that the way in which we visualise a spiritual entity is not really a representation of the spiritual entity, nor of a deity. A deity has no form, a deity is an unseen force, and the same is true of spiritual entities, the form that we give them only helps us to visualise the nature of the unseen force.

The genuine people who can sometimes detect a force associated with a keris do not hand out certificates with the stamp of some commercial operation or other. If they feel it is proper to pass on what they have felt it will almost always never be direct, it will usually be a suggestion of something that can be understood in more than one way, the way in which it is actually understood will depend on various factors.

The power of any keris is mostly dependent upon the understanding, belief and feeling of the custodian. If the keris is not a natural pairing with a custodian it will usually make the custodian aware of this in one way or another.

The key take-away in all this tuah business is that only a keris made by a proper Mpu in the proper way can have any mystic force at all, and ultimately only the custodian of the keris can understand if any positive force for him is present in that keris.

Stripped of all the lies and pretence, this is a pretty simple idea, and it comes back to the interaction between keris & custodian.

Jins & khodams & all of the transference of Islamic mysticism have no part in this, except in the minds of those who have not yet learnt.

For the last 500 years and more there has been an ongoing effort by Islam to replace the indigenous belief systems and the old Hindu-Jawa belief systems of the Javanese people, this job is not yet complete, and the changes that have been wrought in the old ways of relating to the keris and its earlier understandings is still relentlessly progressing.

And then we have the concept of "isi".

I'm still considering just how I should approach this concept.

[Jean]

Very interesting Alan, thank you!
May I ask you whether you personally got any evidence of a keris with a mystic force of any kind?
Regards

[A. G. Maisey]

Jean, what I have written above is a very brief, very superficial outline of the major belief system concerning the way in which the concept of tuah was understood by the people in Solo who taught me.

In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, this is my own belief in respect of the way in which the observed qualities of a keris should be understood.

For about five years I lived in a very old house that had the reputation of being inhabited by a spirit presence, his identity was known, he had been seen by a number of people, including my three year old son, who regarded him as his friend. My wife at the time would avoid one of the rooms in this house and would close & lock the door to this room if I was not at home. If she entered the room she could feel a presence behind her, if she turned around quickly she would see a movement in the air. She was very uncomfortable in this house and in spite of its beauty and the sweeping views from the back verandah we eventually sold it and moved. During the entire time we were there I did not see, feel, nor experience anything even remotely unusual. I am not a sensitive person.

I have been given more than a few keris and tombak by various people, a few were given as tokens of friendship, but most were given because it was believed that they had brought misfortune to the previous custodians, one was given to me because of messages that a woman whom I did not know had received instructions in a dream from her dead husband, one was given to me for safe keeping until somebody in the family concerned was prepared to accept responsibility for its care.

Apart from the items of tosan aji that have been given to me I have one keris that I acquired through a normal commercial transaction. This keris was the central performer in a very unusual occurrence involving a Hungarian psychic who had never even seen a keris until he handled a few that I had, this occurrence took place in the same house with the spiritual presence. This same keris was declared "hot" & "evil" by a man who had been a spiritual advisor to President Sukarno. This same keris moved from the place where it had been left to a different place 3 meters away on the first night it was in my house, my house at that time was the one that did certainly have a resident spiritual presence.

Apart from these things mentioned above I have experienced a number of other inexplicable things throughout my life, things that might be able to be explained as coincidence in some cases, but that in other cases cannot be explained in any rational way.

For example, the knowledge of an acquaintance who burnt to death in bed 5000km away, at the time when it was happening. This was not something that I experienced, rather it was something that somebody who is very close to me experienced and this person does have acknowledged psychic abilities.

I do absolutely accept that there are unseen forces that are present all around us all the time. Everything in this world and beyond is connected.

But I am not one of the people who can cross from one place to the other.

I have never experienced any good fortune, nor any bad luck, that I can directly attribute to anything other than hard work & effort in one regard, and my own stupidity in the other.

[JustYS]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

The word "tuah" in the context of keris, as explained to me by Empu Suparman is that it refers to the inherrent talismanic and/or magical qualities of a keris that are expressed by the pamor and dhapur of the keris, these qualities probably existed in the iron and other material used to make the keris before they were used to make the keris, but it took an Mpu working according to the sanctified way by using selected days of work, offerings (slametan), prayers and mantras to release the energy of the materials into the finished keris.

Thank you for your detailed explanation Alan. I imagine this is why Keris is considered as Prayers in Steel? An Empu forge a Keris as a form of prayer (represented by pamor and dhapur) suited according to the wishes/hopes of the custodian?

I'm waiting for your explanation on Isi.

Best Regards,

YS

[A. G. Maisey]

Not quite YS.

This "prayers in steel" thing is, I believe, pretty new, but it is understandable.

It is not something I ever heard from the people who taught me, I have the feeling that the idea might have originated in the Jogja community.

There are a couple of things that we might consider when thinking about this "prayers in steel" thing.

Firstly, there is very, very little steel in a keris, so clearly the phrase was initiated by somebody who understood a minimal amount about the technology of making a keris.

Secondly there are some people who believe that when the Mpu prays during actual production of the keris the material records his prayers, and those prayers are embedded in the material of the keris forever. I did not hear this belief from the people who taught me.

Thirdly, if read from left to right when the tip of the blade is pointing up, and the gandhik is to the left of the person holding the keris, what we do have is a prayer.

Before praying to other deities many, if not most Hindu devotees offer a brief prayer to Ganesha, and the Kembang Kacang represents Ganesha, in the event that the Kembang Kacang has a Jenggotan, we will see the RonDha, and the Ron Dha can be read as the shortest mantra "AUM", the Blumbangan is representative of the Yoni, the Sogokan a representation of the Lingga, which in turn symbolises Siwa, where a greneng is present we see the RonDha again, so the prayer closes with the shortest mantra "AUM".

So:- AUM>Ganesha>Yoni>Lingga> AUM

and of course, apart from the symbolism related to Mount Meru (Mount Kailash), and the other ways in which the keris can be understood, we have the keris as symbolic of Siwa himself.

When the symbolism of the keris is understood it is very easy to understand why Islam needed to be very proactive in trying to remove the pre-Islamic symbolism from the keris and to replace that with ideas that were more acceptable to Islam.

[Anthony G.]

I have a close friend who collects weapons of all sort including keris but then he decided to 'stop' keris collecting. He has a devoted Thai Buddhist friend who one day paid him a visit and told him that he saw an old Malay man (invisible) squatting in the area. And he put all his collection in a storage space at another location. I was told strange events sometimes happen at the other location but no more at the place where he lives.

[A. G. Maisey]

This story is one I've heard more times than I can count, it varies in the details but the overall theme is always the same:-

keris > strange, inexplicable happenings> old man, not always visible to everybody> keris moved > inexplicable things cease.

there is one other factor that is always present in every keris story, and that is that human beings are always involved.

I cannot provide explanations, but I have heard lots of stories and I have experienced at arms length some peculiar things.

I do accept that things can happen that I do not understand.

[jagabuwana]

There is a lot to think about in your post #26, Alan. Thank you for this very valuable knowledge.

Times seem to be changing fast, and the knowledge and beliefs about the keris with it. It would seem to me that if things continue going the way they currently are, that the knowledges and beliefs as you learned them might disappear. That to me sounds disastrous in that it could be irretrievable, and maybe even akin to the collapse of a culture, but maybe I'm being too bleak. Do you see these knowledges and beliefs enduring?

[A. G. Maisey]

Time changes perspective Jaga.

That simple.

The way in which anything has been thought about in the past is only relative to that time.

Islam did not abolish the keris, it just set out to make the belief systems attached to the keris more acceptable to Islam. Same thing happens with many things when a new philosophy begins to take over a society, the changes in the society in turn change the details, but not the roots of the culture.

When we try to understand the keris we need to determine which window in time we will use to provide the perspective that we use for that understanding.

I prefer a slightly older perspective than most people.

[SidJ]

My daughter who is 12 when holding old keris can in some cases feel ceetain sensations like a feeling of warmth, Prickling of fingers, etc and once even told ne she could feel the keris waking up. I feel none of these sensations. As an example I just acquired 2 keris. One newer and one quite old. My daughter when holding the new one said it made her arm feel twitchy and she quickly returned it to me. The old one she said had no feelings arise. Funnily she does not want me to sell any of my keris but cares nought for any of my other old knives. She has no other interest in keris.

[BBking]

Originally Posted by SidJ

My daughter who is 12 when holding old keris can in some cases feel ceetain sensations like a feeling of warmth, Prickling of fingers, etc and once even told ne she could feel the keris waking up. I feel none of these sensations. As an example I just acquired 2 keris. One newer and one quite old. My daughter when holding the new one said it made her arm feel twitchy and she quickly returned it to me. The old one she said had no feelings arise. Funnily she does not want me to sell any of my keris but cares nought for any of my other old knives. She has no other interest in keris.

I saw ''by chance'' this topic ,
I collect/ am fascinated as many people here by old edged weapons.

I have two keris,
one send me no special energy but the other one, really lovely ,give me an uncomfortable mud-swamp sensation
and now I'm reading this post, I realise
I store it without really thinking about, away from home in my work-locker...

I want to say that, as mentioned , these kind of energy feeling , parallel souls or mysticism is universal, ( I live in Europe )

and that I have other weapons that give me special energy when I handle them:
an ottoman yatagan, a german old sword ,
a sikin panjang, and a japanese tachi giving special ''power sensations '' and feel the battle-destroying energy ...


Somebody can say it's all our mind,
possible, like a child playing with a wood stock and imagine he is D'Artagnan.

Another explanation is, like shinto-japanese think that the blade itself has his power.

For battle weapons,
possibly energy of people killed by the blade or part of the previous owner's soul still interact with the sword/dagger
that's what my wife always tell me and wonder why I collect old weapons !

it can happen with other old items, no just edged weapons...
My neighbour always wash old items collected under water for ''purify'' them especially jars ( as Aladdin...).

I put away a good japanese jingasa with real hair around I had
that gave uneasy feelings, nightmares
and even the cat frightened and avoided the room , now it's ok ( not just because it's a warmer place.... )
For feelings: nothing better than an animal and his connected mind...

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

And then we have the concept of "isi".

I'm still considering just how I should approach this concept.

I thought i would at least get the ball rolling on "isi". As i understand it, this word has the meaning of "contents" in Bahasa Indonesian and in Javanese i found the definition as "filling". These are similar, though not identical concepts.
I do not wish to interject my own feelings about "isi" at this point, however, here are a couple of links that approach the subject. I do not present these because i am convinced they are correct. Rather they are intended simply as fuel for the fore so to speak, to get the conversation going.
The first link is a short video by David Gallas about how to connect to the isi of a blade. I do not know if David is a member here, but i have encountered him in online keris chat groups on Facebook. Again, i am not suggesting David's take is right or wrong, but simply presenting it for discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cLmlRKlcNs
This second link is a section of Jan Mrázek's book "The Visible and Invisible in South East Asia" where he discusses the concept of isi as related to the keris. Hopefully these two links will provide a starting point for our discussion of the concept.
https://www.researchgate.net/publica...st_Asian_World

[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you for those links David.

I am reluctant to comment much on the content of either link, but I think I can perhaps make a couple of comments that should not offend anybody.

Both gentlemen involved with these links touched on one idea that is central to the idea of "isi", that idea is that whatever might be the effect of the isi of a keris, that effect is ultimately a very personal matter.

This "personalisation" of effect is one of the things that is causing me to pause before I go into print.

Both gentlemen have clearly had personal contact with Javanese society and have absorbed some of the beliefs that are attached to the keris within that society, but there is, in my opinion, little depth in what is presented. I do not know (obviously) if this is intentional or not.

Mr. Mrazek has, I think, made it very clear that one is not able to understand the keris in isolation from a very good understanding of the Javanese style of communication, this style is always indirect, a bit like aiming at something that can be seen, but hitting something that cannot be seen.

One implies by words and actions, one does not ever act in a straightforward fashion, for polite people, gratuitous truths are very unsavory, it is best to deliver a message through a back door, rather than by walking up to the front door and ringing the bell.

I rather feel that Mr. Mrazek has been very much influenced by the Jogja (Ngyogyakarta) way of understanding.

But all this stuff is good. There is really not only one belief system that is attached to the keris, there are in fact a multitude of belief systems. Being "beliefs", that makes it almost impossible to look at the matter objectively and declare one belief right and all others wrong.

[milandro]

Originally Posted by David

I do not know if David is a member here, but i have encountered him in online keris chat groups on Facebook. l]

As far as I can tell Mr. David Gallas is a member here

David Gallas was last seen here 5th March 2021

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/member.php?u=29981

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/search...archid=4536660

[rasdan]

G’day Alan and also everybody here.

The unseen world is always an interesting topic in keris study. I just thought I’ll add some of my observations with respect to the mystical aspects of the keris in the Malay and Jawa world on top of the tuah and isi elements discussed here.

I think the most popular viewpoint we commonly encounter towards keris mystics nowadays is the “Islamic” viewpoint where the magical aspects are mainly attributed to the presence of unseen beings such as the Djinn. This is due to the fact that in Islam, it is seen as possible (although sinful) to ask for help from the Djinns.

Some people in the keris trade use this line of thought to sell their keris claiming it has some power that can aid the owner to achieve their worldly desires. However, I must highlight here that although this understanding is quite popular, Islam actually does not acknowledge this viewpoint. It is considered as taking partners to God (shirk) and it is the ultimate sin.

Since this viewpoint is prohibited Islam and more people here in Malaysia and Indonesia are rejecting it, I think there is a movement to change this viewpoint towards "New Age” understandings. Meaning that there are some people that try to push the idea of keris mystics as some kind of “energy” that can be manipulated; again, to achieve their worldly desires. I think they are trying to make it sound scientific (although it’s pseudo-science IMHO) to re-attract interested people that were lost due to the Islamic prohibition described above back to keris mystics. I have no understanding of this “New Age” energy viewpoint so I cannot comment any further.

What we are seeing here in my opinion is people reacting to changes in society according to their current beliefs and knowledge . Keris has been known as an object of mystics for a long time; probably since the Islamisation of the Nusantara. In the old manuscripts (usually from the 1600s onwards) keris is frequently described to have supernatural powers. People tend to justify the unexplained, understandably using their current belief or knowledge. Since the majority of people in the keris world here in the Nusantara are Muslims, the explanation to the unexplained naturally is an Islamic one. Nowadays, people are mostly towards scientific understandings therefore the way of justifying the unexplained must be a scientific one thus, the emergence of this “New Age” point of view - although personally I don't think it is actually science.

If we go back in the pre-Islamic times the understanding is very likely a different one especially if we accept that the keris as a Hindu icon. I cannot imagine an icon of religion being used as an object to achieve worldly desires - something like Aladdin's lamp. The current understanding must be very offensive to the people back then (maybe also Hindus of the current time).

[A. G. Maisey]

I have never attempted to set forth in writing my own understanding of the concept of "isi" in a keris. I do know thoroughly the folk beliefs of Jawa that relate to this concept, equally I know well what my teachers told me about keris "isi". The folk beliefs and the higher Javanese beliefs do have variation, and to detail all of this is really beyond what can reasonably be presented in a place such as we have here.

Put in very superficial terms, Javanese folk belief seems to accept that any keris can have a good, bad or indifferent spirit in it, but higher belief seems to differentiate between the possibility of any spirit essence occupying a keris made by a common smith, and a keris made by an mpu in accordance with full ritual. Thus a keris made in the absence of ritual is just an object made for common use, but a keris made with correct ritual is an object that can possess power.

Correct ritual depends upon knowledge of the relevant mantras, mantras are often referred to as prayers, but in fact a mantra is not a prayer, the words in a mantra sound like language, but they are not, they are sounds that are felt in the core of being and the person giving life to that mantra is merely the instrument for delivering the sounds, this is somewhat similar to the tradition in Christianity of speaking in tongues:- when a Christian speaks in tongues that person is accepted as having been occupied by the holy Spirit, the use of mantra functions in a similar way.

That power of the keris can be the power of tuah, brought into the keris, by the mpu, during creation, or it might be a power gained by the keris as pusaka to a descent group over generations, or it might be a power brought into the keris by the efforts of a sorcerer, or it might be the invasion of the keris by some wandering spirit force. In any case, the dividing line is who creates the keris:- mpu, or smith. There is another dividing line also, a keris that is pusaka has a power force that cannot be alienated from the descent group.

In very superficial terms, there we have the power of the keris as I understand it:- it is power brought into the keris during its creation and power that has come into the keris after creation. Folk belief seems to believe this can apply to any keris; the belief of higher level keris authorities seems to believe that the starting point of any power in a keris depends upon who created it:- mpu or tukang besi (smith).

In respect of the power of tuah in the Javanese keris, I am more or less satisfied that the comments I have already made give a beginning understanding of how this power is perceived by those people in Jawa who accept this belief system. Effectively belief in tuah is belief in a talisman, and is subject to pretty much the same parameters & principles as apply to other talismans, everywhere. Do you carry a Saint Christopher medal on your car keys? An image of Ganesha on your watch chain? If you do, you probably understand well enough the principle of tuah.

But the principle of "isi" is different. Just how different to belief in tuah, and beliefs in present day Jawa and present day Bali is something that I feel needs to begin with at least some understanding of the differences between these two societies.

Does anybody feel inclined to begin discussion on the ways in which Javanese society & Balinese society differ ? Most especially in the way in which these two societies understand the keris?