The things we cannot see

[A. G. Maisey]

David, in Jawa some of the concepts & ideas that are found within the Kejawen system of belief can also be found within keris systems of belief, but these concepts & ideas came from somewhere else before they entered either system of belief.

Kejawen is not central to keris belief, but both the keris and the belief system that is Kejawen might in some instances be related to one another.

However, this can be so only in Jawa.

How much of Javanese keris belief is found in Bali, and for that matter, how much of Balinese keris belief still exists in Jawa?


We are considering a wide swath of ideas when we set out look at some of the beliefs that can surround the keris, so it might help if we try to narrow things down a little and address some of these elements one at a time.

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?

[jagabuwana]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

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?

Thanks for focusing the discussion, Alan. Here is my understanding of these words.

Isi means 'contents' or 'filling'. When a keris has "isi" this means that it is inhabited by a spirit - either good or bad. The old Javanese belief would have it that this spirit is one of or from nature. Newer beliefs attributable to Islam would say that jinns can inhabit keris. I think those that believe the latter would just say that the former are just types of jinn anyway. The keris as a vessel for spirit habitation or visitation is consistent with the idea that the keris is also a shrine.

Tuah - I'm not sure what the direct meaning or etymology of this word is in Javanese or BI. But anyway it refers to the keris' talismanic power or qualities. Only an Mpu can produce a keris with tuah due to their role in keris cultures as not only being masters of their craft but also having esoteric skills and knowledge. The methods by which a keris can be given power or life is known only by an Mpu. The tuah is usually tailored/matched for a particular person. Because it's a personalised affair a keris that has tuah cannot be passed onto someone else while expecting the talismanic effects of that keris to be available, let alone the same for the new custodian.

Given that keris that were made by Empus are vastly outnumbered by those that were not, most keris neither have the ability to have isi, nor do they have tuah.

Please do correct me if I'm wrong anywhere.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yep, pretty much so Jaga.

As for "wrong" I'm a bit inclined to the idea that where opinions concerning beliefs are concerned nobody can be out & out wrong, but respected masters might well have opinions that vary from the lay opinion, or even the opinion of the bulk of keris literate people.

With this sort of thing we are talking about esoteric understanding, and the very meaning of esoteric is that things of an esoteric nature are only understood by a very limited number of people.

I think I'll be out of this discussion for a few days, I'm off to look for rocks.

[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

[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

[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

[Mickey the Finn]

Mods, please delete this post.

[David Gallas]

This is a very interesting discussion, and i like to contribute a reaction looking at it from the other side.
I live in Europe. I am proud to be Javanese. My mother is born in Bandung and my father is born in Yogjakarta, but actually my family comes from east Java. In Holland there live around 2.000.000 people who have their roots in Indonesia. We didn't have the Pancasila implementation in Holland, my family in Indonesia did! My family in Indonesia were sometimes afraid to be picked up, and they hided their keris...

I have been studying the western mind very closely. I think i understand the western brain a bit. The western way of looking at science, i would call, is: stay independent in thought,
be critical in what you hear and
think logical.
Metaphysical things, the things that can not be physical seen / measured, are having no place in the earthly way of thinking.

There is a very nice article that i want to share about this theme, from the university of Kansas:

Limitations of the Western Scientific Worldview for the Study of metaphysically Inclusive Peoples

https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperi...?paperid=94195

Let me copy a part just to make you curiouse:
"“Wrong thinking in the natural sciences is lamentable but, sooner or later, will be rejected. Wrong thinking in the social sciences may escape this fate; thus it is not merely lamentable but dangerous” ( Feldhammer, 1967: p. 29).

The word “science” carries great authority in Western society ( Ryan, 2011; Turnbull, 2000), and “only through the use (and praise) of the ‘scientific method’ [can] any study put forth a claim to intellectual legitimacy” ( Feldhammer, 1967, pp. 29-30). The Western scientific worldview has become “a locus of cultural power” ( Marks, 2009: pp. x-xi), and its influence is so pervasive that “even the most liberal universities operate in ways that place substantial domains of human experience, thought, and insight outside the conventional bounds of legitimate knowledge” ( Howitt & Suchet-Pearson, 2003: p. 557). As a result, it now largely controls what is learned, what is funded, what is studied, how it is studied, and what is published ( Barth, 2002; Berkes, 2012; Marks, 2009). Seeking greater legitimacy, the social sciences adopted the Western scientific worldview and are attempting, with varying success, to align themselves with Western science through radical, uncompromising scientism ( Feldhammer, 1967).

However, the study and understanding of peoples whose worldviews include metaphysical phenomena and explanations is undermined by many social scientistsÂ’ strict adherence to the Western scientific worldview which acknowledges only physical phenomena and explanations. In anthropology and archaeology, for example, it has negatively impacted the study of those Native American and other Indigenous peoples whose knowledge traditions and worldviews make few or no distinctions between or at least inextricably link the physical world and the metaphysical world. Most importantly, it devalues and disrespects the knowledge and alternative worldviews of the very peoples that social scientists are attempting to more fully understand."

I am raised with Kejawen, we have some issues with the Dutch government, be we were free to believe what we wanted to believe. We still have spiritual meetings like the Selamatan, and there are still 1000nds and 1000nds keris here. Not only stolen but also family keris, received as heirloom from our parents, and yes for us it represent the holy mountain Meru, Kailash, no Djin or Khodam or other type of human looking spirit....

The top of the mountain is were the spirits live, the gods, your ancestors. So it can help you on a spiritual way.
Don't forget that there is also something as a placebo effect, "if i think it is, it is". So if it is really there or just my imagination, that doesn't matter for my brain, for me it is there!

[A. G. Maisey]

David, broadly, I do agree with that which you have placed before us, however, I will put this to you:-

by heritage, you are Javanese, but by location you are European

ergo, to function within European society you must have a template in your mind that understands what you see & experience in a European way
however, to function within Javanese society you must have a template in your mind that understands what you see & experience in a Javanese way.

those of us who do need to function well in more than one society & culture do develop the facility to have more than one world view.

I know a Javanese engineer who was born in a little village outside of Karangpandan, which is on the slopes of Mount Lawu, near Solo in Jawa Tengah. He once said to me something like this:-

"--- when I am working in Jakarta or Sydney, I need to think in the same way that the people I work with think, but when I go home to my village, I need to think exactly as my grandfather thinks --- "

I reckon this just about sums it up, one cannot understand the way in which other people see the world around them, unless one can adopt a mental paradigm that permits the acceptance of ideas that could be out of place in any other model.

I know from my own experience, that when I go to Solo, it takes me about two weeks to fully change the way in which I understand things, but when I come home to Australia, it only takes me maybe three or four days to think like an Aussie again.

Now, I am not an academic, I just function like this because I have developed this approach naturally over many years, but in defence of the scientific method, I will say this:- my broad understanding of the scientific method is this:-

question/observe > research > construct hypothesis > test hypothesis > analyse results > develop conclusion.

by adopting this "scientific" approach, I think it perhaps permits the academic understanding of how another society/culture functions, even though it does not permit the academic individual to understand in the same way that an individual from that other society/culture functions.

[David Gallas]

I haven't looked at it that way yet, but that's right, you switch very quickly between the Javanese and the European view. We are in between 2 cultures. I once heard my girlfriend say to her friend, that she immediately knew from my tone and way of talking whether I was on the phone with an Indo or not...

I notice that on this forum I speak directly from my European self, without any medical indication of schizophrenia, haha.

The beauty of the present day is that you can easily get in touch with wong jawa all over the world.
There are 3 large groups in this, of course in Indonesia, Suriname and the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, many Javanese are of East Java Madurese descent. Some Indonesian brothers think our traditions are "old", which is very strange for us to hear, we don't know any better.
We try to keep the traditions of our grandfathers and grandmothers alive.
We have objects from before 1942, still wash our keris with realgar, lemon and sulphur, have many old books that we use, wear rings that have an energy and I had made a post six months ago on a forum for people of Indonesian descent about the keris and the belief in the energy of the keris, is now after 70 years, away from our beautiful motherland, still very much alive. In fact, the 3rd generation picks up this tradition with great dedication.

We never had the introduction of the Panca Sila, the introduction of the one god system, and the period until 1998.
And then the caution begins! The political situation, and I'd rather not go into it any further, but let me put it this way that talking about the keris and the energy isn't totally is risk-free.
For example, my family in East Java was imprisoned and most of them died in an unnatural way...

The tradition that many Javanese in the Netherlands follow can best be described as the tradition as introduced by the Wali Songo.
You have to imagine that you leave your motherland and you take old family pieces with you.
Of course you want your children to know the importance of those objects and that you know how to take care of them, apart from the fact that it is also just fun, the slamatans with the whole family.
Like tomorrow, then it is jumat kliwon. So tonight at 6 pm I'm making an offering for the kerisses.

[David]

What i am about to write is not in any way meant to counter the experiences of members described here who find themselves operating in completely different paradigms dependent upon whether they are in Indonesia or some Western nation. But i do have to point out that even in the West there are communities of people who operate outside the "normal" and "logical" Western modality of thought.
I have been involved in neo-pagan community in North America for more than 35 years. Such communities, though not operating on the same frequencies as the societies in Jawa, Bali, etc., very much embrace the similar concepts of the seen and unseen worlds and a mystical/magickal reality. Likewise you can find similar belief systems operating within the more generally accepted Western mindset throughout the Western world. So i have spent many years switching my manner of operations back and forth dependent upon which group of peers i am interacting with.