"Is it really a Cockatoo?"

[CCUAL]

... a very good example of an earlier kris. (two krises to the left)

[Rick]

About that Cockatoo...........
Anyone?

[Spunjer]

Rick,
when i started collecting, i was wondering why the pommel is referred to as cockatoo when there's no correlation between that particular bird and the Moro people. i realize that these weapons, much like anything else around them, is steep in symbolism. we already know that the blade symbolizes the Naga, a much revered creature among the Moros, and pre-hispanic Filipinos for that matter. again, going back to our belief before Islam and Catholicism arrived.
so i double checked if the cockatoo has some sort of symbolic meaning among the Moros, and for the life of me, i can't find anything. the earliest i've seen these pommels being referred to as cockatoo were in the catalogs during first quarter of the 20th century. in my humble opinion, someone started labeling them as cockatoo, without knowing what exactly they represent. these same catalogs would refer to some of these pommels as "made out of caribou's horn". of course we now know that there are no caribous in the Philippines. even Cato wasn't so sure about this. again, let's look at what he wrote:

All barung pommels, and many kris pommels, are modeled after the head of the cockatoo (known to the Malays as the "kakatua" or "kinadangag"). This magnificent crested parrot is native to the Southern Philippines and Indonesia. Its elaborately-feathered crest, curving beaks and stately regal bearing have captured the imagination of Moro artists for many centuries. The cockatoo motif became widely accepted throughout the South in a relatively short period of time.

Some Indonesian swords were fitted with pommels that are somewhat akin to the Moro kakatua. It is possible that early hilt makers in the Southern Philippines came into contact with the motif in the course of their trading and combative encounters with the Indonesians. Upon their return to the Morolands, artisans probably redesigned the motif, imbuing it with their own unique style and flavor.

To the Muslim Filipinos, the kakatua motif symbolizes lightness, and the ability to fly up into the heavens, leaving danger and death far behind.

ok, so the regal-ness of these magnificent birds has captured the imagination of the Moro artist for centuries, and yet it would take for them to trade with the Indonesians to realize that, "hey, i got an idea; why don't we use that same regal bird that's been capturing our imagination for centuries as a motif for our pommel. heck, the Indonesians were using it. so it doesn't look like we copied them, let's add our unique style and flavor!"
yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

so a Cliff Note version to your question: no, the cockatoo is not in any Moro sagas, myth, and legends.

CCUAL
bro, congratulations in snagging that piece! i'm pretty sure i was the bidder you outbidded, lol, but no worries, it wasn't meant for me. thanks for posting some close ups!

[CCUAL]

CCUAL
bro, congratulations in snagging that piece! i'm pretty sure i was the bidder you outbidded, lol, but no worries, it wasn't meant for me. thanks for posting some close ups![/QUOTE]

sorry about that bro, but for sure when i am ready let go "kris sarimanok" will be a gift to you.

[Gustav]

In 1985, there was a big Philippines exposition in Germany, and Museum fuer Voelkerkunde in Munich (which has an important and early (many collected before 1883) collection of Kris) did publish a small book. There is an article by Rose Schubert (curator for SEA), which explains the hilt pommels (especially Junggayan) exactly the way Ron sees them.

I doubt it's her own idea (of course everything is possible), so I give the publications she put in her bibliography (besides publications already mentioned by Ron in #35):

Casiño, Eric S. 1981, "Arts and Peoples of the Southern Philippines", in Gabriel Casal, "The People and Arts of the Philippines", Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History, University of California.

Cole, Fay-Cooper, 1914, "The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao", Field Museum of Natural History, Publ. 170, Antrhropological Series, Vol. XII, No. 2, Chicago.

Foy, W., 1899, "Schwerter von der Celebes See", Publikationen aus dem Königlichen Ethnographischen Museum zu Dresden, Band XII, Dresden.

and, more popular, Juynboll, 1928, "Philippines" and David Szanton, 1963, "Art in Sulu: A Survey", in IPC Papers Nr. 3.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Gustav

In 1985, there was a big Philippines exposition in Germany, and Museum fuer Voelkerkunde in Munich [which has an important and early (many collected before 1883) collection of Kris] did publish a small book. There is an article by Rose Schubert (curator for SEA), which explains the hilt pommels (especially Junggayan) exactly the way Ron sees them. ...

Gustav,

This is excellent news! Would it be possible to scan the article into a PDF file and post it here as an attachment? It is possible to attach .PDF files to a post in the same manner as .JPG and other graphics files.

I have copies of the Casino, Cole, and Foy references but they are on a ship at this time heading for Australia. From memory, I don't recall anything about Moro hilts and their attribution in those references. I don't have the other references you mention. Can you provide more details about the IPC Papers (what does IPC stand for?).

I look forward to reading what Dr Schubert has to say.

Regards,

Ian.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

... these same catalogs would refer to some of these pommels as "made out of caribou's horn". of course we now know that there are no caribous in the Philippines.

Ron, you are being a little disingenuous here. Every Filipino knows that carabao (or sometimes kalabaw) is the every day common term for the domesticated water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis carabanesis). That carabao might get transliterated to "caribou" is hardly surprising, although clearly incorrect. Nevertheless, the intent of the description is true, some of these pommels were made from carabao horn.

... even Cato wasn't so sure about this. again, let's look at what he wrote:

All barung pommels, and many kris pommels, are modeled after the head of the cockatoo (known to the Malays as the "kakatua" or "kinadangag"). This magnificent crested parrot is native to the Southern Philippines and Indonesia. Its elaborately-feathered crest, curving beaks and stately regal bearing have captured the imagination of Moro artists for many centuries. The cockatoo motif became widely accepted throughout the South in a relatively short period of time.

Some Indonesian swords were fitted with pommels that are somewhat akin to the Moro kakatua. It is possible that early hilt makers in the Southern Philippines came into contact with the motif in the course of their trading and combative encounters with the Indonesians. Upon their return to the Morolands, artisans probably redesigned the motif, imbuing it with their own unique style and flavor.

To the Muslim Filipinos, the kakatua motif symbolizes lightness, and the ability to fly up into the heavens, leaving danger and death far behind.

ok, so the regal-ness of these magnificent birds has captured the imagination of the Moro artist for centuries, and yet it would take for them to trade with the Indonesians to realize that, "hey, i got an idea; why don't we use that same regal bird that's been capturing our imagination for centuries as a motif for our pommel. heck, the Indonesians were using it. so it doesn't look like we copied them, let's add our unique style and flavor!"
yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Ron,

You are assuming that Cato implies that the Southern Philippines was fascinated by the cockatoo before contact with Indonesians. However, contact between seafaring Southern Filipinos and peoples to the south of them is believed to have occurred for more than a thousand years (I don't have my historical texts with me at present, but I'm sure that is correct).

That the cockatoo does not appear in Moro traditions is a major weakness of the Cato hypothesis and would seem to contradict his statement that "its elaborately-feathered crest, curving beaks and stately regal bearing have captured the imagination of Moro artists for many centuries." The further south one goes, however, the more likely Cato is to be correct.

If Moro craftsmen did initially copy the style from more southern groups, and so far I know of no scholarship to suggest that they did not, then they may have chosen to keep the style for a variety of reasons. I have used a number of my kris and barung for cutting tests. The beak of the pommel forms a very comfortable resting place for the little finger, while the hypothenar eminence of the palm rests against the crest. This is an ergonomic design well suited to cutting and chopping, allowing the hand to firmly grasp the hilt and preventing slippage of the grip or twisting of the blade when striking. Thus, the adoption of the southern style pommel (kakatua) by the Moros may have had something to do with the ergonomics of the weapon.

This makes some sense to me. It also makes sense that further changes occurred over time, and that what was introduced initially as a hilt representing a kakatua may have come to represent something else that was more consistent with Moro traditions.

So far in our exchanges I have refrained from commenting about my own inquiries on this subject because I don't think they are very useful to the discussion. But here they are for what it's worth. In the late 1990s and early 2000s I spent considerable time in the Philippines (mainly Luzon, Palawan, and Mindanao) pursuing a number of health-related projects. My work took me to Mindanao in the late 1990s and would have continued there but for the 2001 attack on New York and the resulting risks to Americans traveling to Muslim hot spots. In the course of these visits, I also came across a few swords and dealers. Among other things I asked them about the pommel style that Cato called kakatua. Without prompting them or suggesting the name kakatua, I asked what this style was meant to represent. As far as I know, none of them had read Robert Cato's work.

My principal Manila antiques dealer (who was Tagalog) said he thought it represented a cockatoo, based on discussion with his Muslim suppliers of arms (I did not get information about where these suppliers were from). Two dealers in Davao City (both Cebuano) said they did not know, but one thought it might be an eagle. One dealer from Zamboanga thought it was based on a parrot but then said he really did not know. Who knows what to make of this information. However, no mention was made of a mythical rooster.

Ian.

[Gustav]

Ian,

IPC stands for Institute of Philippine Culture, Quezon City. The Publisher was Manila University Press.

The article by Schubert written in German, but there is a summary of it in van Duuren's "Krisses" bibliography (2002, Pictures Publishers), and I guess, it should be mentioned also in Tim Rogers' bibliography as he edited van Duuren's book. Here the text by van Duuren:

"Essay about the various weapons of the pirates of the Sulu Islands and North Mindanao, in the accompanying book to the eponymous exhibition that toured Germany in 1985. The author's interest centres on the form of kampilan, a broadsword, and of the Philippine kris, which weapons in her opinion bear the mark of the Dayak people and may subsequently have found their way via Borneo to the southern Philippines where their definitive forms were established. Not only does she contribute an in-depth tratise on local forging techniques, but she also proffers (sic) a surprising new view of the respective kris hilts generated in their wake. Schubert interprets these hilts, the biggest of which have a baroque, curly knob, as representations of a long-tailed bird. This bird form becomes evident once the tip of the blade points upwards; then the knob is shown to be a bird in full flight which carries the kris on its back. The author substantiates her vision with photographs and drawings showing the hilts upside down. However, her views fail to take into account the general consensus that the knob of the Sulu kris represents a stylised bird's head, more specifically that of a cockatoo."

Regards,
Gustav

[kai]

Arjan kindly has the file on his site:
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/a4c67...4caceee80c.pdf

[Ian]

Kai,

Thank you for that link. Interesting interpretation by Rose Schubert. I was hoping that this paper would have some data to support Ron's ideas, but it seems that Schubert was guessing as much as we are. Turning the hilt upside down, or switching the head for the tail as I suggested earlier in this thread, are different ways of looking at the representation, but we have no way of knowing if any of these interpretations are correct without clear data to support them.

The suggestion that having the wavy blade (naga) positioned above the representation of the bird would be inconsistent with the naga interpretation of the blade offered by Alan and Ron.

Gustav,

Thank you very much for bringing this interpretation of the hilt to our attention and for noting van Duuren's comments. It is interesting to read that Schubert's views in 1985 ran contrary to the accepted notion that the pommel represented a cockatoo. The German exhibition preceded Cato's publications and the "general consensus" of a cockatoo being depicted on Moro weapons appears to have been around longer than Cato's work. That raises the question of when and how the cockatoo attribution started.

Ian.

[kai]

Hello Ian,

Thanks for your added info!

My principal Manila antiques dealer (who was Tagalog) said he thought it represented a cockatoo, based on discussion with his Muslim suppliers of arms (I did not get information about where these suppliers were from). Two dealers in Davao City (both Cebuano) said they did not know, but one thought it might be an eagle. One dealer from Zamboanga thought it was based on a parrot but then said he really did not know. Who knows what to make of this information. However, no mention was made of a mythical rooster.

Was the dealer from Zamboanga of Moro origin? I reckon the others are not really authoritative informants on Moro culture and any Moro runners (bringing the pieces in) may well have been ignorant at that late time period (or rather chosen to not divulge cultural knowledge to outsiders).

It sure is like pulling good teeth...

Regards,
Kai

[kai]

Hello Ron,

the earliest i've seen these pommels being referred to as cockatoo were in the catalogs during first quarter of the 20th century. in my humble opinion, someone started labeling them as cockatoo, without knowing what exactly they represent.

That's certainly plausible - we've seen that happening with quite some collectors' terminology and also science is often trottling along with "published" ideas until they get challenged by critical thinking and, especially, facts...

Alas, could you please add data? (I. e. citing those references you've found, especially the early ones!) I assume these are dealers' cats like Oldman? TIA!

Regards,
Kai