RAKSASA & Buta Bajang Figure Hilts
 

Dear All,

Again, this was just an intermezzo. Just call it a weekender keris sight-seeing. Just want to share with you, pictures of what many of you call such hilts as -- raksasa hilts. Or, "buta bajang" hilts, whatever. Really I don't have the "pakem" book yet on such hilts.

I would like to thank you too, if you wish to share too, your pictures on such hilts. I believe, there are still more such hilts all around here...

GANJAWULUNG

CLOSE ups of one of them
 

Here are close ups on one of them...

GANJAWULUNG

MORE Close ups on other hilts
 

Some of them are not like "buta" or "raksasa", but like figures of Javanese wayang...

GANJAWULUNG

Nice handles Pak G.

You're right, it is a pity we do not have any guide book relating to this form of hilt.

I've posted some rough pics of a few of mine, but really, I don't know if they strictly fit the parameters or not --- but I'm certain that they fit the "whatever" classification.

MUDRA?
 

Thanks a lot, Alan for sharing your fantastic "butas"... Is there any thing to tell on some of their 'gesture'. Any 'speculation' idea on the "mudra", the special gesture of their hands and fingers maybe?

GANJAWULUNG

My favourite kind of keris hilt!
In the late Karsten Sejr-Jensen´s book and CD there is an analysis of the mudra signs etc.

Here are some of mine.

Michael

Sorry Pak Ganja, this is an area that I know virtually nothing about.

Supposedly many of these figures are found in the pralambapada mudra, but my knowledge is insufficient for me to confirm this, or to speculate upon the reason, if indeed they are.

It has been suggested to me by a Chinese academic who teaches in this area of knowledge that perhaps these mudras are not so accurately portrayed and that to truly interpret them might be more than a little difficult.

These hilts are probably very fertile ground for some serious research.

Nice hilts. I too don't know much about them, but having grown up around Hinduism (I'm Indian and Nepalese), I find Indonesian representations of figures from Hindu mythology fascinating. Just out of curiosity, does 'buta' mean ghost?

Not 'ghost', but 'giant'. In some (javanese) wayang stories, giants were not always gigantic in size. Only the form (appearance) is 'giant' like, but the size of the creature is told as -- sometimes even smaller than human being. "Buta Bajang" means "Dwarf giant"... Literally "buta" (javanese) means "giant". Unfortunately, in Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language) "buta" means "blind"..

GANJAWULUNG

Ma kasih ganja, in Hindi, "bhut" means ghost, which is why I was curious.

Great thread, though i would like to point out that we had a very similar thread on these figurative hilts this past spring. It might not be a bad idea to merge the 2 threads just to have all this info in one place, but for now i will just provide a link. :)
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hlight=raksasa

favorites
 

Yes my most favorite type as well.

The discussion last time (as mentioned by David) with good input from Alan was very interesting.
Also the krisdisk mentioned by Michael and of course the text by Martin Kerner on this theme is quite interesting (for those that read german..)

Erik

Well this is the only rakshasha hilt I have - ivory, gold, and Balinese:

Good idea David.

I'd forgotten that we'd been down this road before, if I'd remembered I would not have started walking along it again.

Thanks, Michael, for showing "your avatar" in complete view.. Thanks a lot too, to Erik and David. These are more pictorial post of such hilts...

GANJAWULUNG

And more poses of this old model...

GANJAWULUNG

Really great examples Ganjawulung!
Thanks for sharing!

I am always searching for these but really good ones are harder and harder to find...(at least here in Holland)

Erik

Nicely carved fellow, but he doesn't look particularly old... :shrug:

Old ones, David. But unfortunately, it was my fault to clean it too clean. It happened long time ago. So it (they) had lost the patina. Originaly they were so dirty and heavy patinated. I cleaned it with tooth-brush and detergent. And after it became so pale, then I put coconot oil.... But I will never do such silly thing again. Really, it is not new ones...

GANJAWULUNG

Difficult too to find in Jawa. All are gone somewhere in the world... I have couple in the past, but that was my fault. I cleaned the patinated hilts with tooth brush and soap. Never do like this, Erik...

GANJAWULUNG

A couple more
 

These are my ones

Roy

I don't know if this is have been a mistake, the fine carvings sometimes not to see when the handle have to much patination. Some of my handles I have cleaned also.

sajen

Some of my wooden handles I have shown in the other threat before.
Here three handles in ivory. Please apologize the bad quality of the photos, it have been a fast snapshot.

sajen

Yeah, soap and water sounds a bit drastic.

I use a tooth brush and baby oil to clean really dirty hilts, and really, any other sort of carvings too.

The oil tends to soak into the gunk and soften it, and after you've revisited the carving a few times you'll normally have all the muck removed.

Yes Alan, now I clean with very very soft tooth-brush only, and then soft clothes...

GANJAWULUNG

Dear Roy and Sajen,

Thanks for the sharing. And here are more on variations of the 'giant' creatures. A hilt of horn below. More looks like wayang figures...

GANJAWULUNG

WAYANG hilt
 

And this is probably the wayang hilt. Hopefully, to be older than Cirebon era. Or Pajajaran?

GANJAWULUNG

This hilt is similar to two I have shown in the other threat before. But I don't know how old this hilts. Here again the pictures.

sajen

Beautiful Wayang hilt, Sajen. I think it is the best I've seen until today...
These are more pictures on other variant of "Buta hilt"...

GANJAWULUNG

Thank you very much! But which one you mean? I show two different hilts. By one the Garuda munkur is pirced and by the other one not.

sajen

Dear Sajen,
The one with Garuda Mungkur, of course. Not the craftmanship, but the originality. To see original old motifs, for me is more important than just seeing good craftmanship..

GANJAWULUNG

Ganja, ion post #28 Sajen posted 2 different hilts. I believe that they both have a Garuda Mungkur.
:)

Meet the Twins!
 

Well i finally had some time to photograph my few examples. Meet the twins. These two guys are so alike i think the same carver may have done them. One is and old Mojo keris in a gayaman sheath. The other an old kebo lajer in a ladrang sheath. :)

This old-timer is well worn with a nice patina and beautiful flashing grain that flashes red at some points and some really nicely carved cut-through spots..

This one is not so old, but has some real nice carving. I am not fully convinced that these floral figurative hilts are really of the same species as these other buta hilts. They seem to have a very different posture. But they are most often counted in with their crouching brothers so here is my example. :)

Finally here's one i recently acquired which doesn't really belong here as it depicts a wayang character, not a rakassa/buta, but i'm going to throw it in just because i like it. :rolleyes: :D
Also i can't help but feel that these older buta forms were somewhat influenced by wayang forms. Some of the older raksasa shown in this thread definitely seem to have some wayang characteristics. :shrug: :)

favorite
 

This is probably my favorite figural hilt.
Might have been cleaned as well but not by me....
Very old - but still very good condition and relatively very large

Hi Erik,

very nice hilt and you can see clearly it's age. A real patina you can't "clean" away.

Here is my favorite hilt of this type, also very old and from small size.

sajen

It is difficult not to get a bit jealous with all these great hilts in other collections than mine...Again great example!
And as I am testing my new camera anyway another favorite!

Hello Erik,

test have been effective! And now I am a little bit jealous, this type in ivory I only have in very small size and not so nice like yours.

sajen