Straight Parang Nabur or?
 

I found these reference swords, collected in Borneo, in the Leiden Database.
Usually when I find odd swords in museums and collections there is only one of them.
But in this case there was five so it seems as if it's some kind of Borneo parang not covered in the reference books?
Could it be a straight blade variation of a Parang Nabur (like the more usual straight Piso Podang) or something else?

Michael

Are they Chinese? Formosa? Tibet?
Were there pictures of the blade?
They look short and stout.

Unfortunately there are no pictures of the blades in the archive.
I don't know anything about Chinese blades but of course there was/are Chinese people living in Borneo. What puzzled me was that there were five of them, collected together with several Parang Nabur, Mandau, Pandat etc?
I think most of them were collected in the south, around Banjarmasin.

Michael

ONE POSSIBILITY IS THAT THEY ARE A VARIATION OF THE CHINESE SWORDS USED FOR TEMPLE OFFERINGS. IT WOULD BE EASY TO TELL IF YOU HAD THE ITEMS IN HAND BUT PICTURES SUCH AS THESE JUST CAN'T GIVE ENOUGH INFO. IF THE POMMEL FINALS ARE THREADED AND JUST A FANCY WINGNUT AND THE BLADES OF POOR QUALITY I WOULD SAY TEMPLE OFFERINGS. THEY ARE OFTEN FANCY LOOKING BUT OF POOR WORKMANSHIP AND NOT FOR USE AS A WEAPON. THEY OFTEN GET SOLD TO TOURISTS AS SOUVINEERS ALSO.
UNFORTUNATELY I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE CEREMONYS OR WHY THEY ARE OFFERED TO THE TEMPLES BUT HAVE HEARD THE STORYS LOTS OF TIMES OVER THE YEARS. I HAVE SEEN MANY OF THEM AND THESE ARE A BIT DIFFERENT SO MIGHT BE A VARIATION MADE IN JUST A CERTIAN AREA, BORNEO PERHAPS FOR THE CHINESE THERE. :confused:

a straigth parang nabur can be seen in the book off Zonneveld
this one is in my collection

I have asked two experienced dealers in Asian arms about these swords and have recieved their replies.

One of them, Philip Tom, allowed me to quote his response:

"I see no Chinese elements, or even elephants, in these swords. They are indeed most unusual, and their general similarities lead me to believe (as a complete layman if not babe-in-woods regarding Indonesian swords) that they might represent a little known subtype from an obscure tribal group."

The other dealer also confirmed that they didn't look Chinese to him and that he could see resemblence to the Parang Nabur as well as the shape of the pommel reminds him of some of the daggers he has seen from Borneo.

Michael

PS Yes Ben, I know about your "genuine" straight Nabur that once was in Willem's collection. It's very interesting. When I used the term straight Parang Nabur it was more because I think that the Nabur is the closest in looks to these kind of swords (even if they don't have D-guard etc.).

Do you have the museum's inventory numbers?
If these swords are collected before 1910, I can see what information the Juynboll-Catalogue of the Leiden museum (published in 1910) gives.

The pommels on these look to me to be partial representations of a Buddhist vajra (thunderbolt) -- the middle one is just a wing nut, but it does a fair job nontheless. Taken with the recurved quillons, the whole handle may be meant to represent a vajra. That makes it less likely that they are from Borneo (or at least made for local consumption, as it were), though there was at one time a powerful Buddhist kingdom on Java prior to the introduction of Islam (these swords obviously aren't that old anyway).

Albert,

I can't see any inventory no in the description (unless it corresponds to the picture no)?
But these three swords were all collected in "Banjar" (Banjarmasin?)
by Christian, W.G.A.C.
Unfortunately no dates or further description except what material they are made of.

Michael

Mark,

Do you have any picture example to illustrate the resemblence to the version of vajra you had in mind?
There are some old Hindu statues left in N Sarawak but I haven't read about any major Buddhist influences in Borneo?
Except Chinese visitors and settlers of course.

Michael

I found four swords of this type in the Juynboll catalogue of the Leiden musem. Inventory numbers 761-40, 41, 154, 158. All these swords are collected before 1890.
The catalogue does not give much information. The swords are described, but "a picture (as posted on this forum) says more than a thousand words".
As names are given: pedang jenawi, pedang jenawi besar (big) and pedang jenawi kecil (small). The provenance is Negara, south-east Borneo. One of the swords has brass Arabic digits incrusted into the blade.

Thanks Albert for the interesting info!!!

Michael

I managed to find one for my collection (Thanks Stefan!).
This must be a Pedang Jenawi Besar, based on it's size (Jenawi is straight and Besar is big).
It's both huge and heavy. The blade is supposed to be inspired by Arabic swords but this one reminds me more of old European swords?
"Banjarmasin red and black" colours on the hilt.

Michael

I would suggest that "Jenawi" is just another transliteration of the word used to define straight Moroccan swords: Jenawi, genoui etc, etc
It all means "Genoese" and referred to straight blades ( European, mostly) vs. curved "Oriental" ones.
I guess this word might have been brought to SE Asia by the Arab traders and just stayed there.

Ariel,

That sounds probable as south of Borneo had a lot of visits from Arab traders and this sword was used by the Muslim Malays, not the Dayaks.

Michael

Hi Michael an nice hard to get piece


And you are correct the muslim people
are settled in bandjamasin and also the Chinese influence in the sword that was never Used by the Dayaks
same as in the big coast place s from sarawak where they also settled for trading etc.

Ben