Feeding keris in museums
 

Hello all
I am coming to the end of my studies and am now in the process of tying up loose ends on my keris thesis. Firstly I want to say thanks for this great resource, it's taught me a lot. The obvious passion so many of you have for presenting problems then nutting them out in a (usually!) civilised way - between so many contributors - is inspiring!
I have a prob here now so please let me know if you can help. Have any of you heard about the practice of placing a bowl of water inside keris display cases as a form of offering? I imagine that being on display this would mean it's something that occurs (or has occurred in the past) in museums, although perhaps it is elsewhere too. I've gone over all my references and can't find it anywhere, so I'm thinking perhaps it was just something I was told in a conversation. If any of you have any suggestions I would be very grateful!
Cheers
Georgia

Hi Georgia. I can't currently find any written confirmation on this, but the practice of leaving offerrings of water and rice amongst other things for ones keris is, i believe, a common one. Keris are also regularly fed with incense and scented oils. I have never heard of any of these practices taking place in museums though.
Will your thesis be published anywhere. I am sure we would all love to see it. :)

Hello Georgia.As Rick said,the common offering for keris is insence and fragrand oils.But I find it a little useless to feed keris into museums,for the reason that those keris are exposed everyday in daylight,and camera flash.Th e feeding is useful only when you have a keris in your place, feed it in the dark,and then put it right away in its sheath.Usually museum keris blades are exposed every day to hundreds of eyes,and daylight..

Hi Pakana, that was actually David's comment. :)

I would suppose that if a museum did not have a controlled climate possibly a small bowl of water could be put in the case to add a certain level of humidity during dry spells.

Rick

Yeah, Rick's that old guy with the big stick who keeps all those baseballs that we keep hitting into his yard. :p :D

Get off my lawn !! :mad:

Whippersnapper. :D

OH....I guess I'll stop my dog from leaving little presents then... :o

Come on children---be nice to one another.

When you get as old as I am you can talk about old.

You blokes are still kids.

thanks for your comments

i'm aware of offerings made for keris maintained in households etc, and i have also been told that until about 20 years ago the thursday evening offering was made regularly at the museum nasional in jakarta, however i was sure i'd heard of something more recently (and as far as i recall, the water was definitely for an offering rather than a climate controlling measure)

hmmm ... i was sure i had heard it somewhere ...

david, i don't really know whether this will be published. i'll have to wait to see what the examiners say!