Teuku Umar keris - Gayo?!
 

In the current Sumatra Exhibition there is a display with the keris of Tueku Umar. He was an important Aceh freedomfighter who died in 1899 ( he is national hero of Indonesia). To us the Dutch he was of course very infamous - a matter of perspective.

This keris has a handle which to me is very typical of Gayo.
It also has the stars (linked to rank of the wearer) that are described in the Jensen kris disk.

I have a very similair ivory handle which to me is Gayo.

So I would like to hear your opinions on two questions
-Is this a Gayo keris?
-Is an Aceh warrior with a Gayo keris an unlikely occurance?

Regards, Erik

Here a link to the keris in the database of the Leiden Ethnographical Museum:

http://www.rmv.nl/zoek_collectie.asp...layMode=single

And here a photo of the actual keris

And a photo of my Gayo handle with a high similarity...
will try to make a better picture with daylight in the weekend...

Hi Erik,

I can't give any answers but maybe nice to add in this thread a photo of the state jacket and kupiah of teuku Umar, which I took in the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.

I can't answer the question, because what I know to be a "Gayo keris" came from some books. Here's an example that was auctioned off a few years back. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to place the winning bid.

Exactly the same goes for me - Jensens' Kris disk is my main source on this region.

This exact same keris is described in some detail in chapter 9.3 page 3 of the mentioned krisdisk.

Area: Gayoland, North Sumatra.
Date: 18th century. It was brought home in 1906 by a Danish physician who had been in Dutch service during the Aceh war (1875-1913) Formerly in the collection of Mr Sadolin.

Thanks Maurice, nice addition. Makes a picture of this historical person.

Regards, Erik

Teuku Umar (born in 1854, Meulaboh; died February 11, 1899) is a Pahlawan Nasional Indonesia (National Hero of Indonesia). He led a guerrilla campaign in Aceh during the period of the Dutch occupation. He fell when Dutch troops launched a sudden attack in Meulaboh. His body was buried in the Mugo area. After Teuku Umar's death, his wife Cut Nyak Dhien continued to led guerillas against the Dutch.

adding some info from Wikipedia.

But back to the gayo keris.
A few years back there was an exhibition in Delft with very nice keris.
Sad enough there was no catalogue, and I did not take any pictures.
Among them several gayo keris. with main features being :
- very simple blades (pamorless),
- huge ivory hilts.
- Ganja's protruding out of their scabbards
- and indeed the scabbards being dressed in silver and suasa with the typical faceted ball shaped scabbard end.

As for the RMV keris.
Hilt seems like the right gayo style
wrangka seems right, be it covered in gold :-)
and the bottom of the scabbard is missing its decoration. If this scabbard had some kind of golden ball shaped decoration I think all would not doubt and call it a gayo keris.

Here a somwhat better picture of my handle in the same "position" as the museum picture. Very close in style and motif to this one!

Regards, Erik

Hi Willem thanks for the background info!

Yep the gold cover shows rank/status and whealth of the owner I think.

Looking at the pendok and that it obviously misses a bottom part. My hypothesis is that is must have been one of those typical Gayo ball like endpieces as you mention. Otherwise it is a strange place to miss a part of the pendok I think...

Regards, Erik

Hello Erik,

Very close in style. even the same crack.
I would almost go to Leiden to check if the hilt is still there :D

Yep and I melted the gold :D

To make a golden "gayo" rolex ? ;) :D