Mystery spear
 

I recently added a remarkable spear to my collection.

Total length: 239 cm
Length spearhead: 20 cm
Length shaft: 219 cm
Length sleeve: 33 cm
The shaft is plain over the whole length.

Does anyone more about this type?
My guess would be a kind of ceremonial spear from Java.
Who can tell anything more?

It is is a shape called Nenggala. Ones made of iron were used as weapons at Raffles time. They can be found in Central Java and Pasisir, and I have seen one like yours, Besi Kuning, collected in Borneo.

Thank you very much!
I am very curious if anyone else has a similar one is his collection.

Terrifying. Graceful in design but absolutely brutal in function.

Albert, are parts of the blade gilded. If so, that suggests a ceremonial role to me. The blade reminds me a little bit of an African throwing knife. :D

Nenggala is, I believe, North Coast Jawa terminology for this blade form, in Central Jawa it is known as a "Cis" (pron. : "chis"). The Javanese word "cis" means "angkus" or "elephant goad".

In East Jawa it is known as "pancing buaya" = "crocodile fish hook", for the very good reason that it was used as a crocodile spear.

In parts of East Jawa these were still being made & used as crocodile spears up until about 1950.

Interestingly, the word "nenggala" means "plough" in some dialects & in Balinese, it does not take much imagination to understand the similarity in form of this blade shape to the shape of a Javanese/Balinese plough blade.

Gustav

Do we know where in Raffles that this word "nenggala" appears, & if it is connected to a picture of the implement under discussion?

Amongst the plates following P296, Vol.1 there is picture of a spear that has a "forked" head, both double & single examples, that is very vaguely similar to the nenggala, but it is identified as a "tumpuling".

This name might indicate it is some sort of hunting spear : "tumpu/numpu" means to hunt , I think specifically to hunt deer --- these are guesses, but informed guesses.

Alan,

I couldn't find the name Nenggala in Raffles' book.

Regarding Tumpuling, there is a similar spear in Radya Pustaka Museum, in it's description it is called Cempuling. Wiktionary says, Cempuling is a variation of Tempuling (https://id.wiktionary.org/wiki/cempuling), and Tempuling is given as tombak pendek untuk menangkap ikan besar, short spear for catching big fish.

Thanks Gustav, that all seems together pretty nicely, we can to a large extent ignore minor variation in spellings with Javanese, the language is not a standardised language, it is tuned to verbal communication rather than written communication.

When we look at the way in which these types of spears are referred to by varying names, it does, I think, demonstrate quite clearly why we should not ever be too certain that any one name is the only correct one.

Hello Ian, there are no guided parts.
The whole is entirely of brass.

Hello Gustav, Can I find the source of this very interesting photo somewhere?

Albert,

it's private, but you can trust it as far as one can trust a picture and a description from an older museum, in this case the second oldest in Indonesia, a serious institution for the circumstances.

Valuable information
 

Thank you all for your valuable information :)

If anyone can find additional information or especially pictures, that would be great!

Well, pictures of the Tombak, which apparently was collected in Borneo.

Being made of brass might fit for a blade used for fishing. No corrosion in salt water.

Albert, I can vouch for what Gustav has said about this source, I have more or less the same exhibit photo, taken a number of times over a +20 year period:- those tombak are on display in that museum.

Can you by any chance read all that is written on the card of the spear most left?

Tombak Luk

Pamor Keleng
Dhapur Cempuling
Tangguh Majapahit
Landeyan Kayu Waru

Thank you so much!

Albert, you are welcome.

Another one
 

From another collector, I got the following photos.
Total length: 225 cm.
Length spearhead including sleeve: 45 cm.
Length shaft: 180 cm.
Unfortunately without extra information.