[rasdan]

Ampun Gusti Pangeran,

If im not mistaken, hulu means head (physical head) in sanskrit and Penghulu is the head of a district in Malay. In a different context,it also means the begining as in hulu sungai means the begining of a river. In keris perhaps hulu means the head or the begining of the keris.

The word keris penghulu most likely refer to the type of keris rather than the hilt alone as all keris has hilts and not all keris with ayam sejuk/kerdas/garuda hilts are called penghulus (according to the book that called them penghulus) (Am i right? i am unsure actually). Currently the accepted definition of penghulu keris are kerisses with broad sampirs.

One issue puzzles me, how do we actually define the Penghulu keris. Is it the ratio between the width and the height of the sampir (as a general rule)? From what i see, Paul's penghulu keris has a very nice and rare ratio (for an example). Attached are some pictures of bugis kerisses (all are not mine). Does all of them can be considered a Penghulu? Why? In terms of scarcity, in my opinon only one of them can be considered scarce in terms of sampir height/width ratio and another in terms of the full perada, not the ratio.

As we all know, Buginese and malay to some extent are very status concious people in their dressing code. Even the slightest difference of tilt of the songkok pamiring describes a different status. But, this is in Sulawesi, not sure in Riau though.