buginesse

[Ganja Iras]

dear all ,

here i presenting my keris pic's for comment
all of the them are in old sheath with silver pendhok.
thank you

Ganja Iras

[David]

Some closer and/or larger images might be helpful for a better assessment. From what i can see i am liking the second from the left the best...

[Battara]

Now are all these court keris? What status are they?

[Jean]

Hello Ganja Iras,
Very nice pieces, congratulations! More detailed pictures will be welcome indeed.
It seems to me that the pendoks and passio sumange/ toli-toli with rosette are recently made in a style attributed to Sumbawa, please confirm.
Best regards

[David]

I wouldn't mind hearing more thoughts on the cultural/status significance of the "toli-toli". I believe we had a brief discussion on these once before.

[A. G. Maisey]

I find this recent profusion of toli-toli very interesting.

By about age 30 I had accumulated over 3000 keris. These were not all beautiful, perfect complete keris, but keris in every stage of disrepair and damage and I worked on a lot of them and returned them to something approximating fairly acceptable keris. By the time I was about 40 I'd reduced that 3000+ to no more than 40 pretty decent keris that were all original and in good condition, and this was the foundation for my present collection. During my thirties I put a lot of keris through auctions, both in Australia and in the UK --- this was long before ebay had ever been thought of.

Since the early 1970's I have been buying keris in Indonesia and from other countries --- UK, USA, Europe. My present personal collection is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 300 keris.

Now, the reason I find the present profusion of toli-toli to be so interesting is that I have only ever owned two keris with toli-toli, and in both cases those toli-toli were rather simple red cords, not beautiful examples of the jewellers art.

It is rather pleasing to see this revival of the production of toli-toli that originally were probably owned by only a handful of nobles, this gives most of us the opportunity to add exquisite pieces to our collections, pieces that 50 years ago we could never even have dreamed of possessing.

[Jean]

Originally Posted by David

I wouldn't mind hearing more thoughts on the cultural/status significance of the "toli-toli". I believe we had a brief discussion on these once before.

Hello David,
You can find a short topic regarding the significance of the passio sumange (Sulawesi term) on page 153 of the book "Senjata Pusaka Bugis" but I am unable to translate it clearly so may be an Indonesian member can do it for us...
Best regards

[Jean]

Originally Posted by David

I wouldn't mind hearing more thoughts on the cultural/status significance of the "toli-toli". I believe we had a brief discussion on these once before.

Hello David,
One distinguished forum member was kind enough to make a summarized translation of the topic in the book "Senjata Pusaka Bugis" as follows:

"The passsio sumange (or toli-toli) functions to bring together the "energy" of humanity and iron (in the sense of weaponry?) so that they can live together in harmony.
Apart from being an accessory, the passio sumange functions as a safeguard. In past times if you wanted to meet with the Raja the kris had to be tight in the scabbard and tightly tied with the passio sumange. This was done to ensure that the kris did not suddenly come out in front of the Raja. If that happened, the person with the kris would be immediately stabbed because it was considered that he intended to do something that was not good for the safety of the Raja.
Apart from that, according to Bissu Matowa Saidi, if considered from the mystic pont of view, the pasio sumange is also able to give a vibration to the wearer that something will happen to threaten him or his family."

Thanks to the contributor and regards.