Sumatran Dagger: Lopah Petawaran

[CharlesS]

Sumatran Dagger: Lopah Petawaran...Forefather of the Rentcong???


I had been looking for one of these for years, and finally with the help of some forumite friends I was able to acquire one.

This is a Sumatran dagger known as a lopah petawaran(See Zonneveld, Traditional Weapons of the Indonesian Archipelago, pg. 83) and is supposedly the predecessor to the much more famous rentcong.

This one is 14.5in. overall, with a 9in. thick heavy blade. The hilt may be rhino, and is tipped with a silvered cap.

I know several other forumites are fond of these types, and hope they will put pics of their examples on as well. There are many different versions, via embellishments, of these. Hopefully this will become a good research thread for this form of dagger.

[VVV]

Congratulations Charles!

I know you have been looking for a perfect Lopah for a long time.
I am not that picky myself so here are some other variations for discussion.
Picture 2 below show the two main variations of hilts.
There are different opinions on if this knife originated among the Gayo tribe or the Karo Batak (where it is used by the guru/healer priest for purification/exorcistic ceremonies).

Michael

[CharlesS]

Some amazing examples VVV. Some of these certainly look more ceremonial than combat worthy.

Thanks for posting

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by CharlesS

I know several other forumites are fond of these types, and hope they will put pics of their examples on as well.

Hi Charles and Michael,

I'm also fond of this type but I do not own one (unfortunately).
As a matter of fact I know someone who is selling an old lopah petawaran.
As it is against the rules of this forum to picture this lopah, I can sent you the link where it's on by email when you are interested.

Regards,
Maurice

[kai]

Congrats, Charles!

I'm hoping for even more examples to be posted!

Regards,
Kai

[Battara]

Here here! These are lovely puppies (woof! ).

Javagolok, I don't have any either. May be one day when I grow up..........

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Battara

Javagolok, I don't have any either. May be one day when I grow up..........

Battara,

I think most of us will only SHRUNK in future instead of GROW.

[Maurice]

Bringing up this old thread of Charless, I just read some additional information about this weapon in the book: Alte Kulturen auf Sumatra-Java-Borneo!

It seems that it is also called "rentsung" (which name is not mentioned in the book of Zonneveld), not to confuse with the traditional rencong from Aceh.
Among other things, one thing is that the first haircut of a child was done by this knife.

[DaveF]

I had originally posted these pictures under the heading "what is it?". Sajen and kai referred me here and identified it as Batak, probably an Every Day Carry relative of the Lopah pataweran, so I'm putting the images up here in the hope that they will be more useful to any future researcher on this thread rather than on the one I started. The handle is horn and the scabbard is wood with copper/brass bands.

[Sajen]

Like Charles I had been looking for one of these for years, finally I've found this one by a german auction house listed together with a keris.
After I've given it some TLC it's a fairly nice example, the scabbard toe is missing and there are some other faults but I can live with it.
375 mm inside scabbard, 298 mm without, blade 6 mm thick near the handle, 243 gram.

[Athanase]

Very nice!

[CharlesS]

Very nice Detlef! I like these elegant little knives.

[Sajen]

Thank you Severin and Charles. It coming together with a keris from Kelantan, the previous owner seems to has a somewhat different understanding of the orientation of the scabbard mouth.