Keris pincit?

[Ganapati]

What was the purpose of these keris?
How were thumbprint placed on them ?
How does one confirm authenticity?

[David]

Originally Posted by Ganapati

What was the purpose of these keris?
How were thumbprint placed on them ?
How does one confirm authenticity?

1. Purpose would be talismanic. These keris were not made as practical weapons. The smith is imparting his power into the keris in this manner. I don't think there is just one talismanic purpose to be found here. All depends on what the need is at the time.
2. Good question. Alan Maisey has done a little bit of modern experimentation with this to see if it was possible to actually do with the fingers so he can probably speak to this a little more.
3. Another good question. This is easily faked by replacing tools for fingers. I think to takes a lot of looking at a lot of examples and in the end the answer is never definitive.
4. I believe the word you wanted is actually "Picit".

[A. G. Maisey]

GP, the names of keris that supposedly bear thumb or finger prints is "Pejetan" in Jawa; the word "pejet" means to press with the thumb or finger, in common usage a "pejetan" is a pushbutton.

These little keris also occur in parts of Malaysia and the Riau Archipelago where they are called "Keris Picit", this is given in English as "Keris Pichit"; the word "picit" is a Malay word and it means 'to pinch or to squeeze'.

I do not know the original purpose of these keris-like blades, but since colonial times they have been regarded as talismans. I do not know of any particular talismanic function that they are associated with, but they are regarded as being an overall positive talisman.

Most keris pejetan that we meet with have been created with tools, and are usually quite recent. A very, very few keris pejetan have the probability of having been created by finger pressure of the maker. In the final analysis we have no way at all of knowing which keris genuinely bears finger/thumb prints, and which was created with a ball-pein hammer.

I have had a lot of these keris pass through my hands. I kept a couple of the ones that I believed might have been genuine, and these were included in my sub-collection of similar talismanic keris (k. sajen, k. sombro). I sold this collection some years ago to a gentleman who has included it in a collection to go into a university museum.

I still have one keris pejetan which also happens to be a keris sombro.

Keris sombro are believed to assist in childbirth if placed under the bed of a woman who is about to give birth.


The indentation on the blade of a keris pejetan is in most cases created with some tool or other, usually a hammer, however, there are a very few that might have been created by finger pressure. There were probably several ways in which this could have been done, but it definitely can be done. The blades of these keris are usually paper thin and a working smith would have both the strength and the toughness of skin necessary to compress paper thin red hot metal between his thumb & a finger.

The experimentation that David refers to involved forging a piece of material as thin as I could get it, then holding it at red heat above a bed of sand, hitting it with a wet finger tip as fast as possible. I created a dent in the material, I did not hurt myself, and the skin on my hands is not the skin of a working smith. It can be done.


It is impossible to confirm authenticity.

It is possible to form an opinion on authenticity if one has a very great deal of experience in this field.

This experience could be in either the visible characteristics of the blade, or in detection of esoteric qualities.

I had two Indonesian relatives, both now passed, who were acknowledged as having the power to detect if an object possessed some sort of esoteric power. One of these relatives claimed that he had encountered a couple of these small talismanic keris-like objects that did have some sort of "isi" (content), but the other, who was a much more highly regarded practitioner in the field of mysticism, claimed that he had never encountered any "isi" in any of these keris-like objects that he had had in his possession, according to him, this type of thing was very likely to be empty.

[jagabuwana]

Alan, you've brought out a bunch of questions I've had for a little while about a keris and its powers or talismanic qualities.

To start - if we say a keris has isi, is that the same as saying it has talismanic qualities? Can a keris have talismanic qualities without having isi?

[A. G. Maisey]

Good questions Jaga.

In this Forum we have mostly stayed away from discussion of the esoteric elements associated with the keris. Understandable to some degree. There is a tremendous amount of nonsense that does get spread around, about keris, and there are numerous shysters out there, both with an online presence, and working face to face in the community. I know personally some of these people who are in Jawa, and really, I'd like to see most of them gone. They purport to sell things that in fact cannot be sold under any circumstances, and if payment does happen to be involved it should be done in the appropriate way, which is face to face.

At the moment these people only damage the image of the keris and detract from the real esoteric element that some keris might possess.

I'll try to answer your question Jaga, and any others along these lines that you might have, but my answers must not be read as my own opinions, my answers should be understood as repetition of what I have learnt from people who have, or had, a far greater understanding of the esoteric nature of the keris than I have.

In respect of "isi".

When people talk of a keris having "isi", or of having something contained in it, they are talking of that keris being inhabited by a spirit. That spirit might be good, it might be bad, or it might be bad and good, depending upon circumstances.

In old Javanese belief the spirit will be a nature spirit, the same type of spirit that might inhabit a tree, or a rock, or a place, or it could be a spirit that takes the form of an animal, the form the spirit takes is really only so that it can be seen or imagined by a person, it might be a tiger spirit, for instance, but that does not necessarily mean that it is the spirit of a tiger. The form is only for the sake of visualisation.

Such an isi might be of some assistance to the custodian of the keris or it might not be, but the assistance cannot be of a physical form, only of a form that assists helping to solve problems or to present oneself as one wishes to be seen.

How an isi comes to be in the keris is open to argument. It might have lodged there by accident, or it might have been called into the keris by a dukun (shaman). The type of dukun who was able to do this seems to have disappeared from Central Jawa today. In the late 1980's, maybe 1988, I met a man who was in the process of searching for such a dukun, the first time I met him was at a friend's house and at that time his search had taken him over most of Central Jawa and into East Jawa. I met him again about 12 months later, and he still had not been successful.

My pembantu (helper, housekeeper) in Palur was a very simple woman, she had absolute belief in ghosts, spirits, and every possible symbol or token of good & bad luck. She could not read or write, could not tell the time from a digital watch face. She was totally, totally grassroots Jawa. I had a lot of conversations with her about the mystical magical things of Jawa and about dukuns. According to her, all the genuine dukuns had disappeared before she was born, of the ones currently practicing in the districts around Solo that she knew, there was only one dukun who had some power, and he was known as a healer and somebody who could prepare little bags of leaves & petals that would ward off the unwelcome attentions of evil spirits. But he was not able to contact or call spirits.

I had a relative who had the belief that every keris he cared for had an isi that was either a kyai or a pangeran. He would sleep with each new keris he acquired until the spirit in the keris revealed itself to him, if it was not a kyai or a pangeran, he would sell that keris. The problem with this belief is that according to the beliefs of the people I learnt from, a keris cannot have the spirit of a kyai or a pangeran, it can only have the old, indigenous nature spirits.

In recent times and in parallel with the rise of radical Islam in Jawa, people have begun to believe that genies (djinn) & servants (khodam) can be the isi of a keris, but again, this belief was not a part of the beliefs of my teachers. Pauzan Pusposukadgo (Alm.) regarded such beliefs as sinful, he was a very good and observant Muslim. Pak Parman ( Empu Suparman) was committed to the philosophies of Kejawen, a distinctly Javanese blend of Islam and indigenous beliefs, and he thought such beliefs to be laughable and to only indicate the lack of understanding of those who believed in these things.

I know why Pak Parman thought in this way, and it was because it was his firm belief that no keris could have any power at all unless it had been made by an empu who had followed correct ritual and who had used the appropriate mantras during the making of the keris. By following these traditional and long established rituals the power of the keris was made obvious by the dhapur & pamor that had been used, and the power of the empu was sufficient to ensure that evil spirits did not enter the keris. He was scornful of the idea that anybody could actually call anything into a keris, he firmly believed that only those keris made by an empu and in accordance with ritual, could have any power. That power is represented by the dhapur & pamor is known as "tuah".

Tuah must not be confused with isi :- isi is not connected with talismanic qualities, tuah is only connected with talismanic qualities.

What is very obvious to me is that the grassroots common people, the farmers, factory workers, becak drivers and just ordinary people who are lowly placed in the social hierarchy do mostly believe that an isi can be called into a keris, but the higher up the tree of the keris hierarchy you go, the less you will find this folk belief. When you get to the top of that keris hierarchy it might be very difficult to find anybody who has any belief at all about isi and tuah that varies much from the beliefs of Empu Suparman Supowijoyo & Empu Pauzan Pusposukardgo. But when you go into the desas and talk to people at a grassroots level you will find some people who do have these folk beliefs, this is probably not all that different from the situation in other parts of the world.

The really sad part about all of this is that a genuine, longstanding Javanese belief system that is tied to the indigenous beliefs of Jawa has been corrupted by the pressure of Islam to change the keris from a Javanese icon into something that has to a large extent lost its original nature and has become something that Islam is more comfortable with. This began more than 500 years ago, and it continues today.

Again, not much different at any time and anywhere to what happens when a new belief system attempts to replace an existing belief system.

[jagabuwana]

Thank you Alan, that was really insightful.
I appreciate that your answers are repeating those you learned from instead of your own. I think that's the best possible way to approach this given the noise, nonsense and sensitivity that's often found whenever this topic is brought up.

I'm glad I asked the simpler question before diving headlong into ones about tuah because you answered all of them. But it does lead to this one:

In the belief of these people you've learned from, is a well-manufactured and within-pakem keris still a keris in the fullest sense if it was not made by an empu using the right rituals and mantras? For this question I'm mainly referring to Empu Suparman almarhum and others that shared his beliefs.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

In this Forum we have mostly stayed away from discussion of the esoteric elements associated with the keris. Understandable to some degree. There is a tremendous amount of nonsense that does get spread around, about keris, and there are numerous shysters out there, both with an online presence, and working face to face in the community. I know personally some of these people who are in Jawa, and really, I'd like to see most of them gone. They purport to sell things that in fact cannot be sold under any circumstances, and if payment does happen to be involved it should be done in the appropriate way, which is face to face.

At the moment these people only damage the image of the keris and detract from the real esoteric element that some keris might possess.

Thank you Alan for posting some good, solid responses to Jag's questions.
I just want to be clear, not only to you, but to all our members. As a moderator for this group i do not in any way want to discourage the discussion of the esoteric elements of the keris. It is in fact one of the reasons we separated keris discussion from the main Ethno Forum, so that we could explore aspects of keris culture that collectors of other ethnographic weapons were not quite able to put into context or wrap their heads around. I believe it is important that we do not push these subjects aside exactly because of what you state in your posts. It is important to at least try to sort the "shyster" spiel from more traditional esoteric elements of keris culture to attempt to head off the damage that can and has been done to the image of the keris.
This is not to say that there are not inherent difficulties to these types of discussion. I ask that people be respectful of the beliefs other may hold dear when we engage in these discussions and remember that the "understanding" of the keris may indeed be different for different people depending upon the sources used to form their beliefs. But we should also remember that all sources of information are not necessarily equal. As long as discussion remains friendly and civil i encourage more discussion on these esoteric subjects.

[jagabuwana]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

What is very obvious to me is that the grassroots common people, the farmers, factory workers, becak drivers and just ordinary people who are lowly placed in the social hierarchy do mostly believe that an isi can be called into a keris, but the higher up the tree of the keris hierarchy you go, the less you will find this folk belief.

Yes this is a very common belief that I have observed among common people too, and one that I've observed in my family both here and in Sunda. The belief is that the right person could do this. That person might be someone naturally gifted and further trained with the ability, a kyai who would necessarily be more syncretically inclined, or a dukun.

It is a very interesting that you do not find this belief when you get closer to the middle of the concentric circle, where getting closer to the middle of that circle means being more closely connected to a functioning continuous court culture along with its values, beliefs and norms.

I recall from previous discussions that tantric practices and rituals are reserved for the elite and inner circles, and hidden from the lower classes. I wonder if folk beliefs regarding isi and the power of the keris' is some kind of attempt to make the keris and its power available to the commoner, through their own ways of communing with the unseen.