Balinese Keris Holders

[A. G. Maisey]

This post is not intended to contradict ivoke, it is intended to offer an alternate point of view by somebody who is perhaps as qualified to hold a legitimate opinion as ivoke's informant.

My informant is not a dalang, but an artist, and a senior member of a banjar in the Ubud area.


Twalen is usually coloured black, his expression can change according to the situation, it is not necessarily fierce, but can be so.

Mwerdah is young, and is usually coloured red --- black is not fitting for a young character who is often unsure of himself --- the expression is most usually one of enquiry.


Here are some images of Twalen and Mwerdah keris holders that I have, they are old ones.

There are also some images of blawongs with wayang characters shown.

I seem to recall that Twalen is the Balinese equivalent of Semar, I don't know who Mwerdah is in Javanese wayang. Does anybody know for sure the Javanese equivalents of these characters?