Introduction

[Gajah]

After joining this forum a short while ago – and reading most of the threads – I'd like to introduce myself:

Born and raised in Germany, I've lived abroad for most of my life, mainly in Japan and China. My fields of interest are Japanese swords, sword fittings and netsuke, Chinese snuff bottles and Buddhist statues. Having moved to Indonesia 2 ½ years ago, it took me quite some time to discover the keris, but now I'm hooked.

As a student of Japanese swords for more than 30 years, I thought I could apply the same method of learning the terminology etc. to pin down original location, age and maker. It soon turned out that the keris is an entirely different beast; usually the maker is unknown, and in regard to age I get as many opinions as there are people I ask. Even to determine where a keris was made isn't easy, except when it comes to the mountings – sometimes … IOW, I'm still pretty overwhelmed, and hope to learn from reading and participating in this forum (although I probably will soon be known as "the-annoying-questions-guy" ).

It's important to me to understand the objects I collect within their historical, cultural and social context, which the keris offers in abundance. But getting older, I'm struggling to keep my Japanese up to date, and am trying to not totally forget my Chinese; there's not much room left for yet another language in my brain, so my Bahasa Indonesia is nothing to write home about - a disadvantage I regret. Furthermore, so far I have encountered on this message board terms in Bahasa Indonesia, Basa Jawa, Bahasa Malaysia, Basa Ugi, and even (English) phonetic spellings. I'm afraid it'll take some until I'm not living in a state of confusion anymore, so please bear with me.

Anyhow, attached are photos of two of my favorite keris so far, representing to me two different ends of the spectrum: the opulence (for lack of a better expression) of the Balinese keris, and the refined elegance of the Surakarta keris.