Bugis keris

[tom hyle]

Originally Posted by BluErf

Hi Tom -- while clothes don't make a man, I'm sure good clothes would certainly open many doors. And I'm not quite sure what you meant by the proper dress phenomenon is not an old/traditional or Southeast Asian. If its with respect to kerises, it certainly is not right to say so. Discounting the 'tourist trade', the keris dress is defined by tradition/'adat'. If there is no 'adat', we could not have possibly differentiated between Sulawesi kerises from Balinese kerises from Riau kerises from Minang kerises, etc.

Perhaps you have misunderstood me, but I do not think you are correct. Allow me to explain. What would traditionally be done/appreciated by traditional kris appreciators (ie oceanic SE Asians) is not, at least to my understanding AT ALL to put say a Bali kris in Bali dress. Not at all not at all; rather to put whatever blade you get in the dress native to you, the owner (caretaker, etc....). So in the past if/when a Javanese acquired a Bugis k(e)ris and he considered it worthy to keep, he might conceivably leave it in whatever dress it came with, but he would certainly not get the idea, (say it were naked or poorly dressed or he couldn't stand/comprehend its dress) that the proper thing to do would be to dress it Bugis style; no, I cannot see that; he would dress it Javanese.