Keris boy

[A. G. Maisey]

Absolutely and totally inappropriate.

A child, particularly one as young as this one, has no connection to the keris as a cultural symbol.

Since before the time of Majapahit , the keris has been a symbol of the male. Its place is together with a male past the age of puberty, not with a baby. The child in this photo is of an age where it is possible that it might not even have a real name. It is certainly not a member of its community. It has no right to be in possession of a keris.

On the other hand ---if we are looking at a posed photograph that is somebody's idea of "cute", I guess that we can accept the "cuteness" as OK. Not everybody is attuned to traditional values.

PS--- I don't know that it is possible to give a precise translation of the idea of "sinengker", but this word has the sense of "secret", or "hidden", or "undisclosed", or "unrevealed"---and so on.