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.

[David]

Welcome to the forum Gajah. You have presented two nice first entries in your post.
I am not sure how versed you are so far in the terminology, but the Bali keris has a pamor called Tambangan Badung in Bali, but probably known to more folks as Buntel Mayat in Jawa. Frankly i find this dress less opulent than what we see sometimes in Balinese dress. Bejeweled, yes, but nicely understated by comparison to some.
The Surakarta dress has lovely wood. The sheath appears to be iras (all on piece) as opposed to having a separate stem (gander) and top sheath (wrongko), which is a somewhat rare occurrence. The flashing grain of the chatoyant wood is probably very pleasing in person. I am also enjoying the slanted grain of the hilt (ukiran, defer, hulu are all acceptable terms).
On language, please feel free to simply use English terms to describe parts. I think some collectors feel that in order to show what they know they need to master all the native terminology. The trouble with these names is that they often change from island to island and era to era. And the names of pamors come and go. There are certain keris parts i find easier to point out with traditional names though. I might have trouble describing what the gonjo (also spelled ganja) is in English for instance, but if i say gonjo to someone who knows anything about keris they immediately know what i mean. The same might be said of parts like sekar kacang, sokogan, greneng, etc., the various aspects of the carving of a blade that help identify its form or dhapur. But i see nothing wrong with calling a hilt a hilt, a sheath a sheath and a blade (wilah) a blade. I might suggest that of the languages you mentioned in your post that basa Jawa would probably the most useful to study for understanding terminology, and perhaps more specifically, Old Javanese.

[A. G. Maisey]

Good to have you on board Gajah.

I don't have much to add to what David has already said.

Terminology alters from place to place and from time to time, and assessment of blade age with any degree of possible accuracy will take you a very long time to come to terms with.

For postings to this discussion group English is quite OK, but Bahasa Indonesia at a level sufficient for comfortable communication is perhaps the world's easiest language to learn, as you are resident there I'm certain that you already have more than sufficient Indonesian for comfortable communication.

The Javanese language is something quite different. After going on for 50 years of contact with Indonesia, and using a mixture of English-Indonesian-Javanese every day in domestic communication, I am still a very long way from being proficient in Javanese, in fact I have come to the conclusion that you need to be born Javanese in either a rural setting, or an aristocratic setting to be a good speaker of Javanese.

As for Old Javanese, it does help if you can gain some understanding of it, but I rather doubt that you will be able to find anybody who can help you with this, it becomes a self-driven effort involving Romanised Old Javanese text and dictionaries and lots of patience.

To go a step further you might consider learning the old alphabet:- aksara jawa, hanacaraka, however, as with the spoken language there are problems with this, because Javanese is a non-standardised language and in speech, Romanised text and aksara jawa there is a good deal of variation in the way words are presented.

[Gajah]

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the warm welcome!

So far I have studied the following books:

Bambang Harsrinuksmo - Ensiklopedi Keris
Frey - The Kris, Mystic Weapon of the Malay World
Gardener - Keris And Other Malay Weapons
Ghiringhelli - The Invincible Krises 2
Ghiringhelli - Kris Hilts - Masterpieces of South-East Asian Art
Gronemann - The Javanese Kris
Kerner - Keris-Griffe aus dem malayischen Archipel
La Nyalla - The Power of Iron
Solyom - The World of the Javanese Keris
Tammens - De Kris I

I'm therefore familiar with the terminology to a certain degree, but have trouble memorizing all those "alien words". But even the Indonesians do, as I found out recently. When using ukiran for the hilt, an Indonesian friend told me that only the carving is meant, the hilt itself is called hulu. Only after sending him a link to a website explaining it in both English and Bahasa Indonesia did he accept my usage of ukiran. With him, I didn't use the term ganja so far …

[Sajen]

Welcome to the forum! Two very nice keris for start a collection.

Regards,
Detlef

[David]

Originally Posted by Gajah

Gentlemen, thank you very much for the warm welcome!

So far I have studied the following books:

Bambang Harsrinuksmo - Ensiklopedi Keris
Frey - The Kris, Mystic Weapon of the Malay World
Gardener - Keris And Other Malay Weapons
Ghiringhelli - The Invincible Krises 2
Ghiringhelli - Kris Hilts - Masterpieces of South-East Asian Art
Gronemann - The Javanese Kris
Kerner - Keris-Griffe aus dem malayischen Archipel
La Nyalla - The Power of Iron
Solyom - The World of the Javanese Keris
Tammens - De Kris I

I'm therefore familiar with the terminology to a certain degree, but have trouble memorizing all those "alien words". But even the Indonesians do, as I found out recently. When using ukiran for the hilt, an Indonesian friend told me that only the carving is meant, the hilt itself is called hulu. Only after sending him a link to a website explaining it in both English and Bahasa Indonesia did he accept my usage of ukiran. With him, I didn't use the term ganja so far …

Well again, words are only a means of communication. What is important is understanding, so i would not sweat the "alien words" too much. Regarding understanding, i would also recommend you try some books that are not so directly about the keris itself, but the culture that surrounds it. Some excellent books in this regard are Visible and Invisible Realms - Margaret J.Wiener and Sekala and Niskala - Fred B. Eisman, Jr.
You may also find Malay Magic - Walter W. Skeat helpful. Historical background of the region found in books such as Bali Chronicles - Willard Hanna and The Seen and Unseen Worlds of Java - M.C. Ricklefs can also be useful for greater understanding of the dynamics of the area.

[A. G. Maisey]

Much of the keris lexicon is Javanese, rather than Indonesian, well, at least in Jawa it is, and even then, the words will change according to the situation. As David has said, in this discussion group English is fine. In fact, keris words change as we move from place to place, but that seems to be only on a local level, it appears that the modern Javanese terminology has become pretty much universal for communication about keris on an international basis.


I would add a couple of references to the ones David has recommended:-


Krisses---A critical Bibliography-David van Duuren

Kebudayaan Jawa--- Koentjaraningrat

The Religion of Java--- Clifford Geertz

David van Duuren's bibliography is extremely comprehensive and assists by giving a review of the material prior to reading it. It is probably essential for anybody with an interest in keris.

The other two books have nothing at all to do with the keris, but they are invaluable in assisting in an understanding of Javanese society and culture, and in the absence of that understanding it is probably impossible to gain an realistic understanding of the keris.

[Gajah]

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll look out for those books!