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Old 7th September 2006, 04:56 AM   #1
David
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Here's the quote from Stone:
"Prince Pakoet Alam at Djockjakarta showed me the old methods of fencing with the kris. He said that if a man had only one kris with him he held the scabbard in his left hand with the straight part extended along his forearm and guarded with it. If he had two krisses, he took his favorite in his right hand and the other in his left to guard with. The left-hand kris was held against his forearm with the edge and point at the top outward.In this position it was not only useful as a guard, but if his opponent tried to catch his arm a slight motion would cut his hand serverely."
This seems too detailed an account too have been a misunderstanding and i don't see what Stone would have to gain from making it up. This information was apparently shared with him in the early 20th century by a member of the royal family who i would think would know something about the cultural uses of the keris in Jawa.
One wonders at what point then, the keris ceased to be seen in a materially martial sense in Jawa. I would also extend this question to Bali. Certainly, from my own observations, the Balinese keris tends to be more of a fighting blade. It is often longer and heavier than it's Javanese brother. Bali also holds claim to the culture of the Mojopahit empire, though one could never say that the culture of, say, 19thC Bali was the same as Mojopahit Jawa, we can at least see it as an evolution of that culture. For instance, it is my understanding that blades were once polished in the Balinese style in Jawa. This tradition continues in Bali, yet it passed out of fashion in later Javanese periods. If the keris was still considered a weapon in 19thC Bali (if???) is it possible that it was also considered so in Mojopahit Jawa? Hard to say.
This passage from Wiener's Visible and Invisible Realms comes from Gusti Ketut Jelantik, Buléléng's chief minister, in response to a proposed Dutch treaty offered up in 1844:
As long as he lived there would be no Dutch sovereignty over his land. Declaring that no mere piece of paper could make anyone master over another he announced dramatically,"Let the keris decide!"
This sounds like an act of war with the keris at it's forefront. I suppose it could have been metaphorical, but it seems not to me.
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Old 7th September 2006, 05:41 AM   #2
A. G. Maisey
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Jawa and Bali are different fish.

No doubt at all that the keris was serious weapon in Bali right through until the puputans.

No doubt at all that the keris was a serious weapon in early Jawa.


No doubt at all that even in the 1950's the keris was being used as weapon in the Peninsula. I once met a British soldier who had served in Malaya during the troubles there; he had been attacked by a keris wielding Malay and stabbed in the thigh. Left a pretty ugly scar.

As to George Cameron's comments, I believe that he was probably given a bit of demo. Bear in mind that young royals at this time were given a "palace" education. The Prince of the Pakualamanan that he mentions would have been given lessons in how to handle a keris in dances. Possibly what Geo. C. saw was a classical representation of keris usage, not the way in which one was actually used. The prince himself may well have believed that he was demonstrating the real thing. What a person believes is actual for that person.

If you study Javanese ---and Malay for that matter--- ethics and combat tactics, it is perfectly obvious that no self respecting Javanese was ever going to engage in formal frontal fencing displays. The dominant characteristics of Javanese combat are surprise and speed. I have had it said to me, by a man for whom I have very great respect in this area of Javanese edged weapon combat, that if a person was correctly attacked with a keris, he should be dead before he ever realised that he has been attacked.

My personal feeling is---and I emphasise "feeling"--- that there never was a formal system of fence attached to the keris. It was not that sort of weapon, rather it was an extension of self.

However, the argument against this is my reference to keris play exhibition in the Pararaton.

If we are going to put "the keris as a weapon" into a time frame frame, I think we`re probably looking at something like pre-Mataram. The period prior to the outcome of a battle depending on firepower, not personal skill with things that cut.In Jawa, in any case. All my comments are being made in a Javanese context. I knew an Australian Federal Policeman who was attacked by a keris (sorry, I prefer keris, even if it is a big one) wielding Moro in the Southern Phillipines in the 1970's.
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