Keris Sundang Melayu

[BluErf]

Originally Posted by VVV

Please clarify if you mean that it's mine, Shahrial's or both keris that could be either N Borneo or Kalimantan?
I haven't seen any large kris like this from Kalimantan?
And why do you think it's N. Borneo?

Your Bugis sundang is really interesting. As you know there are people claiming that the keris sundang originated in Sulawesi...

Michael

Hi Michael,

Both krises are likely to have originated from N Borneo.

N. Borneo is quite close to the Sulu islands, which would be part of the Moro lands. So it is likely that there are some cross-overs in krises. There is a Malay sundang in the Asian Civilisations Museum which had a Malay style sheath (square sampir), attributed to N. Borneo. Unfortunately, I do not have my own pictures of it to share.

I just noticed that amongst the sundangs that have a Malay attribution, they are more likely to have the ron dha motif in the greneng, and the kembang kacang is longer and more pleasing than the Moro counterparts. There is also a trend that they are slightly smaller than the krises from the northern Moro lands. You can probably call this a difference in aesthetics.

I have not heard of the Bugis/Sundang attribution though, and apart from this weird piece of mine, I have not seen other examples. If the sundang originated from Sulawesi, where're the surviving examples?