A Sumbawa keris kalawija
 

A keris from Sumbawa. The silver fittings with the twisted wire works are typical of the region, but not too gaudy. The hilt too, has motifs quite distinct from the Riau or Sulawesi Bugis. 15-waved blade, which seemed quite common in Sumbawa. Tough blade, with pretty tight adeg like forging lines.

Nice

Thanks Kai Wee. A beautiful and elegant keris. :)

A very nice blade in a good sarung.
sajen

Very sophisticated indeed Kai Wee, thanks for showing this one. Does anyone else have examples from this island to show?
David

Another Lamba 15 from Sumbawa

Pangulu : Duyung / Sea Ivory
Kili-kili : Silver
Wanua : Kemuning
Pamorro : Ure Tuo

:) another beautifull keris. :eek:
What kind of material on the hit's back?

Kamachite stone. Thanks Marco.

The embedded stone looks like Malachite to me.. :) Kamacite is a mineral, an alloy of iron and nickel, of meteoric origin..

True.., thanks Bro Alamshah.

Dear all,

My apologies, it has come to my attention that the hilt motif and the silver works may not be indigenous to Sumbawa. So please ignore what I mentioned in the 1st post. :shrug:

Anyone has kerises that is attributed to Sumbawa? Perhaps it would be good to share some pictures and perhaps hear how the keris was attributed to Sumbawa?

Thanks!

Another keris Sumbawa luk 15. A very simple blade with rudimental double sogokan, but the shape of luk still nice. The blade must have some age.

New hilt (made from horn) and pendokok, used sarung, hornen buntut.

Nice, solid & elegant.
:)

Nice keris Gustav.

sajen

Thank you Sajen.

It is of much less quality then the beautiful keris of Blu Erf and Sipakatuo, but this porous iron is typical for "lower end" Sumbawa keris,
thats why I posted it.

I also apologise for the very poor quality of pictures. The keris is also not stained, so even the low contrast pamor of this blade isn't visible in the pictures.

Some pictures of similar Sumbawa blades. These keris are not mine, so only detail pictures.

To begin I will say this:-

I have never been to Sumbawa.

I have not investigated Sumbawa keris in any depth.

My only knowledge of the type of keris used and worn in Sumbawa comes from old photos in general travel books, and keris that I have handled that were supposedly collected from Sumbawa. I say supposedly because the people who owned these keris were not close friends and I had no way of knowing if I was being lied to or if I was being told the truth. My feeling at the time was that in all cases I was being told the truth.

The type of keris that I understand to be a Sumbawa keris is one with a blade of no remarkable quality, rather inferior material with a sand-like texture, no distinct ada-ada, lacking the flat blade faces of a Bugis keris, but of a generally Bugis type appearance. Blade section is like rotan, the gandik somewhat indented to accomodate the kembang kacang.

There is a tangguh that is known as "Kupang". This does not mean that the blades come from Kupang, but only that they come from far to the east of Bali. The people who searched for antiques and etc to sell to dealers in Bali used to call these keris "Kupang" in the pre-1960 period, and that is where the people in Solo picked up the terminology from, when they would visit Bali they learnt from keris people there that this type of keris was "tangguh Kupang".

The characteristics of tangguh Kupang are:-

heavy, sand-like texture, usually no pamor, when it occurs it is only found in large keris, the steel is thick and well heat treated, the pawakan is large and approaches that of a Bali keris, the gonjo is wide & large & ugly, if there is greneng it is crudely executed, the gandik tends to be high, there is often a janggut, the kembang kacang is small & the lambe gajah is set deeply into the gandik, the blumbangan is very shallow, sometimes it does not exist at all, a sogokan is extremely rare when it does exist it is shallow, pointed and thorn-like, an ada-ada is extremely rare, the cross section is like rotan, there is no kruwingan, the waves when they exist are unharmonious and ugly, the wadidang is almost straight.

Remembering the keris I have seen that were reputed to come from Sumbawa, these indicators would in general fit.

The dress that these keris wore was of a general Bugis style.

I consider a keris to be a Sumbawa keris if the blade was actually made in Sumbawa and the dress is of the type usually worn in Sumbawa.

A number of keris have been shown in this thread and identified as being from Sumbawa.

Can anybody who has already shown these keris with a Sumbawa attribution substantiate that origin of Sumbawa?

Alan, thank you very much for the interesting post.

My blade and the two examples comes from dealers in Lombok. The two examples probably would fit in your description of Tangguh Kupang. Mine has a similar (sand like) iron quality, and is well heat treated. The measurements are:

The length of the blade: 36,8 cm (14,5 inches)
The width of the gonjo: 8,2 cm (3,23 inches)

I supposed, the little bit elaborated ricikan details of keris of mine and the striking ricikan details of the keris of Blu Erf and Sipakatuo would be a Lombok influence. But in the book of Lalu Djelenga I found a picture of two similar keris, on page 203 with a note "Banyak keluar dari wilayah Bayan". I suppose it means, the blades are coming from Bayan willage in Lombok.
I would like to know, is there a Lombok influence in Sumbawa?
Some other pictures of my Keris Luk 15, and of a royal Keris from Sumbawa. It seems, Sumbawa has influences from everywhere. I will post also some pictures of a pedang from Sumbawa, shaped like a katana.

A pedang from Sumbawa.

And a Keris of mine, attributed to Sumbawa, with triple sogokan. A similar Keris, sold in the Malay Art Gallery: http://www.geocities.com/keris4u/ker...kal_3sogok.htm

But I also think, the pamor of my Keris, a kind of wos wutah, is typical for Lombok.

:eek: I love the hit :eek:
From where it comes? Lombok or Kalimantan?
Are white stones yakut? What are red stones?

Is this royal keris yours? It remembers me to a Banjarmasin keris.

Regards,

Detlef

No, no!!!

I am not a bank director!

Both, the keris and pedang, are from a museum in Sumbawa.
(I thought, it is clear becouse of completely other picture quality :) )

Interesting thing with the hilt is, it seems to be a Tunggak Semi, and the warangka looks almost Sumatranese.

I'm not a bank director too :)

Dear Marco, welcome to the club! :)

Oh, we are three already! :D

Another Bugis Sumbawa Kerisses for viewing..

Beautiful pieces with attractive pamor works.. thanks matteru.. ;)

Very nice keris Sipakatuo like your first one you posted also, but why is this a Sumbawa keris and not a Bugis keris? Or better from where you know that this keris are from Sumbawa?

Regards,

sajen

Very nice :)

I think that this is the question at hand Sajen and what Alan was saying in his earlier post. Are these keris really from Sumbawa or are we just repeating unsubstantiated information supplied by the sellers of these keris? Do any of these examples have any strong provenance that these blades were forged in Sumbawa?
:shrug:

Some more pictures of royal keris from a museum in Sumbawa.

And more... Sorry, one picture is showed twice. There are two keris.

They seems awesome :eek:

WOW :eek:

A request
 

Dear All,

were it possible for somebody, who speaks Bahasa, to translate this to English (if it has some worth at all): http://www.sumbawanews.com/sumbawa/s...s-sumbawa.html

Were it possible for somebody, who knows about the history and culture of Sumbawa to write down a brief (or longer) summary for others?

I think, it were absolutely necessary, in other case we are really in a dead end with this subject.

Keris Bugis Sumbawa and or Keris Bugis Bima

Dear All

Dynasty of Bima and Dynasty of Gowa have special relationships that last for almost 200 years. It all started in 1616 when Sultan of Bima name Sultan Abdul Khair went to Gowa and learnt Islam. He then married to a princes of Gowa, daughter of Sultan Maliku Said. Sultan Abdul Khair helped Gowa against VOC. He also very close to his Brother in Law name Sultan Hasanudin (I Malombasi Daeng Matawang) Even in the treaty of Bongaya it also stated about Bima as alliance of Gowa. Therefore, it is not surprising to me to see Keris Bugis Makassar also exist in Bima and Sumbawa. It is also mentioned in your (Gustav) link that there were Pande Besi (Smiths) lived in Penana Village in Bima who produced Keris and other traditional weapons. Not only Malacca, Palembang, Batavia, Cirebon, Demak, Tuban, and Makassar who plays important ports. Sumbawa and Bima also considered as important ports between 16 to 18 century. It is also mentioned that Swords from Sumbawa was traded in Palembang. This is also not surprising to me when I see Sword from Palembang has the same model in Bima/Sumbawa. Sultan of Sumbawa and Sultan/Arung from Bugis like to share gifts in form of Tappi (Keris), Alameng (Sword), or Bessi (Spear). As Alan mentioned earlier that in Kupang/Flores also exist Keris Smith known to be Keris Kupang with typical Besi Masir. It is the same like Keris Bugis Sumbawa and or Bima most have identical iron. I found Keris Bugis Sumbawa and or Bima have more variety in shapes, the pamor also nicely constructed compare to Keris Bugis Sulawesi. Since Sulawesi has its own iron mining deposited in Luwu, the local smiths like to use iron from Luwu to make weapons. Besi Luwu is rich in nickel therefore keris originated from Sulawesi is slightly different in material compare to keris from Sumbawa and or Bima although sometimes the shape is identical like Tappi Sapukala (Keris Sepokal). I believe as collectors we are aware that Besi Luwu is long traded in Nusantara and also used as bahan pamor in other regions. Therefore, you can see pamor keris from other regions made from besi Luwu. The Bugis influence is strong in Sumbawa, Bima, Sumatra, Kalimantan, and Semenanjung. It shows in the model of Wanua (Warangka) where they adopt boat shape typical form exist in Sulawesi although some are slightly different. You might be confuse when you see a boat shape warangka and your guess the keris is from Sulawesi but when you see the bilah it is very Javanese or Semenanjung. Again, outside look can be similar but inside (the bilah) is totally different because it has been adjusted to the local pattern. I like to add Bugis before the region, eg. Keris Bugis Sumbawa. Why?, because in the outside look (Warangka) is similar to real Bugis (Sulawesi) but in fact in the inside it is Sumbawa.

I am researching and examining, finding facts and datas of keris bugis spread in Nusantara for the last few years and hopefully with the support from friends in Vikingsword I am able to release a book about Keris Bugis sometimes early next year.

Thank you

Andi M. Irvan Zulfikar a.k.a. Sipakatuo

Dear Sipakatuo,
It is very good news to hear about your project to write a book about keris Bugis in Nusantara as the knowledge about these krisses is very much lacking, I already reserve my copy!
Best regards
Jean

Dear Sipakatuo,

thank you very much for the interesting post.

Dear Sipakatuo,

very interesting post and you will have all my assistance for your book!

sajen

Hello Sipakatuo,

maybe you can enlighten me about this keris. I collect it 1994 in a antique shop on Bali in very bad condition. Someone with good knowledge assumed that it is maybe a Sumbawa keris. What I never have seen before and after is that this keris have a mendak and selut, two pieces from different metal. All other comments are also very welcome, special about dapur and pamor.