Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Kiai Carita · 25th June 2005, 08:20 AM

[QUOTE=Ian]Marto:

Thanks for clarifying the name for this tool. I, too, called this particular example a golok when I acquired it. Then I found a nearly identical chopper in v. Zonneveld (p. 34) which he identified as a bendo from West Java. So, even Mr. v. Z. can make a mistake, or perhaps there is a regional variation in terms that differs from your own experience. In any case, it is very confusing for someone from a different culture trying to understand these terms from a distance.

Kiai Carita says: in my travels to Pasundan region in the past I have never heard the word bendho. It sounds too funny and alien to the Sundanese ear, it is a javanese word and a javanese tool not really used in the West of Java. A Western writer with a Javanese informer might say it is a Sundanese bendho but that would be the Javanese name ... Sundanese prefer goloks. The goloks of Ciwedei are of superior quality to most bendho made in Java. Goloks have important martial usage as well.

25th June 2005, 08:20 AM	#17
Kiai Carita Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 91	[QUOTE=Ian]Marto: Thanks for clarifying the name for this tool. I, too, called this particular example a golok when I acquired it. Then I found a nearly identical chopper in v. Zonneveld (p. 34) which he identified as a bendo from West Java. So, even Mr. v. Z. can make a mistake, or perhaps there is a regional variation in terms that differs from your own experience. In any case, it is very confusing for someone from a different culture trying to understand these terms from a distance. Kiai Carita says: in my travels to Pasundan region in the past I have never heard the word bendho. It sounds too funny and alien to the Sundanese ear, it is a javanese word and a javanese tool not really used in the West of Java. A Western writer with a Javanese informer might say it is a Sundanese bendho but that would be the Javanese name ... Sundanese prefer goloks. The goloks of Ciwedei are of superior quality to most bendho made in Java. Goloks have important martial usage as well.