All very interesting, Ganja, but it does not answer the question.
What is the meaning of "tambangan Badung"?
We know that in Javanese "tambang" is a big, thick, heavy rope---I can see a distinct relationship between this and this pamor name.
We also know that "tambang" can mean a mine.
Add "an" and get "tambangan", and we have a ferry.
Then there's "Badung".
Is it a reference to the old South Bali Kingdom, or does "badung" have a separate meaning in Sasak?
Anybody understand Sasak?
Your suggestion of linking the Javanese name to an historical incident may have some merit, but I very much doubt that your search will be successful.
However, there could be a logical link between this pamor and keris failure in a use situation. The method of manufacture---without a core--- means that you have a series of weld joints along the length of the blade, where the bar has been twisted, and then forged flat.This will create an inherrently weaker blade than one made with a core, or even with an inserted edge.
I agree with you that Javanese people relate their opinions to reality, as does the bulk of mankind.
But they also relate their opinions, and their life philosophies to superstition and the animist foundations of the culture. Again, not unlike the rural societies of Europe until comparatively recently. If the weft of Javanese society is reality, then the warp is traditional belief.
In the Javanese case this situation is complicated further by the fact that Javanese is not a standard language. It is a vehicle of communication that is subjected by its users to individual idiosyncratic manipulation.A number of researchers have commented on the propensity of speakers of Javanese to play with the language as if it were a personal possession.Further, it is a language that in its common form (ngoko) is remarkably unsuited to written transmission.
If I look at an example of pamor buntel mayat, and I wish to name that pamor, with no preknowledge of what it may be called, and I wish to use the Javanese language to name it, what choices of names do I have?
The one name that must stand above any other possible choices is "slanted wrapping"---"buntel mayat".This is an accurate physical description of the motif.
Now, how long will it be in a society where people habitually play with words, before "mayat" becomes "mayit"?
Factor in the intensification of Kejawen philosophies and the growth of the modern Javanese keris belief system since the first half of the 19th century, and it would probably be surprising if "mayat" did not morph into "mayit".
Another good choice for a name would include a rope reference---as in dadung muntir---but a big, thick, heavy rope, like a hawser, a tambang.
The word "mayit" does not seem to occur in Old Javanese.
The word "mayat" is reported by one authority as occurring in Old Javanese, but not by Zoetmulder, and its meaning is different to its meaning in Modern Javanese.
The word "buntel" does not occur in Old Javanese.
The word "tambang" does occur in Old Javanese and it carries the same meaning as in Modern Javanese.
If keris technology was transported to Lombok prior to about 1600, this pamor motif would have been named in Old Javanese, not Modern Javanese.
The Modern Javanese language did not develop until after the House of Mataram assumed power in Central Jawa, late 16th. century.
Prior to the emergence of the Modern Javanese language the name of the pamor motif "buntel mayat" could not have been "buntel mayat".
Is it possible that in the name used for this pamor motif in Lombok, we are seeing a reflection of the original Javanese name?
Or, did this pamor motif not appear until the Modern Javanese language was already established?
If this is so, then when did the pamor motif enter Bali/Lombok? Most certainly not with the original transference of keris technology.
Anybody out there understand Sasak?
|