The future of the keris

[Jussi M.]

Greetings,

It has been said that in order to understand the present one must first understand the past that has led to the present state of affairs. Well, as I am both lazy and ignorant ( ) I mind as well skip that part as I am interested on the future. - My question then is:

What do you consider will happen to the culture, art and science of the keris in the next 30 years of time?

The assumption is that things will proceed more or less as they do at the moment.

Thanks,

J

[fearn]

I don't normally post here, but I like predictions, so here are mine, good and bad:

1. Someone (China?) will figure out how to fake pamor or make large amounts cheaply, and flood the market with cheap keris.

2. In some security conscious places, non-functional keris will become the predominant form. Alternatively, locking sheaths will develop for those who want to keep their blades.

3. An ex-pat Indonesian community (perhaps in Australia) will support an empu to make local keris, and a new keris tradition will develop, using local materials and new shapes.

4. Some materials (especially from CITES species such as elephants) will largely disappear from keris manufacture. So will wood from old-growth forests.

5. New materials will show up, as the materials revolution continues. Some will be adopted, especially to replace things that are no longer available (such as ivory).

6. Biotechnology and advances in isotopic chemistry will allow keris owners to cheaply authenticate their antique keris as antiques, and to store that information in a way that travels with the keris. Antique keris, particularly those made of materials like ivory, will re-enter the international trade.

7. Someone will work to keep the old ways alive.

My 0.00000000000000002 cents,

F

[Alam Shah]

Hi all... here are mine... with a large dose of salt.

1. Already happening, but not from China... (or not yet).

2. I've already seen these non-functional keris, in wedding ceremonies and elsewhere. Hmmm... locking sheaths(?), wonder how these would look like / work. Current method, use a piece of cloth to ties across the sheath's cross-section. I've seen glued ones, too.

3. Well, I guess this might be a no brainer, but...

4. Hmmm... not in the near future, but good quality traditional wood are getting scarce.

5. Yes, many ivory-looking imitation are in use.

6. Microchip embedded?

7. Which old way... (?), currently there are many efforts on the way. The problems is, lots of old info are lost through the ages...

Just my opinion.

[A. G. Maisey]

During the last 1000 years at least, the dominant culture in maritime S.E. Asia has been Javanese culture.

The birthplace of the keris is Jawa, and it has always been Jawa that has acted as the prime mover in keris culture.

Javanese culture is at the present time the dominant culture of the Indonesian nation.

To predict the future of the keris, one would need first to predict the future of Indonesia, both economically and socially, and then hypothesise upon the effect that changes in these related spheres could have upon traditional Javanese culture.

If one could do this, application of such wisdom to business matters could result in significant wealth.

I lack the necessary knowledge and wisdom to be able to carry out this type of prediction with any reasonable hope of accuracy.

[fearn]

Hi Alam Shah,

Let me tell you a story that might even be true: Johannes Kepler, one of the fathers of astronomy, worked as an astrologer (in large part because astronomy didn't exist as a separate field). At one point, he wrote a detailed description of the coming year, based on astrology. It was pretty accurate, given the origin. His prediction? The coming year will be quite similar to the current year. Oddly enough, he was mostly right.

Anyway, I figured that I can but imitate the greats, in a small way...

As you noted, most of these trends are in place, except (interestingly) for the ex pat empus, and this may simply be my ignorance showing. Personally, I think it would be interesting for an Aussie smith to make a keris-shaped object (perhaps even a keris) with a kookaburra-shaped hilt, opals in the selut, a kangaroo tail in the ricikan...or whatever. It's doable, although whether it's worth doing is another question.


F