A sword design theory (Phil., Indonesia, & Malaysia)

[migueldiaz]

I mentioned earlier that I'll post something about this, especially after the travels in the last couple of years. I still owe 'A very old kris' some replies, but please allow me to get this long overdue thread out of the way first!

So here's the key point -- religion and religious beliefs play a very significant role in the development of the design and concept of all arts and crafts of any group of people. For instance in Christianity the cross would be the predominant design motif, for reasons most of us are familiar with (and as illustrated below).

The slide below by the way (which I'm recycling from an earlier presentation) says, Beliefs + Religion = Design [of arts & crafts, etc.].

[migueldiaz]

Now there are many religions that came to insular (archipelagic) Southeast Asia (i.e., Philippines, Malaysia, & Indonesia). But the longest and most pervasive of them all is the Austronesian religion. And we will come to that very shortly.

Please disregard by the way the 1588 and 1913 dates in the slide. Those have relevance to Phil. history only. The main thing is that since 6,000 years ago or even earlier, the Austronesian religion had taken roots already in our region (insular SEA). And it is still very much alive today, beneath the veneer that is Hinduism, or Islam, or Christianity.

[migueldiaz]

So here's the essence of the Austronesian religion (below). It's a belief that the cosmos is tripartite: the Upperworld, the earth, and the Underworld.

The Upperworld is often symbolized by the sun or the bird or sometimes by fire. The bird is an obvious choice for the ancient Austronesians because of all creatures, they are the only ones that can go back and forth between the heavens and the earth.

The Underworld's typical icon on the other hand is the snake/serpent/naga. But sometimes, the turtle, croc, fish, etc. are also used.

Here's a related article (when clicked, the article will download). The article is Beast, Bird, and Fish: An Essay in South-East Asian Symbolism, by Lorenz G. Löffler. But as far as illustration goes, Bernard Sellato's The Hornbill and the Dragon is perhaps the best.

[migueldiaz]

In one of our local museums (Ayala Museum), there is an illustration of a Kalimantan woodcut (pic is below). I've reproduced also below the caption on the same.

Please note that the Austronesian concept of the tripartite cosmos (and their attendant symbols or gods), of course predates the region's contact with Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.

And the establishment of the above via linguistics as noted is very important. Because whereas finding archeological proofs is a hit-or-miss thing sometimes, linguistic evidence tends to be more robust and more traceable over time.

The other thing worth noting is that the Austronesian tripartite view of the cosmos finds itself in the design of many things. In the example below, we can see that our traditional house-on-stilts is actually a mirror of how our forefathers viewed the universe.

For instance, in the traditional Igorot houses the carved wooden deities (bulul) would be found on the attic of the houses, given that the attic represents the Upperworld. I think the exhumed bones of departed ancestors are also kept there.

Finally, I'd just like to point out that the veneration of the serpent, sun, bird, etc. are not exclusive to Austronesians, as we also all know.

Additional illustrations to follow ...

[Spunjer]

So here's the essence of the Austronesian religion (below). It's a belief that the cosmos is tripartite: the Upperworld, the earth, and the Underworld. The Upperworld is often symbolized by the sun or the bird or sometimes by fire.
The bird is an obvious choice for the ancient Austronesians because of all creatures, they are the only ones that can go back and forth between the heavens and the earth. The Underworld's typical icon on the other hand is the snake/serpent/naga. But sometimes, the turtle, croc, fish, etc. are also used.

interesting topic, lorenz!

if you don't mind, here's a little (if not, neat) theory:
let's look at a typical Moro Kris. i rhink my diagram can explain it better:

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

interesting topic, lorenz! if you don't mind, here's a little (if not, neat) theory: let's look at a typical Moro Kris. i rhink my diagram can explain it better:

ron, your laser-guided munition surely hit the target right on the money! thanks for that excellent example.

and i do hope that our malaysian and indonesian brethren in this forum will also comment and contribute any info they may want to share. well, anybody and everybody are most welcome to contribute or comment or question anything in this thread for sure!

ok, in the austronesian cosmos, the underworld is also equated with the waters (rivers, lakes, & seas). that's why aside from land snakes -- crocs, fishes, turtles, crabs, & other sea creatures are also regarded as reps of the underworld.

and closer to home, the mythical visayan sea-serpent, the bakunawa was surely an underworld deity as far as our forefathers are concerned.

to recap, it should come as no surprise then that austronesian boats would often have serpents or dragons or reptiles in their design motif:

- for the korakora/karakoa for instance, the carving of a serpent's head would usually be on the boat's prow

- a similar philippine fighting ship of old, the joangan [pronounced who-WAH-ngan], would also use the serpent for bow design, as can be seen in the illustration below from alcina's monumental 1668 treatise on the visayans

- as can be expected, the tagalogs of luzon in northern philippines did the same thing: in the excerpt below from san buenaventura's excellent 1613 spanish-tagalog dictionary, we can see that the typical balangai (a big boat of old used throughout the philippines) also used the naga for the prow's design -- cabeza [spanish for head] is naga in tagalog, and was defined as the serpent in the bow of a ship (spanish: 'de sierpe en la proa del navio'); and the example of usage, 'nagaan mo ang balangay' [tagalog] also below means, 'put the naga [in the bow or prow] of the balangay [boat]'.

long story short: underworld = serpent = naga => boat motif -- perhaps given the belief that the naga would make the perfect patron saint of sorts for seagoing vessels.

finally going back to ron's example above, in a kris (or keris), the thing in the scabbard where the blade (i.e., the naga) enters is sometimes shaped like a boat ... a mere coincidence? i don't think so!

p.s. - here's where linguistics can come to the rescue. i think in indonesian that part of the scabbard i referred to above is called warangka. now in the austronesian world, the other local terms for boat are wangka/ bangka/ wa'a/ va'a. thus perhaps warangka is a cognate of wangka/bangka after all ... hope somebody can check this out.