Kalis / Kris / Keris Sundang / Solot / Sulok / Suluk:

[Ian]

Originally Posted by ariel

And I thought that the fight for the name “Karud” was diabolically intense:-))))))

Ariel:

This thread will simmer for years and could well end up with hundreds of posts! The kar'd was just one weapon style. Ron has opened up both kris and barung for discussion, and we have not even started on barung yet.

You will notice some discussion of the term sarimanok here (interpreted as "beautiful bird"). That discussion extended into its own thread, which has indeed been a spirited debate. Ron has proposed that sarimanok actually refers to a mythical chicken/rooster that appears in the folk lore of the Maranao people of Mindanao, and by extension concludes that what Cato described as a kakatua pommel on kris and barung is actually a depiction of the mythical sarimanok. The term manok is widely used in the Philippines to refer specifically to a chicken. However, if we use the more generic translation of sarimanok as meaning beautiful bird, then the bird in question could be a kakatua. And so the beat goes on!

Ian.