Bugis or Sumatran?

[David]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Thank you gents!

BTW, have found the thread, by the classics!

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...+keris+comment

Regards,
Detlef

Glad you found the thread. Dave is certainly a great source of information about these keris, though you can read there that even he admits to some confusion at times.
It seems to me that part of the confusion comes from defining exactly what we mean when we ask about the origin of any keris. Are we talking about the over all package, just the dress or just the blade? Certainly many of the blades shown in that thread are in Bugis dress, but with blades that are clearly not Bugis. So do we call that a Bugis keris regardless of the origin of the blade? If it was carried by an ethnic Bugis i would imagine so.
Another confusion arises over what we mean when we ask is something is Bugis. Bugis from the origin of the Bugis people or do we mean culturally Bugis, which can mean it was made in any number of places. So again, i have to say that your original question, is this keris Bugis or Sumatran, doesn't really make sense to me. There are Bugis people all over the archipelago, as i am sure you know. Frankly, while i can certainly identify both your blade and the dress as Bugis i am hard pressed to determine if either are Sulawesi Bugis or Sumatran Bugis. But i would say that it is certainly a Bugis keris.