A gamble, your opinion?

[A. G. Maisey]

Dan, I don't claim my position on this to be the "right" position, but it is my position, and one that I learnt from those who have taught me.

These Javanese people who taught me much of what I know would no more think of displaying a personal keris to the entire world than they would think of sprouting wings and flying. You put something on the net and it is there for the entire world to see.

A personal keris is something very close to one's own personality,one's own inner self, in Javanese culture and society it symbolises its owner. There is no secret about this. Its not select knowledge, everybody knows it, even most western collectors. Given that this is so, how can it be proper to display one's personal keris for unknown people to gaze upon?

But my background and education in keris is a little bit different to that of most people. Most collectors, even present day Javanese collectors consider the keris that they keep as objects, perhaps art objects, perhaps esoteric objects, perhaps objects that represent wealth or prestige, but very rarely as extensions of themselves. Thus, for people who look at keris in this way there is clearly nothing wrong with showing everybody what they have.

Its just a bit of a difference in attitude:- if people wish to display their keris for all the world to see, by all means, go ahead and do so. But don't ask me to follow.