PALEMBANG HILT AND KERIS

[Jean]

Originally Posted by ganjawulung

Dear Jean,

Among local people in Sumatra -- especially the Southern part of Sumatra -- there is no mention of such keris hilt as "durga hilt". You may traced yourself this fact there. It seems, the keris term of "durga hilt" comes from the West, from the author of articles and books on keris, Martin Kerner.

Among the keris people in Sumatra, whether it's in Palembang or other parts of southern Sumatra, they call this type of keris hilt as "putri malu" (shy princess). Is there a consensus, to refer to this type of Lampung hilt? Maybe so. Although there is also a kind of "putri malu" (with different body shapes canting), known also as the keris hilt from Lahat, which borders the region of Bengkulu in the south western coast.

Clearly, if you look through the history of Sumatra, the most southern region of Sumatra's Lampung (old name in ancient times, Kedaton) is never separated from Palembang long history, and the history of the legendary kingdom of Sriwijaya. Traces of Sriwijaya was still being tracked.

However, the old Malay inscriptions have been found there, in Lampung. Yet, many of its languages ​​are not Malayan languages, but Lampungic comprise the group.

Ganjawulung

Pak Ganja,
Thanks for your reply. Other Western authors such as Karsten S. Jensen also attribute this type of hilt to Durga but he refers to Martin Kerner indeed (see book Keris-Griffe/ Museum Rietberg Zurich page 60).
Vanna Ghiringhelli attributes the origin of this hilt to Bengkulu but there may be various types indeed. Anyway let us adopt the name putri malu which seems more adequate!
Best regards