Bitten by the Keris Bug

[David]

Originally Posted by kai

You're showing the pekaka hilt which is a more northern Malay type, again a variant of the JD form.
The anak ayam teleng type is quite typical for Terengganu though.

Of course! My bad! You are, of course, correct. Too many names in my head right now.
However, that said, i have quite often seen the pekaka hilt on Terengganu keris as well, so i think either would work and the hilt which is the keris is currently dressed with works just fine as well even if it is not of the highest quality carving.
I suppose this part of the discussion and my reason for thinking about the pekaka hilts to begin with was Henk describing a good Bugis hilt as more a pistol grip. Bugis culture is spread all across the area and the appropriate hilt for any particular Bugis keris will depend upon the specific area where it originates. It will not always be only the pistol grip form i believe Henk is referring to.

[Laowang]

David, I'm in complete agreement that a pekaka hilt would also have been appropriate for this keris; I have at least one Bugis-style keris in Terengganu dress with a pekaka hilt. Furthermore, I completely agree that a Bugis-style keris does not require a kerdas pistol-grip hilt; the hilt often varies depending on the location.

My thought with this particular keris is that someone did a reasonably decent job of dressing it in a manner appropriate to the blade, so why bother mixing & matching in an attempt to produce a more "correct" ensemble, given that the anak ayam teleng hilt is appropriate.

[David]

Originally Posted by Laowang

David, I'm in complete agreement that a pekaka hilt would also have been appropriate for this keris; I have at least one Bugis-style keris in Terengganu dress with a pekaka hilt. Furthermore, I completely agree that a Bugis-style keris does not require a kerdas pistol-grip hilt; the hilt often varies depending on the location.

My thought with this particular keris is that someone did a reasonably decent job of dressing it in a manner appropriate to the blade, so why bother mixing & matching in an attempt to produce a more "correct" ensemble, given that the anak ayam teleng hilt is appropriate.

Yep, my feeling as well...

[A. G. Maisey]

I usually do not engage in discussion of this type of keris, I won't go into the specific reasons for this, sufficient for me to say that these keris are not directly relevant my area of study.

However, before my focus became as narrow as it presently is, I read all the usual books, and truth be told, I still read material related to these keris, its just that it doesn't interest me much. But odd bits and pieces stick in my mind.

As I write, I'm looking at Kai's post # 20, where he names the hilt style in David's post
#14 as "pekaka".

Kai, may I most respectfully enquire as to your source for this naming?

Frankly, I do not know a name for this style that I can claim to be accurate, what I do know is this:-

1) Gardner, published in 1936 called this style "Jawa Demam, Northern type".

The style that we now know as "Tajong" he named as "Pekakak".
He explains that because of the resemblance of this Pekakak hilt form to a kingfisher, people called it a Kingfisher hilt:- "pekakak" means "kingfisher".

Bear in mind, Gardner was a Britain working in Old Malaya he was reporting what the people he had contact with called things, not what western world collectors called things, so it is reasonable to assume that in pre-WWII Malaya, Malay people called the Tajong hilt a Pekakak hilt. He mentions that this Pekakak form is a Pattani style of hilt.

I rather feel that if we investigate further, we will find that the name of the keris style is Tajong, the name of the hilt is Pekaka, or Pekakak. In Malay language "Pekaka" has the same meaning as "Pekakak", spoken they both sound almost the same, especially to a non-native speaker, as the final "k" in "Pekakak" is a glottal stop.

I don't think Gardner mentions the Coteng hilt, but in my experience collectors of the unenlightened past also called this a Pekakak hilt, or kingfisher hilt, only acknowledging that it was different style of the same form.

2) Stone, published 1934 calls keris fitted with both Coteng hilts and Tajong hilts, "Kingfisher Keris", he theorises that this hilt is a representation of Garuda.

3) Mr. Jensen in his "Krisdisc" (2007) names the hilt form shown by David in post # 14 as "Northern type of Jawa Demam, called perkaka Pattani". The word "perkaka" does not exist in Malay, so I think we can safely assume that Mr. Jensen means "pekaka", ie "---pekaka Pattani---".

It should be noted that although Mr. Jensen names the pistol grip form of Bugis hilt as the "panghulu type", "panghulu", or "pangulu" actually means "hilt", "panghulu" is not the name of a form or type or style.

The name of this pistol grip form of Bugis hilt is "Rekko". (Ahmad Ubbe, 2011)

4) Ahmad Ubbe (Senjata Pusaka Bugis, 2011) names the hilt form shown by David in post #14 as "Sikori", and the pistol grip Bugis form as "Rekko".

Things really do start to get complicated when we try to use names in difficult foreign languages.

So, Kai, may respectfully request your source for the name you have used:- " pekaka" ?

I ask this because you appear to have access to a source that I do not know.

[kai]

Hello Alan,

Thanks for bringing this up!

I've based my usage on northern Malay keris enthusiasts (as has Jensen, so his treatise is well worth noting since there are hardly any recent publications on keris Melayu). The most authoritative source that springs to mind would be "Spirit of Wood" (Noor & Khoo, 2003): "Since the 1930s, the tajong has often been confused with the perkaka. This error can be traced back to G. B. Gardner, who referred to a tajong as a pekakak in his book. The true perkaka evolved from the jawa demam, with a larger and straighter beak as illustrated on page 133, ..." [p. 121; based on the research of Nik Rashiddin Nik Hussein and Norhaiza Noordin].

It is quite easy to see that the tajong hilt is not based on a mere bird but rather relates to demonic figural hilts of pre-Islamic origin (arms & feet, mouth with teeth and fangs, full attire including a stylized garuda mungkur on the back of the head, etc.); the same might be argued for the ancestral JD hilt though...

This early error regarding kingfisher hilts is understandable since the tajong hilt does resemble SEA kingfisher birds with broad beak quite a bit whereas the pe(r)kaka is more stylized. BTW, I assume perkaka to be a northern Malay spelling variant of pekaka - can anybody here confirm whether this is based on local pronunciation?

Regards,
Kai

[David]

We have had a discussion about these names before in this thread for some more reference.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ghlight=tajong

[kai]

Hello Alan,

4) Ahmad Ubbe (Senjata Pusaka Bugis, 2011) names the hilt form shown by David in post #14 as "Sikori", and the pistol grip Bugis form as "Rekko".

Rekko [Bugi] = kerdas [Malay]
Sikori [Bugi] = jawa demam (standard version) [Malay]

AFAIK, there is no Bugi name for the N Malay pe(r)kaka variant of the JD hilt since this hilt type seems not to be utilized in Sulawesi.

Regards,
Kai

[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks for that clarification Kai, and thanks for the link to the old thread David.

So your "pekaka" in Post #20 was just a typo, Kai? It was that typo that roused my curiosity.

I've just had a look at "Spirit of Wood" --- great book. It seems that the authors consistently refer to the entire keris as "Keris Tajong", P120:-

"The most important keris form to originate in the Kelantan-Terengganu-Pattani region is the tajong."

This confirms what I suspected, and I thank you Kai for reminding me of SofW.

The word "tajong" is actually the name of a kind of fishing boat, and the form of a keris tajong scabbard is very similar to this boat, so I think we will find that the keris gains its name from the scabbard:- it is a tajong scabbard, and a tajong keris --- just like Jawa terminology:- a ladrangan wrongko, thus a ladrangan keris.

But what sort of hilt is it?

Regrettably the authors of this wonderful book do not give the hilt a name, they refer to it as "hilt, keris tajong" or "hulu keris tajong", in other words the hilt of a keris tajong, so the name tajong hilt is actually a descriptor rather than a name.

Prior to 1936 Gardner wrote this about the hilt now known as the hilt for a keris tajong:-

"The hilt developed a big head with such a long nose that it has been mistaken for a kingfisher; but it is really intended to be human, and there will often be found tiny arms clasped around the body"

It is clear that Gardner knew exactly what he was writing about, and that people in Malaya prior to 1936 did refer to this hilt as a pekakak. It is equally clear that he was familiar with the hilt now known as a perkaka but he had no name for this, he just referred to it as the Northern Type Jawa Demam.

Very clear indeed that Gardner wrote exactly what he intended to write and simply reported what he heard from people living in Malaya at that time. The Two Niks seem to think he was confused, I'm sorry , but I see no confusion.

Gardner did not suggest that the pekakak hilt form was based upon a bird, he was well aware that it was a representation in the wayang art form of a human, what he said was that it was mistaken for a kingfisher, not that it was one.

I do accept this:- at the present time the hilt previously known as the pekakak (pekaka) form is known as the hilt for a keris tajong.
In light of what I read in both SofW and Gardner as well as several Indonesian publications, I cannot justify holding an opinion that this hilt form was never known as a pekakak form in Malaya.

Similarly, I have not previously seen nor heard this Northern Jawa Demam form referred to as anything other than Jawa Demam, however, if at the present time it is believed that the correct name is "perkaka" , I do accept this as correct current terminology. However, looking at this Jawa Demam form and trying to see any resemblance to a kingfisher is totally beyond my powers of imagination.

I note that The Two Niks have used "perkaka". Although Indonesian is a form of Malay, and the two languages are mutually intelligible, I do not speak or write formal Malay, so I needed to go to several Malay dictionaries to check "perkaka". I could not find the word, so either we are looking at a printing error, or an error in the original text, or local dialect, or perhaps a newly invented word constructed to apply to this Jawa Demam hilt form.

~~~~~~~~~~~

About Bugis and Malay hilt form terms.

Again my thanks Kai, Bugis term : Malay term, yes, or course, I did not even consider this, I was thinking in strictly Bugis terms, for, as we are aware, when we speak of the Bugis people we speak of a culture , rather than a geographical location.

What you say about the "perkaka" form being absent from Bugis usage, might well be true, even though it would seem that Bugis keris do exist that use this form of hilt. I was coming to the same opinion as yourself, but there are a couple of pics of hilts in the Bugis book that look like pekaka type to me, but I'm probably wrong, because the camera angle doesn't show enough of the hilt for certainty.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I note that The Two Niks have used "perkaka". Although Indonesian is a form of Malay, and the two languages are mutually intelligible, I do not speak or write formal Malay, so I needed to go to several Malay dictionaries to check "perkaka". I could not find the word, so either we are looking at a printing error, or an error in the original text, or local dialect, or perhaps a newly invented word constructed to apply to this Jawa Demam hilt form.

Well, the Google translator (perhaps not the best source) translates "perkaka" as "the appliance" and translates "pekaka" as "kingfishers".
Well i do find all this name game stuff interesting and while i am certainly not trying to squash that conversation i will just bring it back one more time to the actual reason we began discussing these terms in the first place. That is that the hilt which is currently on this keris, which seems a form of anak ayam teleng, is in fact perfectly correct for this ensemble and that a "Northern type of Jawa Demam", which apparently may be referred to as "pekaka" today, but which it seems may once have been the more accepted name of the hilt which seems to be erroneously called a "kingfisher" hilt (though was in most probability never intended to represent a kingfisher at all), would also be considered perfectly acceptable for a Bugis keris from the Terengganu area as well. There, that wasn't confusing in the least bit...

[kai]

Hello Alan,

So your "pekaka" in Post #20 was just a typo, Kai? It was that typo that roused my curiosity.

Not exactly a typo - Adni is still using pekaka which seems to be the accepted Malay spelling. I have not tried to research whether perkaka is a northern Malay spelling/pronunciation variant.

I've just had a look at "Spirit of Wood" --- great book. It seems that the authors consistently refer to the entire keris as "Keris Tajong", P120:-

<snip>

The word "tajong" is actually the name of a kind of fishing boat, and the form of a keris tajong scabbard is very similar to this boat, so I think we will find that the keris gains its name from the scabbard:- it is a tajong scabbard, and a tajong keris --- just like Jawa terminology:- a ladrangan wrongko, thus a ladrangan keris.

But what sort of hilt is it?

Regrettably the authors of this wonderful book do not give the hilt a name, they refer to it as "hilt, keris tajong" or "hulu keris tajong", in other words the hilt of a keris tajong, so the name tajong hilt is actually a descriptor rather than a name.

It is my understanding that the tajong hilt and name-giving tajong scabbard have to go with each other - neither the hilt nor the scabbard is complete/correct without the other.

Prior to 1936 Gardner wrote this about the hilt now known as the hilt for a keris tajong:-

"The hilt developed a big head with such a long nose that it has been mistaken for a kingfisher; but it is really intended to be human, and there will often be found tiny arms clasped around the body"

It is clear that Gardner knew exactly what he was writing about, and that people in Malaya prior to 1936 did refer to this hilt as a pekakak. It is equally clear that he was familiar with the hilt now known as a perkaka but he had no name for this, he just referred to it as the Northern Type Jawa Demam.

Very clear indeed that Gardner wrote exactly what he intended to write and simply reported what he heard from people living in Malaya at that time. The Two Niks seem to think he was confused, I'm sorry , but I see no confusion.

I agree we need to dig into this a bit more, especially since Stone also seems to go in the same direction even before Gardner - so the name seems to have been around in colonial circles.

Gardner was based in Johore which is pretty much the opposite end of Malaya as far as things Pattani/Kelantan are concerned. There might be a slim chance that his sources where local Malay who possibly mixed things up...

There is also the chance that the whole kingfisher thing is a late development/invention to cover-up the pre-Islamic origin of either hilt type.

Let's see if we can get some more input from within the culture (and also possibly more period sources).

About Bugis and Malay hilt form terms.

Again my thanks Kai, Bugis term : Malay term, yes, or course, I did not even consider this, I was thinking in strictly Bugis terms, for, as we are aware, when we speak of the Bugis people we speak of a culture , rather than a geographical location.

What you say about the "perkaka" form being absent from Bugis usage, might well be true, even though it would seem that Bugis keris do exist that use this form of hilt. I was coming to the same opinion as yourself, but there are a couple of pics of hilts in the Bugis book that look like pekaka type to me, but I'm probably wrong, because the camera angle doesn't show enough of the hilt for certainty.

None of the hilts in this book is of the northern Malay type (with its characteristic shark fin but also characteristic proportions/details).

While this JD variant is most commonly seen with northern Malay blades (especially but not limited to pandai saras blades) and the taller northern Malay scabbard variant, it also does show up with more typical keris Bugis-Melayu. I can't remember seeing it combined with fittings that seem to suggest a Bone/Gowa origin though - if you can come up with pics, this would be certainly interesting.

Regards,
Kai