Bringing Keris with you to Indonesia and back

[A. G. Maisey]

There is most definitely an enforceable legal procedure that should be employed in every case where cultural property is to be removed from Indonesia.

Keris & other items of tosan aji are cultural property.

Whether the requirements under the law are enforced or not is a separate matter.

The circumstances that surround each individual case of attempted removal of cultural objects from Indonesia are the elements that determine whether removal can occur without difficulty, or whether attempted removal will result in more difficulty than any reasonable person could desire.

It might help to think of the matter in the same way that we can think of exceeding the speed limit when we are driving a vehicle. Most of the time we can probably get away with it, but sometimes we get caught, after we get caught, sometimes we get fined, sometimes we might not get fined. The determining factors are the circumstances that apply at the time we were breaking the law, the personalities involved, and our own attitude.