Another Surakarta Keris

[A. G. Maisey]

Adeg Wengkon, according to what I was told by those who were more knowledgeable than myself, is a misnomer, in fact, Adeg Wengkon should be called Tejo Kinurung, but that is only when the line of border pamor is unbroken, if it fails to meet in the point area, then it becomes adeg tiga.

Tejo Kinurung is a pamor that was/is favoured by karaton & government employees, it is not the pamor that was given to newly appointed bupatis. However, going back a few years --- maybe twenty odd --- it was a popular belief amongst some collectors that the so-called "adeg wengkon" pamor was actually given to the bupati to protect that bupati, whilst others had the idea that the adeg was representative of the populace of the province and it was the populace that the border was protecting.

The function of a wengkon understood as a border is protective, where it encloses any other pamor, then the other pamor is read as the thing being protected, where it does not enclose another pamor then it is protecting the enclosed area of the blade which is then read as the wengkuan>wewengkon>wengko, ie, the province. The function of a bupati is the governance & protection of a province or region, so it is the line of pamor that then represents the bupati.

When a wengkon encloses a line of standing (adeg) pamor, it is enclosing and protecting against disaster, curses, black magic & so on.

When PBXII was still with us keris & tombak of exceptionally high quality were given on loan to newly appointed Bupatis, these pusakas were not often returned to the kraton upon the passing of the Bupati to whom they had been loaned, they were usually retained by his family, and then found other homes.