Bugis or Sumatran?

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by David

Glad you found the thread. Dave is certainly a great source of information about these keris, though you can read there that even he admits to some confusion at times.
It seems to me that part of the confusion comes from defining exactly what we mean when we ask about the origin of any keris. Are we talking about the over all package, just the dress or just the blade? Certainly many of the blades shown in that thread are in Bugis dress, but with blades that are clearly not Bugis. So do we call that a Bugis keris regardless of the origin of the blade? If it was carried by an ethnic Bugis i would imagine so.
Another confusion arises over what we mean when we ask is something is Bugis. Bugis from the origin of the Bugis people or do we mean culturally Bugis, which can mean it was made in any number of places. So again, i have to say that your original question, is this keris Bugis or Sumatran, doesn't really make sense to me. There are Bugis people all over the archipelago, as i am sure you know. Frankly, while i can certainly identify both your blade and the dress as Bugis i am hard pressed to determine if either are Sulawesi Bugis or Sumatran Bugis. But i would say that it is certainly a Bugis keris.

Hello David,

Sorry that my question was worded inaccurately, I vow to get better!
We generally have this problem with many keris which are shown here. Is a Java blade in a Bali dress a Java keris or a Balinese? Is a Central Javanese in a Madura/East Java dress Central or East Javanese, we have seen this many times. I think it's the complete package when we classify keris with a description where the blade may have its origin.
But apparently all the people who contributed to this thread understand what I want to know!
And when you reread the classic thread you will find that Bugis influenced coastal Sumatra keris dresses differ from "pure" Bugis keris dresses.I just was a little bit unsure where the keris in question may have its origin.

Regards,
Detlef