Info Needed On Tombak

[A. G. Maisey]

Here are some images of tombak.

The pic showing a number of tombak mounted in 'stel golok' is a display in the Museum Radya Pustaka in Solo.

The tombak shown mounted on long shafts is a display in the Keris Museum in Solo.

In Javanese culture a tombak can have equal, or even greater importance as a pusaka than a keris. Many royal pusakas are tombak.

When tombak were actually used as weapons a shaft could be up to 4 or 5 meters in length, usual length for a levy was around 2 meters, only skilled specialists used the longer shafts, very often for no more than crowd control.

Tombak have been mounted as daggers for probably as long as there have been tombak. An ordinary man who could have been expected to be called up for duty by his lord in times of war would often remove the blade from his spear and mount it as a dagger for peacetime use. When called up for duty he would remount it as a spear or lance.

For about the last 100 years or so, alterations in ceiling heights and room sizes have seen many, if not most Javanese people who have pusaka tombak, remount those tombak on short display shafts or in stel golok, as a dagger.

It must be remembered that just as with keris, for a Javanese person it is only the blade that has spiritual value or as pusaka, or for any other cultural reason. Shafts, scabbards, hilts are no more than dress that is changed according to societal needs or personal preference.

However, the blade only has spiritual value when it is of metal. Many poor people when called upon to perform levy duty for their lord would simply cut a length of bambu and slice an angled point on it. The Den Pasar Museum has just such a bambu tombak on display.

PS --- lousy pics, sorry, taken on the run with a P&S. The Radya Pustaka is one of those museum where they lend you a white cane as you enter, and both these museums are so full of reflections that it is virtually impossible to take decent shots with a camera that is unsupported by other equipment.