Modern keris bethok

[Rick]

Originally Posted by milandro

About the so called " river findings ", I find they are astonishing obvious fakes, made on purpose to deceive ( but I really don't know who they are deceiving). To me they are like " relic" guitars or cameras made with pre worn-out accents or new hats with burned or soiled bits to pretend and use and age that they don't have. I don't understand it or netter, I do not comprehend it (there is , in my mind a different , I may understand something as something that happens outside me, comprehend involves me " including a concept" within me.

I have the same trouble that you have Milandro. In the West we buy pre-distressed blue jeans, leather jackets and such which are worn in public as some kind of fashion statement for other people to see.
A keris is a private thing to own and not to wear in public to impress.
Gustav has shown us hundreds of new kerises going through the process of artificial aging. I run headlong into the problem for me as a westerner believing that Indonesian peoples are NOT aware of the fact that a vast majority of these ancient keris are not ancient and have been made to deceive. There is no magick or internal spirit (isi?) in these pieces of artificially decaying metal.
I'd like to be able to understand the cultural importance of these counterfeit Tosan Aji.