The future of the keris

Alam Shah · 19th June 2008, 03:02 AM

Hi all... here are mine... with a large dose of salt.

1. Already happening, but not from China... (or not yet).

2. I've already seen these non-functional keris, in wedding ceremonies and elsewhere. Hmmm... locking sheaths(?), wonder how these would look like / work. Current method, use a piece of cloth to ties across the sheath's cross-section. I've seen glued ones, too.

3. Well, I guess this might be a no brainer, but...

4. Hmmm... not in the near future, but good quality traditional wood are getting scarce.

5. Yes, many ivory-looking imitation are in use.

6. Microchip embedded?

7. Which old way... (?), currently there are many efforts on the way. The problems is, lots of old info are lost through the ages...

Just my opinion.

A. G. Maisey · 19th June 2008, 05:05 AM

During the last 1000 years at least, the dominant culture in maritime S.E. Asia has been Javanese culture.

The birthplace of the keris is Jawa, and it has always been Jawa that has acted as the prime mover in keris culture.

Javanese culture is at the present time the dominant culture of the Indonesian nation.

To predict the future of the keris, one would need first to predict the future of Indonesia, both economically and socially, and then hypothesise upon the effect that changes in these related spheres could have upon traditional Javanese culture.

If one could do this, application of such wisdom to business matters could result in significant wealth.

I lack the necessary knowledge and wisdom to be able to carry out this type of prediction with any reasonable hope of accuracy.

fearn · 19th June 2008, 06:14 AM

Hi Alam Shah,

Let me tell you a story that might even be true: Johannes Kepler, one of the fathers of astronomy, worked as an astrologer (in large part because astronomy didn't exist as a separate field). At one point, he wrote a detailed description of the coming year, based on astrology. It was pretty accurate, given the origin. His prediction? The coming year will be quite similar to the current year. Oddly enough, he was mostly right.

Anyway, I figured that I can but imitate the greats, in a small way...

As you noted, most of these trends are in place, except (interestingly) for the ex pat empus, and this may simply be my ignorance showing. Personally, I think it would be interesting for an Aussie smith to make a keris-shaped object (perhaps even a keris) with a kookaburra-shaped hilt, opals in the selut, a kangaroo tail in the ricikan...or whatever. It's doable, although whether it's worth doing is another question.

F

19th June 2008, 03:02 AM	#1
Alam Shah Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Singapore Posts: 1,248	Hi all... here are mine... with a large dose of salt. 1. Already happening, but not from China... (or not yet). 2. I've already seen these non-functional keris, in wedding ceremonies and elsewhere. Hmmm... locking sheaths(?), wonder how these would look like / work. Current method, use a piece of cloth to ties across the sheath's cross-section. I've seen glued ones, too. 3. Well, I guess this might be a no brainer, but... 4. Hmmm... not in the near future, but good quality traditional wood are getting scarce. 5. Yes, many ivory-looking imitation are in use. 6. Microchip embedded? 7. Which old way... (?), currently there are many efforts on the way. The problems is, lots of old info are lost through the ages... Just my opinion.

19th June 2008, 05:05 AM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,015	During the last 1000 years at least, the dominant culture in maritime S.E. Asia has been Javanese culture. The birthplace of the keris is Jawa, and it has always been Jawa that has acted as the prime mover in keris culture. Javanese culture is at the present time the dominant culture of the Indonesian nation. To predict the future of the keris, one would need first to predict the future of Indonesia, both economically and socially, and then hypothesise upon the effect that changes in these related spheres could have upon traditional Javanese culture. If one could do this, application of such wisdom to business matters could result in significant wealth. I lack the necessary knowledge and wisdom to be able to carry out this type of prediction with any reasonable hope of accuracy.

19th June 2008, 06:14 AM	#3
fearn Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 1,247	Hi Alam Shah, Let me tell you a story that might even be true: Johannes Kepler, one of the fathers of astronomy, worked as an astrologer (in large part because astronomy didn't exist as a separate field). At one point, he wrote a detailed description of the coming year, based on astrology. It was pretty accurate, given the origin. His prediction? The coming year will be quite similar to the current year. Oddly enough, he was mostly right. Anyway, I figured that I can but imitate the greats, in a small way... As you noted, most of these trends are in place, except (interestingly) for the ex pat empus, and this may simply be my ignorance showing. Personally, I think it would be interesting for an Aussie smith to make a keris-shaped object (perhaps even a keris) with a kookaburra-shaped hilt, opals in the selut, a kangaroo tail in the ricikan...or whatever. It's doable, although whether it's worth doing is another question. F