An introductory video on how the Balinese Kris tradition was revived

milandro · 28th April 2022, 01:55 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFLZvveYGI

I found this video on how the Balinese Kris making tradition was revived or at least how this was narrated in the interpretation offered by the honorable Jero Mangku Pande Ketut Mudra , Master Swordsmith .

I hope this video wasn’t published before but forgive me if it was, I did my best to search that it wasn’t.

I think it would be very nice for everyone to watch especially those, like me, are novices at the kris.

Naturally, as everything else, there will be criticism. But again, I believe the advantages of the video form are many at least for those whom have time and patience to go through the video, the others probably won’t even open this thread and that’s good too.

It would be ever so nice if the videos could be embedded in the posts here but this v bulletin forum software, probably, cannot support this publishing form.

Anthony G. · 28th April 2022, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milandro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFLZvveYGI

I found this video on how the Balinese Kris making tradition was revived or at least how this was narrated in the interpretation offered by the honorable Jero Mangku Pande Ketut Mudra , Master Swordsmith .

I hope this video wasn’t published before but forgive me if it was, I did my best to search that it wasn’t.

I think it would be very nice for everyone to watch especially those, like me, are novices at the kris.

Naturally, as everything else, there will be criticism. But again, I believe the advantages of the video form are many at least for those whom have time and patience to go through the video, the others probably won’t even open this thread and that’s good too.

It would be ever so nice if the videos could be embedded in the posts here but this v bulletin forum software, probably, cannot support this publishing form.

This video was on youtube for sometime already. It is also shared in my keris group at FaceBook (FB).

Nice video and do watch at 7:12 min, he is holding my keris.

milandro · 28th April 2022, 05:30 PM

that’s nice to know and see Anthony.

What I get from this video is that each one can or may live his or her spirituality or meaning of the kris their own way, the kris is done for good things but it is ultimately the bearer ( I carefully avoided the term “ owner” ) to give the kris his nature.

I find very nice the notion that the art was lost but that it survived if not as skill but as mission in the bloodline of the Pande.

In my mind we all are our ancestors and they survive within us.

Metals were the first artifacts which allowed mankind to shape matter into something different. However one sees (it is in my mind a personal thing) it, this is the first act of transmutation known to mankind (although some cultures see pottery in the same way). Including forms and shapes in the metal increased its mystical form and gave it more meanings. Ultimately one develops his own way to live the kris experience.

David · 28th April 2022, 11:30 PM

Interesting video. Not a great deal of information though and some questionable "facts". For instance, as far ad i know there were quite a lot of keris made in Bali during the Dutch colonial period. So i am a bit confused by the assertion that keris were not made there during that time.

A. G. Maisey · 29th April 2022, 12:16 AM

In 1982 --- or maybe 1983 --- I visited Mangku Pande Made Wija near Klungkung. He was Pande Ketut Mudra's father.

When I visited Pande Made Wija, Pande Ketut was assisting his father in forge work. The forge was very traditional, a hollow in the ground, side blown by ububan. Pande Made Wija's principal work was the making of the small axes used in ceremonies.

Some time before my visit, Pande Made had been visited by Dietrich Drescher, who had learned that Pande Made Wija was descended from a line of pandes who had served the Klungkung Puri (Balinese equivalent of "kraton"), and Mr Drescher placed an order with Pande Made as an attempt to encourage him to make keris again.

At that time I had had some sporadic correspondence with Mr. Drescher and he requested me find out from Pande Made if the keris he had ordered was completed. It was and I duly advised Mr. Drescher of this.

I think there might be one or two more keris made by Pande Made Wija in the Neka Museum in Ubud. However, to the best of my knowledge Pande Made Wija did not become a prolific maker of keris.

Pande Ketut Mudra, who is Pande Made Wija's son, works from a fully equipped forge and produces keris and other traditional Balinese knives. He is very approachable, he always has some of his work for sale, and he welcomes visitors.

He will accept orders for non-sacred keris, but he will only make an empowered keris for a pura (temple), at least, this is what he told me in 2016. I had met him when I visited his father outside of Klungkung, and when I visited him again in 2016 he remembered me immediately, which I thought was pretty remarkable.

The idea that a keris can become what its custodian wants it to become cannot be understood in the words used to present this idea. To understand this idea one does not need to understand the words, but rather to understand polite Balinese society.

A. G. Maisey · 29th April 2022, 12:21 AM

David, it is never very useful to try to understand what Javanese & Balinese people are actually saying by simply listening to the words and attaching dictionary meanings to those words.

The message in many spoken or written messages can be very different to the message that one might think the words carry.

In conversation, face to face, body language will tell you a lot more than the spoken words.

Anthony G. · 29th April 2022, 01:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by milandro

that’s nice to know and see Anthony.

What I get from this video is that each one can or may live his or her spirituality or meaning of the kris their own way, the kris is done for good things but it is ultimately the bearer ( I carefully avoided the term “ owner” ) to give the kris his nature.

I find very nice the notion that the art was lost but that it survived if not as skill but as mission in the bloodline of the Pande.

In my mind we all are our ancestors and they survive within us.

Metals were the first artifacts which allowed mankind to shape matter into something different. However one sees (it is in my mind a personal thing) it, this is the first act of transmutation known to mankind (although some cultures see pottery in the same way). Including forms and shapes in the metal increased its mystical form and gave it more meanings. Ultimately one develops his own way to live the kris experience.

Hi there,

Awesome comments.

Nowadays many young Balinese are learning and making keris to earn a living as well as to continue their Balinese keris culture. I found it awesome.

These are a few favorite Balinese keris culture video on youtube. Hope this forum members like it.

https://youtu.be/QOoo1uRZ5tM

https://youtu.be/Jpmj-ExY5Gw

jagabuwana · 29th April 2022, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

The idea that a keris can become what its custodian wants it to become cannot be understood in the words used to present this idea. To understand this idea one does not need to understand the words, but rather to understand polite Balinese society.

This is a point that has been subtly raised on more than one occasion in this forum. I can't speak for others, but at least for me, when I really understood it it was quite poignant.

The keris is a pretty special thing, and it has clearly attracted and moved us all in some way. But we do not all have a claim to what it really is and the function it really serves, for the people it was made for, and from those who hold the right position in these societies to make them. We can only reach a point, do our best to observe and appreciate, and recognise the limits and boundaries.

milandro · 29th April 2022, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anthony G.

These are a few favorite Balinese keris culture video on youtube. Hope this forum members like it.

https://youtu.be/QOoo1uRZ5tM

https://youtu.be/Jpmj-ExY5Gw

I have ben watching these videos and especially the second (which continues in another video) impressed me, not quite so much for the technical aspects of forging any kris as for the story of this healing kris made to purpose for this person whom went to great lengths and a complex journey to arrive to acquire this kris.

Despite being a positivist and rationalist, a part of me not only admires and has studied the relationship between the things of heaven and earth ( I am convinced that there is more to it as Hamlet suggests ) and I have felt attracted to these themes since my youth.

I arrived very late to the kris, but a part of me thinks that the kris arrived to me for a purpose. Although contradictory and difficult to combine with positivism and rationalism as it is , I just take it at face value. Certain krises are now with me, I am not so quite sure of their “ objective” quality but that is, to some extent of relative concern to me.

28th April 2022, 01:55 PM	#1
milandro Member Join Date: Jan 2022 Location: Netherlands Posts: 477	An introductory video on how the Balinese Kris tradition was revived https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFLZvveYGI I found this video on how the Balinese Kris making tradition was revived or at least how this was narrated in the interpretation offered by the honorable Jero Mangku Pande Ketut Mudra , Master Swordsmith . I hope this video wasn’t published before but forgive me if it was, I did my best to search that it wasn’t. I think it would be very nice for everyone to watch especially those, like me, are novices at the kris. Naturally, as everything else, there will be criticism. But again, I believe the advantages of the video form are many at least for those whom have time and patience to go through the video, the others probably won’t even open this thread and that’s good too. It would be ever so nice if the videos could be embedded in the posts here but this v bulletin forum software, probably, cannot support this publishing form.

28th April 2022, 05:30 PM	#3
milandro Member Join Date: Jan 2022 Location: Netherlands Posts: 477	that’s nice to know and see Anthony. What I get from this video is that each one can or may live his or her spirituality or meaning of the kris their own way, the kris is done for good things but it is ultimately the bearer ( I carefully avoided the term “ owner” ) to give the kris his nature. I find very nice the notion that the art was lost but that it survived if not as skill but as mission in the bloodline of the Pande. In my mind we all are our ancestors and they survive within us. Metals were the first artifacts which allowed mankind to shape matter into something different. However one sees (it is in my mind a personal thing) it, this is the first act of transmutation known to mankind (although some cultures see pottery in the same way). Including forms and shapes in the metal increased its mystical form and gave it more meanings. Ultimately one develops his own way to live the kris experience.

28th April 2022, 11:30 PM	#4
David Keris forum moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 7,127	Interesting video. Not a great deal of information though and some questionable "facts". For instance, as far ad i know there were quite a lot of keris made in Bali during the Dutch colonial period. So i am a bit confused by the assertion that keris were not made there during that time.

29th April 2022, 12:16 AM	#5
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,897	In 1982 --- or maybe 1983 --- I visited Mangku Pande Made Wija near Klungkung. He was Pande Ketut Mudra's father. When I visited Pande Made Wija, Pande Ketut was assisting his father in forge work. The forge was very traditional, a hollow in the ground, side blown by ububan. Pande Made Wija's principal work was the making of the small axes used in ceremonies. Some time before my visit, Pande Made had been visited by Dietrich Drescher, who had learned that Pande Made Wija was descended from a line of pandes who had served the Klungkung Puri (Balinese equivalent of "kraton"), and Mr Drescher placed an order with Pande Made as an attempt to encourage him to make keris again. At that time I had had some sporadic correspondence with Mr. Drescher and he requested me find out from Pande Made if the keris he had ordered was completed. It was and I duly advised Mr. Drescher of this. I think there might be one or two more keris made by Pande Made Wija in the Neka Museum in Ubud. However, to the best of my knowledge Pande Made Wija did not become a prolific maker of keris. Pande Ketut Mudra, who is Pande Made Wija's son, works from a fully equipped forge and produces keris and other traditional Balinese knives. He is very approachable, he always has some of his work for sale, and he welcomes visitors. He will accept orders for non-sacred keris, but he will only make an empowered keris for a pura (temple), at least, this is what he told me in 2016. I had met him when I visited his father outside of Klungkung, and when I visited him again in 2016 he remembered me immediately, which I thought was pretty remarkable. The idea that a keris can become what its custodian wants it to become cannot be understood in the words used to present this idea. To understand this idea one does not need to understand the words, but rather to understand polite Balinese society.

29th April 2022, 12:21 AM	#6
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,897	David, it is never very useful to try to understand what Javanese & Balinese people are actually saying by simply listening to the words and attaching dictionary meanings to those words. The message in many spoken or written messages can be very different to the message that one might think the words carry. In conversation, face to face, body language will tell you a lot more than the spoken words.