T H E I N D O N E S I A N A T H A M E
"Setajam-tajam pisau, masih lebih tajam lidah."
INDONESIAN PROVERB - No matter how sharp a knife is, a tongue is even sharper
INDONESIAN PROVERB - No matter how sharp a knife is, a tongue is even sharper
If you are looking for the ultimate athame get on a flight to Indonesia and ask the taxi driver to get you to the nearest Mpu (cross between a sorcerer and a blacksmith) give him lots of money wait a couple of months and voila; your own keris (pronounced chris), complete with its own guardian spirit (jinn/khodam) infused into the blade.
After the keris Sword has been created, the spirit is continually fed and gradually grows more powerful. Keris passed down within families from generation to generation gaining more power along the way. Naturally a weapon as ancient as the keris has collected innumerable legends; keris are highly protective of their owners and some are said to rattle in their scabbard at approaching danger and protect your house from intruders or fire. A great keris can balance on its tip (see pic below).
The blades of some of the most sought after keris have meteoric iron (star rock) folded into them. Nichol is also added to the iron and steel and this creates the distinctive 'pamor' patterning in the blade (not to be confused with Damascus). In order to keep the blade bright and the spirit happy the blades are ceremonially 'washed' in a corrosive mixture of red arsenic and lime juice; which cause the blade to gradually shrink and lose definition over the years. This comes in handy when dating a keris. Blades get new scabbards as they wear out and it is not unusual to find a 500-year-old blade with 10-year-old fittings. These talismanic weapons are still very much a part of life in the region; an essential element of formal traditional dress; and no bridegroom would be seen without one. But don't get the idea that they are merely symbolic. There is a very effective keris based martial art; and I found out to my cost that as the acid erosion just makes them sharper over time.
Incidentally a certain Gerald Gardiner was a world expert on the keris and wrote a seminal book on the subject. If you are serious about acquiring a keris my advice is to get on the Dutch eBay site (the Dutch are almost as crazy about the keris as the Indonesians) and buy a new one; old keris spirits can be irritable if they're treated as a commodity (it took me ages to tame mine). If you feed it regularly sooner or later it will get to trust you. The jinn spirits often feed on scent, and all you have to do is anoint it with aromatic oils or pass it through incense smoke regularly. Some need to be exposed to moonlight. Others require food offerings. You simply put the food next to the keris and leave it overnight. The spirit will absorb the energy of the food.
(An interview with an Mpu follows the pics - all enlarge)
After the keris Sword has been created, the spirit is continually fed and gradually grows more powerful. Keris passed down within families from generation to generation gaining more power along the way. Naturally a weapon as ancient as the keris has collected innumerable legends; keris are highly protective of their owners and some are said to rattle in their scabbard at approaching danger and protect your house from intruders or fire. A great keris can balance on its tip (see pic below).
The blades of some of the most sought after keris have meteoric iron (star rock) folded into them. Nichol is also added to the iron and steel and this creates the distinctive 'pamor' patterning in the blade (not to be confused with Damascus). In order to keep the blade bright and the spirit happy the blades are ceremonially 'washed' in a corrosive mixture of red arsenic and lime juice; which cause the blade to gradually shrink and lose definition over the years. This comes in handy when dating a keris. Blades get new scabbards as they wear out and it is not unusual to find a 500-year-old blade with 10-year-old fittings. These talismanic weapons are still very much a part of life in the region; an essential element of formal traditional dress; and no bridegroom would be seen without one. But don't get the idea that they are merely symbolic. There is a very effective keris based martial art; and I found out to my cost that as the acid erosion just makes them sharper over time.
Incidentally a certain Gerald Gardiner was a world expert on the keris and wrote a seminal book on the subject. If you are serious about acquiring a keris my advice is to get on the Dutch eBay site (the Dutch are almost as crazy about the keris as the Indonesians) and buy a new one; old keris spirits can be irritable if they're treated as a commodity (it took me ages to tame mine). If you feed it regularly sooner or later it will get to trust you. The jinn spirits often feed on scent, and all you have to do is anoint it with aromatic oils or pass it through incense smoke regularly. Some need to be exposed to moonlight. Others require food offerings. You simply put the food next to the keris and leave it overnight. The spirit will absorb the energy of the food.
(An interview with an Mpu follows the pics - all enlarge)
Interview with an Mpu
Yuliantoro, Contributor, Yogyakarta | Fri, 02/05/2010 1:04
Yuliantoro, Contributor, Yogyakarta | Fri, 02/05/2010 1:04
'Ngerebong' amazes visitors
Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Mon, 09/08/2008
Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar | Mon, 09/08/2008
The Ngerebong ritual, held Sunday afternoon at the Pengerebongan temple in Kesiman, East Denpasar, mesmerized domestic and foreign tourists with its haunting scenes ofngurek, a mass trance during which the ritual's male participants stab themselves (photo above)repeatedly with krisses -- without sustaining any injuries.
The ritual took place eight days after the Kuningan festival. Galungan and Kuningan, which fall once every 210 days, are Balinese Hindu celebrations of the victory of dharma(virtue) over adharma (vice). "After the victory celebration comes the Ngerebong, during which the gods and the heavenly army make a show of force to make it known to any beings, evil spirits in particular, that they will continuously protect dharmaand the human race," a member of the Kesiman royal family, AA Sagung Mas Ruscitadewi, said. During Ngerebong, sacred effigies from various temples in Kesiman and nearby villages were escorted to the Pengerebongan temple. There the effigies, which represent the areas' spiritual protectors, were placed on elevated open pavilion from which they could witness the whole procession. After a joint prayer, a selected group of Kesiman's men started a special ritual that placed them in a trance. The elders distributed the krisses to the men, at which point the ngurek began. The men, who were in a trance, began stabbing their chest, head or any other part of their body with the sharp krisses. The violence of the act made several visitors scream in shock - but nobody was hurt. Indeed, in some cases, it was the iron kris that was damaged. "We believe that the heavenly army entered the bodies of our men and through ngurek these divine soldiers have displayed their invincibility," Ruscitadewi added. The men were escorted by their relatives to circle the temple's outer yard three times before being taken back into the temple's inner yard, where a group of elderly temple priests sprinkled them with holy water. The act ended their trance. |