Help!!! The keris I bought has part of it’s tang clipped off. I feel cheated!!!
Our Malay ancestors in the past understood many arcane sciences, of which includes the science of vibration, balance, engineering and many other laws of the natural world, that today, unfortunately is quickly dismissed upon as fringe or quack science.
Cleverly concealed in prose and myths. With the brilliant intention of teaching the wise and misleading the foolish. All these sciences albeit were gathered through social interactions across ethnicities across Nusantara
From interviews conducted, our qualitative pool, whom were interviewed separately seems to share several common beliefs, in regards to the rational of having a portion of the keris tang (pesi,pating) to be cut off before being discarded or re-assigned to a new owner.
Our findings so far, it could be concluded that the common belief held by most Traditional Malays (which includes those with ancestry from other ethnic regions whom have abandoned their origins and decided to align themselves with the Malay Identity) living in this region, are as follows –
1. Unless you own the keris, severing even a small portion of the tang, will render the piece in “re-set” mode to any new owner whom are not related by blood. Hence contesting the belief that the “semangat” or ancestral essence goes with the keris even after it had been mutilated per say.
2. If it is indeed an inherited piece, and one is the rightful heir apparent to the line, any inherited artefact, even a tiny fragment from the original piece contains enough “vibrational frequency” to be transferred or imbued into a new object of reference. Such fragments may then be used in the construction of other weapons or even vital parts of a new home in a new land or area. The basis for this act is not limited to pre-existing beliefs that the spirits of the ancestors will bless and protect the new home, weapon, amulet, etc. It functions beyond that. One of which, is to remind the present descendant, to live up to the good name of their ancestry. Not reliving the ancestry in an archaic fashion but to keep up with the times and be updated with the laws and requirements of the land. “Dimana bumi dipijak, Disitu Langit dijunjung.” A very powerful Malay saying with wisdom concealed in plain sight.
Intention and Will seems to play a very vital part in influencing and altering realities too. Outcome of what is commonly and loosely generalised as “magick”, often relies on the depth, strength and intensity of the will, belief and intention of the bearer.
The Malays were very forward thinking, as evident in countless Malay Myths and morality tales. Factual evidence is now surfacing too thanks to formal research by academic Malay scholars and informal privately funded researchers with support from academia.
Discourse in this area is vast and wide. For the focal point of our thesis, we narrowed down towards a Malay Centric direction. If the Malays were, as claimed by other ethnic groups as being backward and divided, these over generalised fallacies can be contested with evidence.
Whilst it is applaudable to have cultural activists re-emulating and re-enacting glorious days of past. It is equally important that serious work be done, published and archived for future generations to decide upon which context and perspectives applies and be relevant to them in their time.
Wisdom of ages grows with time and is not static. New wisdom is always built upon on-top of previous wisdom. That is growth.
We are all merely characters passing through time. Most of whom will be forgotten upon death. All that will remain apart from our name, are our tangible contributions for the future generation. The future belongs to the young. Hence it is important to move onwards and upwards and to preserve through discovery.
PS: My apologies if the title of this post alarms some of you. Grabs your attention to reading this post until the end did it not?
⁃ JoFe, The Keris Collector
⁃ 1st Feb 2019