Lord of the ‘kerisses’.

About three years ago, my parents handed me 2 ancient weapons (kerisses), not for me to engage in any battle but to keep my family heritage safe for the family and for our future generation. I have no idea of the age of the kerisses but according to my crude estimation they must be more than 150 years old as the original owner was far beyond in the line of my great grandfather on my fathers site.

Up until today I am still clueless as why I have been chosen to be the keeper of the two symbolic weapons, nevertheless, I am grateful and honored to be the present owner of the kerisses and promise to take care of the weapons until the time come to hand down the artifact of my family heritage to the right person in my family.

According to Wikipedia, Keris is a distinctive, asymmetrical dagger indigenous to Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Southern Thailand and the southern Philippines. Both a weapon, and spiritual object, kerisses are often considered to have an essence or presence.

Keris blades are usually narrow and have a wide, asymmetrical base. Blade length is highly variable. The blade is made from different iron ores and often contains nickel. Keris blades can be straight or sinuous. With sinuous blades, the bends are called luks. Most keris have fewer than 13 luks and the number of luks should be odd, or the keris would be considered unlucky.

The sinuous blade has become synonymous with the keris. In reality more than half of the old keris have straight blades like mine (refer to the picture above). The luks maximize the width of wound while maintaining its weight.

Functionally, the keris is not a slashing weapon like a bowie knife or other fighting knife, but rather a stabbing instrument. If a keris fighter had stealth on his side, the keris was lethal and the slashing wound made by keris is terrible. The edge of the blade "danced" in the wound, and left the tatters of dead flesh, which began to rot.

In the past, kerisses were worn every day and at special ceremonies, with heirloom blades being handed down through successive generations.

As a Muslim, I don’t believe the kerisses has any spiritual power although for me, they are treasures to be kept as mementos from the past.

Ps : A lot of preparation I have to do for my next workshop on ‘Autocad’ that I will be conducting for MARA very soon. I plan to publish all my lecture notes that have been written by myself to my website www.nafibiz.com soon.


See you on my next post.
Love
Hanafi.