[A. G. Maisey]

Yes David, you are correct, "whole K&C"does mean in its entirety, I did not phase that well. I'll try to do better.

"entire" was not the best word for me to use, & my phrasing was imprecise.

I'm not quite sure that I have a single word in English that I can use.

I did go into a bit more detail in my later post, #9, where I use the English word “blade”to refer to the keris --- to the Javanese people, only the blade is the keris, all other parts are just dress, but when the keris, ie, the blade, is combined with all those other parts, it becomes a complete entity, expressing a multitude of symbols & ideas. As a complete entity it can be referred to as a “keris”, but again, that depends upon the level of language being used & the situation.

But we’re using English.

Unless we are using Javanese , or perhaps one of the other languages that are used by people belonging to keris bearing societies, then we are limited in how we can refer to a keris & its parts, so if we look at a keris with the blade still in the scabbard, we refer to what we see as a keris, if we look at the keris out of the scabbard & with hilt attached what we see is still a keris.

So, if I look at this keris as a complete entity comprised of scabbard, hilt, hilt cup, blade, then what I see is a keris of the Bugis people, a cultural classification, not a geographic classification.

Once we put any blade at all into the dress items that are identifiable as belonging to a particular culture, society, or region, then we refer to that keris according to what we can see, we do not recognise the identity of the blade until it has been removed and independently addressed.

In my post #9 I did independently address the blade:-

“The blade certainly appears to be outside Jawa, but it could possibly be from one of the areas not under direct kraton influence, however, I'm still inclined to go with what I believe would be the opinion of my teachers:- "diluarJawa" & thus not even worthy of consideration---”
the opinion of my teachers, not of myself.

In recent years there have been several books published on Bugis keris, but it seems to me that if these books represent the sum total of knowledge on geographic origin of blades dressed as Bugis keris, & regarded as Bugis keris, by Bugis people, then there is quite a way to go before we can confidently name the geographic point of origin of the blade used in a Bugis keris when we consider the entirety of a Bugis keris.

There are good, solid reasons that with Javanese keris we have a very deep well of knowledge & belief, and for other keris bearing societies we have a well of knowledge that is in many cases dry, or almost so.

I do not wish to address this problem.

To summarise:- in my opinion, this keris in its entirety is a keris of the Bugis people, I am not able to defend an opinion that might place the geographic origin of the blade of this complete keris in any specific geographic location. Further, based upon my own field research & my own experience, I am not prepared to name with confidence the geographic locations that contributed the parts other than the blade to this keris as a complete entity. Any opinion I might express in respect of this keris is based upon the opinions of other people.

To compress this into a few words:- I do not know.