Thread: keris palembang
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Old 16th August 2020, 10:01 PM   #8
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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Yes, Palembang is difficult.

The tangguh system that I use is the one I was was taught by Mpu Suparman. It addresses major tangguh classifications only. However, minor tangguh classifications can be accepted. The overriding requirement to give any blade as a tangguh classification is that it should be a style that can be regarded as representative of a geographic area or of a period of time, an era.

The problem with Palembang is that keris made in the area of Palembang were made in a number of styles that were copies of styles from other areas and other eras. For Palembang there is no hard-core dedicated style that we can associate only with Palembang. For this reason it is in my opinion impossible to have a "tangguh Palembang", but in recent years dealers in Jakarta, and I guess other places as well, have wanted to describe keris as "tangguh Palembang".

So this keris under discussion could resemble a Banten keris, or a keris from Central Jawa, but Banten keris seem to have a stylistic variation that might prevent classification as "tangguh", and keris from Central Jawa have several different tangguh classifications.

Any ideas about what might be appropriate for this particular keris?
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