Bugis Chieftain's Keris: does it exist?

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Originally Posted by BluErf

I believe the term chieftain keris is a term loosely coined by collectors to describe kerises belonging to people of some status. Not very high ranking, but maybe a village headman or local military captain or the likes. And essentially, status in some cases was expressed through the size of the sheath, which then made the batang look proportionately short. The width of the batang also became wider, and this sort of keris seemed to fall under the loose term "chieftain keris". I don't think the original owners of such kerises called it by this term.

Yep... ths is a plausible way of looking at it... a good angle with which to eplore the subject further