Barung with carved Antler(?) hilt.

[kino]

Originally Posted by AHite

For what it's worth, I think that the handle is made of bone. The reason I believe this is the presence of holes in the end of the material which indicate where blood vessels where. This is common for bone, but not antler or ivory. Bone might have been more commonly used than antler in that region.

Thanks for your comments. I tend to agree with you on the common use of bone vs. antler. However I believe that this is not bone.
Here are a couple of photos of antler that displays “holes”, that you mentioned.