Another Klewang Palembang for our Archives

kai · 27th January 2014, 12:12 AM

Hello Charles,

A really neat Parang Betino! AvZ shows one example from Willem van der Post's collection in the klewang overview (Fig. 263).

A quite distinctive blade type that resembles the amanremu which may be its northern cousin; the usually present bolster seems pretty unique though.

I agree this is a status piece - still fully functional though. The business examples I've seen come with horn hilts of the same style.

The top end examples like in this thread appear to be status pieces for ceremonial use only.

I do wonder why there are apparently not that many surviving examples and, especially, why a quite considerable proportion seem to be status pieces.

Regards,
Kai

27th January 2014, 12:12 AM	#6
kai Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 3,255	Hello Charles, A really neat Parang Betino! AvZ shows one example from Willem van der Post's collection in the klewang overview (Fig. 263). A quite distinctive blade type that resembles the amanremu which may be its northern cousin; the usually present bolster seems pretty unique though. I agree this is a status piece - still fully functional though. The business examples I've seen come with horn hilts of the same style. The top end examples like in this thread appear to be status pieces for ceremonial use only. I do wonder why there are apparently not that many surviving examples and, especially, why a quite considerable proportion seem to be status pieces. Regards, Kai