Is gold or suasa 'better'?

[David]

Well, for me the question isn't so much as to whether or not talismanic properties were attributed to suasa in 17th or 18th century Jawa. As Alan points out, talismanic properties are attributed to just about everything, especially things considered precious such as valuable metals. What i am questioning here is the claim that suasa was preferred over gold. If it was one has to wonder why then there are so many more existing examples of the use of gold on keris than there are suasa, especially when one considers that suasa has a lower monetary value than gold. I could literally fill pages upon pages here with photographs of examples of the use of gold in this context, however the existing examples of suasa used on keris seem substantially lower. Why would this be the case if indeed suasa was a preferred metal?

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by David

Well, for me the question isn't so much as to whether or not talismanic properties were attributed to suasa in 17th or 18th century Jawa. As Alan points out, talismanic properties are attributed to just about everything, especially things considered precious such as valuable metals. What i am questioning here is the claim that suasa was preferred over gold. If it was one has to wonder why then there are so many more existing examples of the use of gold on keris than there are suasa, especially when one considers that suasa has a lower monetary value than gold. I could literally fill pages upon pages here with photographs of examples of the use of gold in this context, however the existing examples of suasa used on keris seem substantially lower. Why would this be the case if indeed suasa was a preferred metal?

Yes I am fully aware of that. Everything that looks nice, different etc. must be talismanic at those times (and still) in Indonesia.

I thought I answered your questions before. Gold was something everybody wanted to have, even Rumphius is explaining that allready in his very early work! Therefor you can fill pages upon pages with photographs of examples with gold in this context, as anybody wanted to have it. It was luxury property, and probably also talismanic!
But next to the small chapter of gold, he has a larger chapter of suassa, which had to be much more interesting as the gold that anybody owned!
And he stated there that suassa was preferred over gold because of the talismanic properties, not that suassa is on the same level with gold on luxury property.

Maybe it could be, that suassa was so powerfull that not everybody was able or dared to wear suassa?

PS can you show me an old source that gold was preferred to suassa from a similar age?

[David]

Originally Posted by Maurice

Yes I am fully aware of that. Everything that looks nice, different etc. must be talismanic at those times (and still) in Indonesia.

I thought I answered your questions before. Gold was something everybody wanted to have, even Rumphius is explaining that allready in his very early work! Therefor you can fill pages upon pages with photographs of examples with gold in this context, as anybody wanted to have it. It was luxury property, and probably also talismanic!
But next to the small chapter of gold, he has a larger chapter of suassa, which had to be much more interesting as the gold that anybody owned!
And he stated there that suassa was preferred over gold because of the talismanic properties, not that suassa is on the same level with gold on luxury property.

Maybe it could be, that suassa was so powerfull that not everybody was able or dared to wear suassa?

PS can you show me an old source that gold was preferred to suassa from a similar age?

Maurice, i am afraid that i do not have much access to any old source material from this time. Anything that i have read about the practices of wearing gold come from authors who have gotten their information from such sources. Generally what i have read is that wearing gold dress keris was usually restricted to the court classes, so in those days i would presume that just "anybody" did not own gold and certainly did not dress their keris with it.
I am still waiting to see some examples of these talismanical powerful suasa dressed keris however and no one has yet posted any examples. I do, of course, believe that suasa was used in keris dress from time to time, but i can't say that i have actually seen any examples. One would think that if it were truly preferred as a material over gold we would at least see it's use a bit more in actual examples of keris dress. One would think that if suasa were truly considered more powerful than gold that it would have been used more often in kinatah over the more pure gold we generally see. I certainly don't doubt that Rumphius wrote these things, but that does not necessarily make them true. Frankly, despite his accounts it just does not sound logical to me based on everything else i have been led to believe on how gold is viewed in this society. There are just so many factors that could have led him to a misleading conclusion on this. It is certainly not information i have ever seen elsewhere. So please forgive me if i remain skeptical without some more evidence, both academic and physical to bare it out.

[A. G. Maisey]

Maurice, at the moment I do not have time to respond in depth to your post # 31, however, as you say G.E. Rumphius worked in Ambon, but he refers to the "Susuhunan" and to Jawa.

In the 1600's Ambon and Mataram (Central Jawa) were about as connected as Palermo and Port Moresby are today, in fact not as well connected as Palermo and Port Moresby today.

G.E.Rumphius was freed from his duties with the VOC to permit him to concentrate on his work as a naturalist. He was an amateur ethnographer, but his primary focus was the study of the natural history of Ambon.

It is entirely possible that he heard of the talismanic properties attributed to suasa in Mataram from some Ambonese traveller, or perhaps in Batavia, but his CV does not list duty in Mataram, and in the 1600's Mataram was pretty unsettled territory, delegations to the rulers in Mataram were very probably few and far between, if they existed at all.

In order to understand the veracity of G.E.Rumphius' comments on suasa, we need to try to place them into context. One way in which to begin this effort would be to look closely at his CV. There is a lot of info online concerning G.E.Rumphius.

[kai]

Hello all,

Sorry for chiming in late. I believe that Alan's initial response sums it up quite nicely:

Originally Posted by Alan

If we say "better", my immediate question is "better in what way"?

What we know is that gold is most certainly the very best and most highly regarded material to adorn a blade, and it is the material of choice to calm the disturbing or evil influences that may inhabit a blade.

If suasa is preferred over gold as a material for dress purposes, my own feeling would be that those who say or indicate they prefer it are making a virtue of necessity.

In the culture of Jawa , gold holds a place above all else as a material of honour. Historically rulers used to give gold in huge quantities to buy support.

Within Javanese society gold has historically been used as the measure of all value:- a debt of currency will be expressed as a weight of gold, and you repay the gold weight extressed as currency when you repay the debt. This has been the case for a very long time.

Gold is firmly fixed in the Javanese mind as the only thing of true worth --- even my own daughter-in-law will not wear any jewellery unless it is gold. I know people whom I consider to be relatively poor who will save every spare rupiah until they have sufficient to buy some gold, and along the way, they will refuse to wear costume jewellery, because if they can't wear gold, they will wear nothing.

If Javanese royalty preferred suasa to gold, I feel that perhaps a few stories may have been invented to justify that preference.

It is beyond doubt that gold was the major store of wealth and status throughout all of the SEA archipelago from ancient times on (maybe except for very remote cultures); cultures with own gold deposits had an edge... Also the female part of the population, from all accounts that I know of, relied on gold jewellery to independently store wealth (if possible at all).


However, I'm with Maurice that Rumphius' account certainly needs to be taken into account since it is one of the few very early *and* extensive sources and actually quite similar to the important Chinese reports.

Note that he also mentions gold keris hilts filled with resin in an earlier passage. When talking about suasa, he first mentions two other ethnic groups: "Therefore the Malays and Makassarese like to use suasa for keris and their weapons, for luck in war" - obviously this is specifically addressing weapons and not general storage of wealth. I'm not sure wether Rumphius' concept of "Malays" includes Aceh and possibly even Palembang. However, it should be noted that together with these 2 additional spheres of influence, peninsular Malay and Bugis/Gowa weapons are among those which do exhibit suasa decoration most often (and of course, there are many royal/state pieces which are clad in high-carat gold as well)... So there may be some truth to this account.

When he goes on to discuss Jawa, he also first focuses on weapons: "the Javanese can produce suasa in thin sheets, and use it to mount their keris sheaths" - with very few surviving examples and likely non-random sampling from that period this may be difficult to verify (pieces remaining inside the Javanese cultures had to be redressed at least several times and this will be done according to the latest fads wiping out any earlier preferences).

Only his statement "The Javanese esteem suasa more highly than gold, and their emperor, the Susuhunan, wears it more than gold." seems to run against what we believe to know. I still need to check wether the original context was possibly meant to be restricted to weapons rather than a general comment; since he also mentioned gold keris hilts, I don't think we are forced to decide between 2 different takes on history here...

Regards,
Kai

[David]

For those who would like to access this source, this entire volume of Rumphius is available on line. Really wishing i knew Dutch at this point because using google translator line by line is an extremely arduous task to say the least when you cannot copy & paste the material, but those with a handle on the language might like to find these quotes in context.
https://archive.org/stream/DAmboinsc...e/202/mode/2up

[Maurice]

Thank you all for participating, but I'm afraid that I also am too busy, and therefore no time to discuss it deeply furthermore.
But I think it was good discussing this Rumphius suassa text, and maybe in future if somebody finds out more about this, could add it in this thread.
Or maybe friendcollectors here in the forum have some kerisses with suassa to show us here in this thread?

I just want to say that Rumphius arrived in Batavia in 1653, and as far as I can make out of the story, he left there in 1657, so he spent several years on Java.
Also when you look at his work (David posted the link), I can't say this is work for an amateur.
I'm afraid that if you would like to translate, it would not work out as the text is in old style Dutch. And even I, as a Dutchman, am not reading it easily.

Alan, David and Kai thank you for participating, and Loedjoe thank you for alerting us about Rumphius and his suassa findings.
And whatever is the truth, maybe we will find something more lateron to add here.
Anyway it was a remarkable text what Rumphius is writing, and I still have the feeling it will not be unfounded. : )


Best wishes,
Maurice

[David]

No worries Maurice, but of course, no reason for the discussion to end. I should hope these discussions never depend on the back and forth of just a couple individuals and the thread will, of course, always be here for you to return to.
While Rumphius was indeed in Batavia for for 4 years from 1653-7, where he began as a midshipman and ended as an engineer and ensign, i am not convinced that he began his ethnographic studies until he left the service to continue as a civilian employee of the VOC. He didn't begin his serious studies of the flora and fauna of Ambon until 1662, 5 years after his arrival there. The book linked above wasn't published until 1705, 3 years after his death. His masterwork, Herbarium Amboinense, wasn't published until 39 years after his death in 1741. What a shame not to have seen all his efforts come to fruition in his lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Eberhard_Rumphius
Not really pertinent to this discussion, but just because i find it odd, i wonder why the version of his portrait that you posted (also included on the Wiki page) is identical to the one included in D'Amboinsche Rariteitkamer except that it is missing the animal hanging on the wall.