Centipede Aceh

[David]

Originally Posted by gp

Tip: check the internet on duizendpoot (= Dutch) or lipan (Malay) for centipede. Also Atjeh, Dutch for Aceh and kris ( Dutch) for keris.

Note : Atjeh or Aceh always has been (and still is) a very strong religious region, hence I believe you will not be able to find much about magical power of centipedes over there as this is considred haram / forbidden from their perspective .
Which makes me believe ( and I might be utterly mistaken) that the origin of the magical powers has is roots not in Atjeh / Aceh but elswhere in Sumatra.
If one leaves out the "magical powers" and refers to the centipede as an example / fighting reference like it is used in pencak silat from Sumatra there might be more to it when discussing Aceh / Atjeh

GP, i honestly mean no offense by this. I am always happy to find people interested in keris, though it does not seem to be the focus of your collecting, at least based upon you previous posts. So please forgive my debate here, but as someone whose collecting focus is indeed the keris i feel i must speak up here as not to leave people with the wrong impression about these weapons. You can find some interesting things on the internet about keris. Not all of it is to be taken too seriously though.
I am a bit confused about the keris you have chosen to posted here and their relevance to the subject at hand as well ad what you have written. Firstly you are discussing Sumatran origins of the magical powers of the centipede in your last post, yet all the keris you are posting are from Java. The keris on the red background is a reasonably nice antique keris. But the pamor pattern here has nothing to do with centipedes so i do not see it's relevance here. This other "toothy" keris you have posted is also of Javanese origin, but it is something of an abomination i'm afraid. It wouldn't have been so terrible if someone had not taken a power tool to it and attempted to make it into something "unusual", perhaps in the hopes of attracting a buyer with a story about it being some kind of "rarity". But this is not acceptable pakem for any keris that i am aware of. This treatment is completely non-traditional and has no actual meaning within Javanese culture. This was most probably an alteration to previously existing blade. If the intention was to make it into something that represents a centipede it was done with no attention to cultural norms or traditions for the Javanese keris.

[gp]

no offfence taken, but I was refering to Aceh / Atjeh which is Sumatra, being the start of the topic, sorry if that was not clear and also my other mishaps.
Perhaps better to delete my last contribution as it caused dissatisfaction...

[David]

It's not a question of dissatisfaction GP. I am just trying to understand the visual illustrations you have chosen to make your points. These Javanese keris do not have any connection whatsoever to Sumatra or, more specifically Aceh. I don't understand the connection you are attempting to make in posting them and as a collector of keris as well as one of the moderators of the keris forum i am simply trying to see to it that people on this forum, who may or may not have much background in keris, do not get confused about the intent of the keris or it's relationship, which seem rather slight, to the discussion at hand. That is all.