Mandau pommel representation?

[Mytribalworld]

Originally Posted by migueldiaz

hello all!

i've just finished reading sellato's hornbill and dragon (courtesy of a friend). there's a lot of pics of the mandau in there but the book didn't say what the pommel figure represents.

i've just browsed the articles in this forum but i didn't come across any info as to what the pommel is supposed to depict.

was there a consensus already among experts on the mandau as to what it is, and if yes, what would it be? (e.g., would it be the dragon dog, aso, for instance).

thanks in advance for any answer

the pic below is from oriental-arms of course ...

Hi,

not an easy question to aswer, course in my opinion there's nothing such as " The mandauhilt" . the variations are enourmous due to cultural influences, migrations, wars, etc. actually the mandauhilt is built up from a complex mix of mostly leech motifs, dog/dragon motifs and human/spirit faces.
The overall shape is ( at least in my opinon) not fitting into an dragon,dog or animal head. If we may believe the old work of Hein , the mandauhilt is built up from 3 faces above eachother and indeed that is in many cases recongnizable,but mostly on mandaus from the south east part of Borneo.
Iban ( and a whole lot of other related tribes) carve a whole other mix of scrolls, dragons, nippels etc etc and their variations seems quite endless.

For explanation of these motifs you have to think a little the Dayak way.
The surrounding world is filled by spirits and to frigthen the bad ones and cheer the good onesyou can use several motifs. These motifs are on their way related mostly to symbols of power and strength like, deerhorn,hair,blood

In many cases the hilt has a spirit/human face what is so positioned that it sees forward when the mandau is in the scabbard.You see all over Borneo such faces sometimes very stylistic and totally faded.
According to Heppel ( read also Iban art) these faces represent the spirit of a trophy head.

there are however also totally ( quite scarce) undecorated mandauhilts, "Islamic" mandauhilts with flowermotifs, double headed mandauhilts , etc. etc etc.

I will see if I can find time to picture some hilts in my collection,

best regards,

Arjan

[Maurice]

Lorenz, what an outstanding question!
And Arjan gave an outstanding answer!

The only thing I could add is that I hope there will be time for Arjan taking images of his collection mandauhilts!
Maybe we could start a thread such as the parang face gallery from Michael, but then with different variants of mandauhilts, all over Borneo (face or no face).

But first find out if there is some animo for it, because the reactions on some threads of fabulous blades (of which much could be said) are very low lately.......or am I mistaken?????

Kind Regards,
Maurice

[migueldiaz]

Originally Posted by mandaukudi

Hi, not an easy question to aswer, xxx I will see if I can find time to picture some hilts in my collection

Arjan, many thanks for your answer

As Maurice also mentioned, it's awesome. Thus, your comments are truly much appreciated.

After reading your comments, I'm beginning to think that perhaps the reason why Bernard Sellato (author of Hornbill and Dragon) did not attempt to explain the symbolism of the mandau hilt was precisely because it was a difficult subject.

We also hope that at your convenience, you can post pics from your collection.

Thanks again for your remarks ...

[Henk]

Originally Posted by Maurice

Lorenz, what an outstanding question!
And Arjan gave an outstanding answer!

The only thing I could add is that I hope there will be time for Arjan taking images of his collection mandauhilts!
Maybe we could start a thread such as the parang face gallery from Michael, but then with different variants of mandauhilts, all over Borneo (face or no face).

But first find out if there is some animo for it, because the reactions on some threads of fabulous blades (of which much could be said) are very low lately.......or am I mistaken?????

Kind Regards,
Maurice

Maurice,

I think this can become a wonderful and interesting thread.
I hope Arjan can find some time to make some pictures of his collection. It would be nice if he could add also the tribe and the place of origin to the hilts. I surely hope that next to Arjan other knowledgeable members will follow with their hilts.

Migueldiaz,

Thank you for starting this thread.

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Henk

It would be nice if he could add also the tribe and the place of origin to the hilts.

Henk that is a nice idea, but also a hard one to find...
I posted these images already in another thread, but I think they belong in this one also.
Here an Iban hilt and an Iban warrior with a similar one.