Keris bargain

David · 8th October 2020, 09:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

A nice old photo Marco, but what David wants to see is dress.

We know there are a lot of photos of dancers who are holding keris, but how many dancers are wearing keris, especially the particular style of keris dress that is under discussion?

I really cannot recall having seen any dancers in Bali actually dancing whilst wearing a keris. I might have, most of the dancing that I watched was over 20 years ago, mostly in the 1970's. I must admit, get a bit bored with Balinese performance art these days.

True Alan, i would like to see the sheaths used by dancers and actors to truly confirm that they were indeed used by them. However, what i do see in Anthony's 1941 image is again the use of the bondalan hilt form, not the figural hilts that we always see mated to these so-called dancer sheaths.
Here are two more images from famed photographer Henri Cariter-Bresson of the Barong dance from his time in Bali in 1949. Again we see the bondalan form. I cannot say i have ever seen a bondalan hilt matched with these "dancer" sarungs though.
Now this isn't conclusive evidence of course, but then, what are we basing the assumption that these sheaths actually were used by dancers and actors at some time? I don't doubt your remark that you "have seen a couple that came into Australia before WWII", but we can't really take that to the bank, now can we? Have you ever personally seen such dress actually used in Balinese theatre or dance in the past? Do you have access or photographs to these pre-WWII examples of this dress so that we can compare it to the tourist dress that we are assuming developed out of it? I mean, we have examples of keris dress that go back hundreds of years in collections. Surely then older examples of this dress should still exist somewhere. Again, i am not so much doubting their existence, and it makes a certain amount of sense that this dress form didn't just appear out of nowhere in the 1960s and was suddenly adopted for tourist keris, but i would like to see some actual evidence to confirm these suspicions.

A. G. Maisey · 8th October 2020, 10:08 PM

Thanks for those great photos David, Cartier-Bresson really was a master.
Incidentally, I doubt that we can consider the men who take part in the trance scene of the Barong Dance to be dancers.

David, I very much doubt that you ever will see any evidence that this flamboyant dress style was originally a style used by dancers. I believe it to be so, because the story that I have retold was told to me by a couple of different people many years apart.

The first time I heard it was from a gentleman who had bought it in Bali pre-WWII. I would have been about 20 at the time. His story was that he had bought it from a dancer after a performance. The second time I heard the story was maybe 10 or 12 years ago from an American gentleman who was living in Ubud, he just casually mentioned that the keris he had --- the style under discussion --- he had bought from an old Balinese man who had been a dancer --- his story had more to it than that, but the rest of that story is unimportant.

I have seen another of these keris that belonged to a very good friend of mine who passed away around 5 years ago. He had bought his example in the 1950's from a Dutchman who had lived in Indonesia and came to Australia when the Japanese occupied Bali. That keris went to auction last year.

In the 1960's and 1970's there were a lot of this style of keris for sale in the tourist centres of South Bali, the earlier ones I saw had real keris blades, the later ones had flat iron blades. In the 1960's & 1970's the Bali tourist trade was nothing like it became after about 1985. There were no big tourist emporiums, in Kuta there were a few scattered warungs along Jln. Pantai and Jln. Legian. Chemist shops & grocery stores sold cock spurs, keris and genuine dance masks. Most of the tourist trade was carried out by hawkers who went from losmen to losmen or waited in front of the few hotels. This keris style under discussion was something that you saw often.

I think it was probably sometime in the 1980's that this style of keris began to disappear in Bali. I don't think I've seen one for sale in Bali itself for 25 years at least.

As far as I'm concerned this keris style is not something that I would want as a part of my collection, it started as a theatrical prop, it became a souvenir. Not quite the sort of thing that relates to my own interests. But still, a good argument could be mounted that it is a part of Balinese culture and as such it deserves a place in a complete collection.

There are many things that are a part of the study of Javanese & Balinese culture & society that we cannot prove. We collect little snippets of information that sometimes link together and provide something that can be believed, and at other times those snippets never connect to anything at all and just float around with tails attached to them by people who have very good imaginations. (I do mean "tail", not "tale").

Because of my own experience, I choose to believe the "dancer" story that is associated with this keris style. What other people may believe is completely up to them. But I think one thing is certain, and that is that nobody is ever going to see a photograph of anybody in Bali, let alone a Balinese dancer, wearing this style of keris. Quite simply, the law of probability makes this very improbable.

Think about it:- a dancer in a small part of a very small island more than 50 years ago was photographed wearing a keris with a non-typical dress style, at a time when that small island had not become the tourist destination that it later became, and where dancers very seldom actually wear a keris whilst performing.

Believe or do not believe, its up to you.

8th October 2020, 10:08 PM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,736	Thanks for those great photos David, Cartier-Bresson really was a master. Incidentally, I doubt that we can consider the men who take part in the trance scene of the Barong Dance to be dancers. David, I very much doubt that you ever will see any evidence that this flamboyant dress style was originally a style used by dancers. I believe it to be so, because the story that I have retold was told to me by a couple of different people many years apart. The first time I heard it was from a gentleman who had bought it in Bali pre-WWII. I would have been about 20 at the time. His story was that he had bought it from a dancer after a performance. The second time I heard the story was maybe 10 or 12 years ago from an American gentleman who was living in Ubud, he just casually mentioned that the keris he had --- the style under discussion --- he had bought from an old Balinese man who had been a dancer --- his story had more to it than that, but the rest of that story is unimportant. I have seen another of these keris that belonged to a very good friend of mine who passed away around 5 years ago. He had bought his example in the 1950's from a Dutchman who had lived in Indonesia and came to Australia when the Japanese occupied Bali. That keris went to auction last year. In the 1960's and 1970's there were a lot of this style of keris for sale in the tourist centres of South Bali, the earlier ones I saw had real keris blades, the later ones had flat iron blades. In the 1960's & 1970's the Bali tourist trade was nothing like it became after about 1985. There were no big tourist emporiums, in Kuta there were a few scattered warungs along Jln. Pantai and Jln. Legian. Chemist shops & grocery stores sold cock spurs, keris and genuine dance masks. Most of the tourist trade was carried out by hawkers who went from losmen to losmen or waited in front of the few hotels. This keris style under discussion was something that you saw often. I think it was probably sometime in the 1980's that this style of keris began to disappear in Bali. I don't think I've seen one for sale in Bali itself for 25 years at least. As far as I'm concerned this keris style is not something that I would want as a part of my collection, it started as a theatrical prop, it became a souvenir. Not quite the sort of thing that relates to my own interests. But still, a good argument could be mounted that it is a part of Balinese culture and as such it deserves a place in a complete collection. There are many things that are a part of the study of Javanese & Balinese culture & society that we cannot prove. We collect little snippets of information that sometimes link together and provide something that can be believed, and at other times those snippets never connect to anything at all and just float around with tails attached to them by people who have very good imaginations. (I do mean "tail", not "tale"). Because of my own experience, I choose to believe the "dancer" story that is associated with this keris style. What other people may believe is completely up to them. But I think one thing is certain, and that is that nobody is ever going to see a photograph of anybody in Bali, let alone a Balinese dancer, wearing this style of keris. Quite simply, the law of probability makes this very improbable. Think about it:- a dancer in a small part of a very small island more than 50 years ago was photographed wearing a keris with a non-typical dress style, at a time when that small island had not become the tourist destination that it later became, and where dancers very seldom actually wear a keris whilst performing. Believe or do not believe, its up to you.