Keris is very synonymous with The Jawanese Culture. Legend has
it that a Jawanese man is not complete without possessing 5
things, they are: Keris – Horse – Bird – Woman
and House.
Keris is treated as a symbol or status instead of “a
killing tool” and almost in the Jawanese aristocrats’
family has a Keris Pusaka or The Ancestor’s Keris that has
a name and good history behind it. Depends on the family
tradition, the Keris Pustaka and other family’s owned items
will have to go through kind of purification ceremony each
year.
[navigasi.net] Museum - Keris
Owning a Keris apparently is not as easy as owning other
things. There are a complex rituals involved in order to make
sure that a Keris will accept the bearer, otherwise a disastrous
events might occurred if the Keris is not chemistry fit with the
bearer. There are a bunch of few people who should be contacted
for advice whether a particular Keris is fit for a particular
bearer or not. Where the Keris should be placed is equally
complex, because it depends on whom wearing it and for what
purposes, let alone to conduct many ceremonial events to make
sure that “the spirits” of the Keris is happy.
To add to the already cloudy mystery around the world of
Keris, apparently not many people agreed as to where the words
Keris originally came from. In the Encyclopedia of Keris, this is
available at the museum. However the very first words related to
Keris was written as “Kres” found written in a bronze
plate dated back in year 824 in a village of Karangtengah in
Central Jawa and since then it gradually developed into the words
“Keris” we know today.
