Kris-making survives but spiritualism suffers

Kris-making survives but spiritualism suffers

Peter Janssen
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Gatak, Yogyakarta

In the small village of Gatak on the outskirts of Yogyakarta,
Central Java, an archaic scene of blacksmiths pounding red-hot
metal into swords can be witnessed, at least on weekends and
public holidays.

The Gatak foundry belongs to Djeno Harum Brodjo, arguably the
country's last empu (master craftsman) of krisology, the art of
making krises -- the dagger that is as much a part of Javanese
culture as wayang puppetry and batik cloth.

Brodjo, 77, has long given up the physical side of kris-
making, leaving that up to his only son Sungkowo, a civil servant
who only works in the foundry on weekends and holidays.

Brodjo, a 15th generation descendant of a kris-making family
whose roots date back to the Majapahit dynasty of East Java,
devotes his limited energy to the spiritual side of the ancient
craft.

"The spiritual side of kris making is disappearing, but the
craftsmanship goes on because of the souvenir market," said
Brodjo.

Kris-making has been around in Java for at least 1,500 years.

"We know kris-making is an ancient Javanese art because
temples in Central and Eastern Java depict scenes of kris making
and kris wearing as a weapon or for ceremonial dress," said
Haryono Haryoguritno, author of the soon-to-be published, The
Javanese Keris -- Between Myth and Reason.

Murals on Yogyakarta's Borobudur Buddhist temple built in the
8th century are famed for their depictions of ancient Javanese
life in which the kris obviously played an important role.

Although the kris has been a common attribute of male attire
in Java for centuries, the art of high-quality kris-making was
once limited to the courts of the sultans.

"The royalty needed something to elevate themselves, something
which the average person could not grasp how this was made," said
Haryoguritno. "These things were high-tech at the time, and the
technology was kept a secret."

Kris-making still requires fairly high-tech metallurgy.

A good quality keris is a combination of at least three metals
- steel, iron and nickel, which are beaten together and folded
into more than 200 layers to create unique blade designs.

Today, thousands of fairly low-quality krises are made in
foundries in Madura, Surakarta and Yogyakarta, catering to the
tourist market that took off in the early 1980s.

These foundries have also perfected the art of "accelerated
aging process," so buyer beware. A well-made kris, such as the
ones crafted by Brodjo, costs up to US$1,200 and real antique
krises can fetch as much as $60,000.

A truly valuable keris should be made using metal from a
meteor instead of nickel, said collector Haryoguritno.

Brodjo made two such krises for Sultan IX of Yogyakarta, using
the remains of a massive meteor that crashed into the compound of
the Prambanan Hindu temple in 1784.

Needless to say, there are not too many meteor deposits around
in the country.

"We have rediscovered kris-making techniques but we have also
lost something -- that is the material that comes from the
stars," noted Haryoguritno, who helped set up a kris foundry in
Jakarta in the early 1980s to reintroduce the ancient art in
modern Indonesia.

Kris-making pretty much stopped during the Japanese occupation
of Indonesia in World War II and the chaotic independence
struggle that followed.

To reintroduce kris-technology, Haryoguritno hired craftsman
Supiyanto, the son of one of Brodjo's elder brothers. All three
of Brodjo's brothers were also empu keris-makers. Now all but
Brodjo have passed away.

Lack of sponsors and high costs forced the Jakarta keris
foundry to close down more than a decade ago.

"Kris-making takes patience," noted Brodjo, explaining that a
high-quality keris can take five to six months to complete.

In the old days, the kris maker was employed by the sultan,
but such "court employment" dried up under the Dutch colonial
period when the Javanese sultans lost much of their power and
income.

Traditional kris-making, as practiced by Brodjo, is also a
very personalized process.

"A good kris fits the day you were born, that will make it
helpful for your life," said Brodjo, who relies on astrology to
determine the auspicious days for working on customers' krises.

This spiritual side of kris-making has roots in Hinduism, the
first world religion to come to Java about 1,600 years ago,
before being replaced by Islam in the 15th century.

Krisology's Hindu origins are obvious in the terminology --
the blade is a combination of lingga and yoni -- symbols for the
male and female genitalia, or fertility.

In modern day, predominantly Muslim Indonesia, such remnant
phallus-philia is generally frowned upon, at least in public.

"There is an objection to krisology from Islam, because it
smells of Hinduism," acknowledged Brodjo.

But this has not stopped wealthy Javanese, including several
politicians, from placing orders with Brodjo for their
personalized krises.

"I have orders up until the year 2007, so if you order now
you'll have to wait until 2008," Brodjo said with a smile.