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.