New book about Keris Kris ***The Invincible Krises 2*** Start Price USD 72.50 Current Price USD 75.00 Time Left - Bid Count 1 Buy It Now Price USD 75.00 Reserve Price - Start Time Wednesday, July 02, 2008 End Time Thursday, July 10, 2008 Location Netherlands See more about 'New book about Keris Kris ***The Invincible Krises 2***' Description New published book about the Keris The Invincible Krises2. Dear Keris collector, I would like to introduce a very nice book about Kerisses: The invincible Krises 2. This book is written in English by Vanna Ghiringhelli. The book contains very beautiful pictures of Kerisses with good and detailed information. Most pictures are very large and detailed printed on glossy paper. There is also a nice chapter about The Keris Blade forging. I’m proud that I got the opputunity to distribute this book. General information: Title: The Invincibles Krises 2 Author: Vanna Ghiringhelli Language: English. Pages: 185 (+ index) Glossy paper 151 colored pictures Size: 22 x 30,5 cm Weight: 1350g Hardcover For more info you check the webpage with info about this book: http://www.devriesantiek.nl/ikebay or can mail me at devriesantiek@home.nl. For more info about ordering this book and other books about the Keris please contact me. Please check the pictures and if any questions or you want to see more pictures do not hesitate to call me 00 31 (0) 413-293900 or send me a email: devriesantiek@home.nl. Below and attached you will find more information about The invincible Krises 2. The Invincible Krises 2” by author Vanna Ghiringhelli. Following the great success of the author’s first volume of, "The Invincible Krises", this completely new and unique book focuses on the famous Indo-Malay Kriss dagger. The individual krises pieces illustrated in the book, each selected from the prestigious Ghiringhelli collection, are being published here for the first time. Every dagger in The Invincible Krises 2 is accompanied by detailed technical description as well as a cultural extension, making for pleasant and informative reading for serious students, collectors and casual browsers. The many references included in the text enable readers to quickly increase and deepen their knowledge on the historical significance and cultural impact of Kris daggers. With an appeal to every collector, the final portion of the book is devoted to the often overlooked subject of woman’s Kris. In the Preface and Introductions, author Vanna Ghiringhelli has dedicated The Invincible Krises 2 not only to seasoned collectors, but also to those who are new to the Kris World. The book is illistratuted with 151 colour photographs of Krises and the entire text is written in English. Detailed descriptions of the blade forging are written by Kris expert and collector, Dr. Sandro Forgiarini, whose text is accompanied by dozens of photos showing the smith’s work and the forge. (Below Preface and Introduction are written by Vanna Ghiringhelli) PREFACE: A long time has gone by since “The Invincible Krises”, 1991 and my article “Keris hilts materials” on Arts of Asia, 1997, but I never gave up caring for krises. Thus, now this book; a book without text because many publications on the subject have been issued in these years and I have nothing to add to them. I simply want to introduce some “krises one can talk about”, not distinctively beautiful or in perfect condition, but particularly interesting, hoping they can be reason of study for the new collectors; this is why in my writing I constantly insist on references. The few words I wrote besides the “technical descriptions”, are just an incentive to a deeper research, just to show that there is always something more to know about this weapon and its environment, just an attempt to make clear how wide is the kris world and how intense is the relation between: Kris and Nature: flowers, leaves, plants, fruits, the rice, the animals, the snake and the bird, the ocean, the mountain, the fire and water, the wind, the iron and the minerals, the stone and the gems: the spirit, semangat, of all these natural things, is living in the keris. Kris and Man: man’s character, his luck, his courage, but also fear in front of supernatural powers, his search of protection, his art and ability, his devotion to the ancestors and their inheritance, his social position, life and death, amok and the power of the Empu, all this is in the kris. Keris and the Invisible World: the word of Islam, the profound echo of the great Indian gods, the voice of the heros and the mysterious wind of the ancestral tradition, magic and charms permeate the kris, all over the Archipelago. I want also to give some information on woman’s kris and kris and woman, a completely forgotten subject in all kris books. Anyway, I realise that a book about the kris written without the full co-operation and help of an Indonesian kris-lover and expert, is always a “crooked book”, incomplete and far from the way Malay peoples regard the kris. INTRODUCTION While my Preface is dedicated to kris collectors, especially new ones, this Introduction is for those who know very little about kris, keris, or come across with it for the first time, through this book. I’ll try then to enable these readers to understand this sophisticated weapon, giving here some more elements and explanations other than those found in this book. It is a difficult task and I can’t help remembering the advise a friend of mine gave me many years ago, while I was proudly speaking to him about my studies and my research on this dagger: “Your way, your system, your method, your feeling are wrong, my dear, you have to close your two Western eyes, open your third Eastern eye and jump in”. He meant, of course, “jump into the kris world”, a world where the boundary line between visible and invisible is very faint, where the relationship between space and time, reality and imagination is substantially different from Western outlook and where negative and positive cosmic influences are always on the agenda. I suggest to keep in mind my friend’s words when approaching the kris. “WHO” is the kris. KRIS AND SOCIETY I write this introduction using the present tense, although I shouldn’t, because, as all readers certainly know, the kris has now lost its importance in Indonesia and Malaysia, it is alive only in the heart of the few people who still live inside the tradition and in the collectors’ mind and imagination. The kris world stretches over a very large geographic area. It goes from the Malayan Peninsula, through Indonesia, as far as the Sulu islands and Mindanao in the Philippines, inhabited by Muslim Moro people. Travelling through the Archipelago, the kris dragged along a peculiar baggage: Indian, Chinese, Muslim, local and European cultures all melted down inside the fantastic Indo-Malay crucible. It’s nowhere to be found such a combination of cultural elements. Together with what Indo-Malay people call “isi keris”, it pushed the kris to the highest level and the loftiest rank among all edged weapons in the world. Isi is an Indonesian word meaning “contents” and although it is quite difficult to explain what these contents are, it is believed that they are the indwelling spirit and magic energy of the kris, which fill it with an extraordinary power, tuah. Therefore, the kris is an enspirited weapon. I know perfectly that this is not at all a “scientific” statement, but it would be unfair to reject a belief that lasted for centuries among Malay people and made of the kris a weapon beyond any comparison. The esoteric values of this dagger have always had a remarkable importance in social life in any period and in any part of the Peninsula and of the Indonesian Archipelago, Nusantara. Not only, but when a kris is a sacred heirloom, pusaka, it is considered like an individual, with name and honorifics, unbreakable link between the past - the ancestors – and the present, shrine of spiritual and magic forces. This precious iron requires an attentive care because it has a vital vibration, a soul that has to be fed with flowers, offerings, and incense. It has to be perfumed with sandal oil cendana, or jasmin, melati, or Cananga Odorata, kenanga, a creeping shrub with very perfumed flowers. The pusaka has to be cleaned with a special ceremony, the ceremony of bathing the pusaka weapon, that, in Java, takes place in the month of Sura, the Arabic Muharram, first month of the Muslim year. The kris pusaka conferred power and protection to the ruler and kept the welfare of the kingdom, being, therefore, the most important sacred object in king’s regalia, source of royal authority and legitimation. These powerful krises, once belonging to kings or sultans, had such a great significance in the Indo-Malay world that they have been transferred to present governments. Other books about Kerisses that we are distributing are: -Keris Jawa antara Mistik dan Nalar (Haryono Haryoguritno) -Ensiklopedi Keris (Bambang Harsrinuksmo) -Kriss, passion D'Indonesie (Jean Greffioz) -Traditional weapons of the Indonesian Archipelago (A.G. Zonneveld) -Ragam HULU KERIS Sejak Zaman Kerajaan (Suhartono Rahardjo) limited -De Kris: Magic Relic of Old Indonesia Vol I (G.J.F.J.Tammens ) -De Kris: Magic Relic of Old Indonesia Vol 2 (G.J.F.J.Tammens) -De Kris: Magic Relic of Old Indonesia Vol 3: Not available at this moment -Krisdisk: Krisses from Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines (K S Jensen) -Den Indonesiske Kris (K S Jensen) (Limited) (signed by author) -Spirit of Wood (The art of Malay woodcarving): (limited) For more information about mentioned books you can check the website. Or you can mail me for information. I made some pictures to give a first impression of the very nice book. I have experience in selling keris for the last 10 years. If any doubt please email me or check my site or email me. Please check the pictures and if any questions or you want to see more pictures do not hesitate to call me 00 31 (0) 413-293900 or send me a email: devriesantiek@home.nl. Patrick Place a Bid!