The Kris In his Supernatural World

Ing - G.J.F.I. Tammens

The Back of the Book

"The religious thinking pattern surrounding THE KRIS, can be seen as very diffuse."

Speaking is the writer of this book Gerard Tammens, old president o the V.N.W. (Dutch organization of weapon collectors), born in 1924 in the small town Gorinchem.He already became interested in everything Indonesian and especially the kris as early as the 1930's.

In recent years the specialized books "De KRIS 1, 2 and 3 written by him got publicized.

This fourth book gives a totally different view about this interesting subject and does so with twenty stories.

Opening Poem - Offering flowers

This is my lust to fly high above the earth on the wings of my thoughts.

In the deep blue of the horizons, where the sunlight lit clouds sail without a purpose.

Where never ever the Miracle explained itself,
There the spirit takes his flight to the far away,
the void.

But never can the eyes,
no matter how they stare,
Fathom the unthinkable Beauty of the sky.

Oh misunderstood pain, that always hurts,
That always pushes me to carry on,

To the far away,
never reachable End.

Like a flower bathing in sunshine the soul – clean still in the dress made by space and time – in joy, the shine of eternity.

Naar Raden Mas
NOTO SOEROTO
1922

Introduction to the Book
by Roelman W. Immink MD
3101 Saturday court
Finksburg, MD 21048, USA

It's an honor for me to write an introduction for part four of the series "The Kris" gathered by my good friend Gerard Tammens. Those who know the first three parts of "The Kris," know what an extraordinary piece of scientific work is made in them. His thorough and detailed knowledge of the subject the kris in all his aspects is unrivalled. His books are one of the most sought after works about the subject. This is for the layman, as well as the more knowledgeable kris collector. So we know for sure that part 4 will be as well received as the other three parts. Everyone who has something to do with krisses knows about the existence of the magical powers, attributed to the kris. There's no escape from it. Especially speaking about the Kris Pusaka, the sacred heirloom, made by a famous Empu, according to century old tradition. Born in the former Dutch-Indies I personally was confronted by "magic", which is a part of the daily existence in the Indonesian culture. There it is almost normal to live according to the possibility of magic, the silent force. It was not that important whether one believed in it or not. It was a kind of feeling, you simply kept it in the back of the mind and accepted, without asking, the people the way they were. Without a doubt the kris is a magnificent piece of art and a witness of a century old tradition. That an Empu was able to make such a magnificent piece of art that can fascinate us so, which is so breathtaking, so respect demanding, is a form of "magic" in itself. I pray that this fourth part will give the reader as much pleasure as the previous parts.

Introduction by Gerard Tammens

Never say never is a known way of speaking. After three parts "The Kris, magic relic of Indonesia" I was inclined to say, "It has been good enough". Most of the facts about krisses are out of the unknown and published, with almost 900 pages one can truthfully say, "I did my best to contribute what I could to benefit the kris."

There will always be people who disagree with what another one writes, rightly so or not. Luckily the positive reactions were the majority. Even so through the years people told me on a regular basis that the part on "unexplained event with krisses" was very small and I have to admit that I wrote little about it and when I did it was rather unattached and neutral. But the kris has his origin in both technique and magic. It has always been my goal to fill the three parts of "The Kris" with sober and as much checkable information and a lot of illustrations. When I hear the reaction I think this goal is achieved.

But a steady drop of water can hollow out a rock and the repeating question or a book with mystic "old Indies" stories about krisses, had an effect in the long run. Dutch Indonesian stories and Dutch Indonesian stories are two different things especially when they are about the Kris. Furthermore I noticed that a lot of the old stories resembled each other very much, and a book with horror stories is easily written. That is one of the reasons why I chose a different approach. So I didn't write down the stories people told me but instead the storyteller wrote his/her story him/herself. I only fitted them into the book. It makes the whole more believable because the stories "live" more and it makes the book more "tasty".

Of course I know the names of the writers and the places where the events took place. But nothing from this will be publicly known unless the writer gives a written authorization.

I already said that stories often resemble each other. A typical example is the story about the blood kris. It is mostly about a kris that was involved in a murder. On certain times, usually in the morning, one finds little pools of blood under the kris. Another story is about the standing kris. I already explained how this works in part I of "THE KRIS" but a lot of people swear that they have seen it, even on a newspaper held by four men.

I will be the last person to deny strange and incomprehensible events with the kris and I always believe people who tell about them immediately. But I have a nasty habit, I want to see and experience. Some, very strange events, written down in this book I experienced myself. So in part I'm a content and happy man. Like I told already during the past years a lot of people told me wonderful stories and I don't have a reason not to believe them. Out of these stories this book came to "life". My thanks for this, and for all the other help. I hope you will have enjoyable hours with the book. One last word of advice: "Don't get scared".