Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 15. (Budapest, 1995)
RENNER Zsuzsanna: R. M. Soelaeman Pringgodigdo, a műgyűjtő diplomata emlékére
land. Here he acquired one of the finest pieces of his kris collection, an example which had belonged to a Balinese prince. From the time he first saw it, he felt strongly attracted towards it and wanted to buy it. The kris, however, as a ritual object and valuable item of a man's inheritance that was to protect the house and secure its prosperity, could only be parted with if the kris itself declared its intention to belong to somebody else. That is exactly what happened in this case. The kris appeared in the prince's dream and let him know that it wanted R. M. Soelaeman Pringgodigdo to be its master. After that, there was no further objection to his buying the kris. Similar stories are known from other traditional cultures as well 15 ; they illustrate the ways in which valuable ritual objects, traditionally considered inalienable, could change hands or pass into the possession of a collector. Several krises in the collection might well have had similar sotries attached to them, e.g. the kris of Pakubowono IX, Susuhunan of Surakarta which used to be a pusaka kris, that is, part of the sacred inheritance of the ruler. Its sheath is decorated with the royal alas-alasan motif and the coat of arms of the Pakubowono family (plate 9). The silver pedang (sword) of the collection used to be another kraton (court) weapon from among the insignia of rank; the silver sword used to be worn by the heir apparent when he left the palace on festive occasions. The spread double wings of the Garuda bird on its sheath refer to the royal rank of its bearer. One of the most spectacular pieces of the kris collection - a golden wedding kris with ivory hilt of the jawa demam type 16 - originally belonged to the traditional costume of a minangkabau nobleman worn at adat ceremonies. The oldest weapons are a trisula, unearthed in a West Javanese excavation, two keris Buda (Buddha krises) believed to be from the 8th century and two 14th-century East Javanese blades (plate 10), one straight with a combination of two pamors (adeg mrambut and kid büntet), the other sinuous with ran genduru pamor design. The latter blade is believed to have originated from Blambangana, one of the last Hindu kingdoms in Java. The weapons from tribal areas are similarly noteworthy, particularly the six mandaus (dayak headhunter swords), all different and finely worked, the two swords from Nias and the batak ceremonial dagger and sword. One of the Nias swords originally belonged to the last emperor of Tapanuli, Sisingamangaraja XII who died in the struggle against the Dutch at the beginning of the 20th century. His sword from Nias was presented to the collector by one of his descendants. The tribal textiles in the collection are many and varied and reflect the great variety of ikats produced at different parts of the Greater and Lesser Sunda Islands. An iban dayak pua (ceremonial cloth) (plate 11) made in the 1910s, three bidangs (woman's skirts), also iban dayak work of the same age, a toraja slendang of the 1930s, a sarong from South Sulawesi made of orchid fibres, a hinggi (man's shoulder cloth or waist cloth, funeral shroud) from Sumba island, an utang lea (woman's sarong) of the 1930s from the Sikka kingdom of Flores, a sarong, simple weave, from West Timor made at the end of the 19th century, a bed mabuna (shoulder cloth) made using the sungkit technique (plate 12) in East Timor around the middle of the 19th century and a sarong, also from East Timor, showing mixed techniques (plate 13) are among the finest textiles in the collection. Of the tribal jewellery indicative of rank, a 19th-century ring of a toba batak priest with the characteristic cockerel on it, a 19th-century pair of ear ornaments from Central Flores and a necklace from Tanimbar, also 19th century, are particularly noteworthy (plate 14). Another group of tribal art in the collection consists of wood carvings: hampatongs and asmat wooden statues. Hampatongs, that is, the small wooden statuettes of the dayak tribes living in the inner parts of Kalimantan, are generally small-size human or animal figures or demons that are symbols of the threefold division of the universe as conceived in dayak cosmology, and are used for healing and warding off evil forces. The several dozens hampatongs in the collection are from East Kalimantan, from the 19th century. There are representatives of
