The ‘Tiuk Pengentas’ is a knife used for funerary ceremonies. Most Balinese believe in reincarnation and when a deceased person will be cremated, it will be first transported in public with a large procession. Then the priest cuts the fabric cord of the deceased from the body with the ‘Tiuk Pengentas’ which resembles cutting the person loose from earthly life, both physically as mentally.
The term ‘wedung’ is often used for these ceremonial knives, but ‘wedung’ is a Javanese term, used for a Javanese ceremonial knife. The term ‘Tiuk Pengentas’ is Balinese Bahasa and specifically from Buleleng and Singaraja.

These Balinese examples are commonly known for their decoration with brass or gold inlay and typical ‘Naga’ monster on top of the spine as can be seen on another Tiuk Pengentas from our sold archive in 2020 here.

This example:

One of the finest examples in its kind, complete with scabbard. The knife has a wooden hilt, elaborately carved with a ‘Garuda’ mask and foliage. It was mounted on a brass ferrule which was attached to the blade with resin. The blade is very thick, features a straight spine which is inlayed with brass. The top of the spine features a very high quality chiseled bronze ‘Naga’. The single, tapering cutting edge is curved and end in a sharp tip. The blade shows a single fuller on the frontside of the blade running down from the forte towards the tip.

The scabbard is made of two slabs of red lacquered wood which shows a fine and elaborately hand carved motif of flower petals and foliage motifs. The scabbard shows traces of gilding and has tiger stripes depicted on the front, which shows an impressive series of black lacquer and gold. Balinese scabbards tend to be oversize and are, like the keris, often much longer than the actual blade. The back of the scabbard is decorated with stenciled floral motifs.

Condition: Very good condition, the scabbard suffered a small chip near the top and two brass inlays are missing. Including are scabbard.

Dimensions:

Hilt length: 17.6cm

Blade length: 24cm

Blade spine thickness: 8mm
Scabbard length: 49.4cm

Total length: 63.4cm

Weight:

Comparable examples:
– Tropenmuseum Amsterdam acc. nr. TM-1033-1

– Tropenmuseum Amsterdam acc. nr. TM-1772-525
– Wereldmuseum Rotterdam acc. nr. WM-2615

Provenance: Dutch private collection

Literature:

–  Albert G van Zonneveld’s “Traditional Weapons of the Indonesian Archipelago”, page 74, Fig 287.