Gianyar, Regency

Pande Nala:
An Expert in Making Daggers

The Dagger has been important since ancient Balinese times. It is believed to possess sacred powers and is stored in a shrine beside the owners’ home. Kings and knights formerly used this weapon, which is produced by blacksmiths, but at present it is an implement used by dancers and the ‘pecalang’ police in order to keep peace and order in traditional villages.

Now making daggers is in the hands of a limited few because of the intricacy related to the process of production demanding serious prerequisites concerning the makers’ strength and precision. Due to the prerequisites, the blacksmith should be careful to prevent dangerous accidents such as being scratched or wounded by implements because of the impossibility to heal it by standard medical ways.
Pande Ketut Nala, who lives in Babakan, Blahbatuh, Gianyar, has dedicated his skills to making daggers since his childhood. He originally started making knives and other cutting tools by following his father’s example, Nala told Bali Travel News recently.
Nala has showed an interest in daggers since the 1980s when he found the white iron texture (pamor) inherent in a dagger created in a way independent of manual tricks or any spiritual forecast. Pamor is highly dependent on human inner power in working out the weapon affecting to a long time and repeated experiments needed whether or not the dagger product be instilled with inner power, Nala added.
Nala, who’s wife is Ni Nyoman Murni, said there are three common standard materials as follows: (1) What Balinese called tabuhan looking similar to a bee nest, (2) iron panjer bumi capable of being divided into two parts by striking test, and (3) nickel iron. These three kinds of irons should form a combination with the nickel iron placed in the middle before heating it until red.
“Striking the material by moving it in circles is done repeatedly to unite all the three iron materials, in a continuous process, followed by packing and laying a cover of iron. These are parts of the process of producing a dagger made from the combination of 5 kg iron and one-fourth kg of nickel.
Making a sacred dagger is quite different from making an ornamental one. It is made in such a way that follows the combining of irons, the object returns to the ordering customer for the sake of a ritual arrangement by the latter on a certain proper day. Such an accomplishment takes place following dagger formation, sharpening and shining on a carefully selected day.
The final transfer of the object to the customer as a commodity takes place during a small scale pasupati ceremony, enabling the iron fit to be called a dagger in a spiritual sense. The new pasupati ritual in the future is a prerequisite to preserve the dagger’s sacredness.
There are several sorts of daggers incapable of preserving its inner powers, such as what the Balinese term as the tali wangke dagger. This has a line crossing the dagger or white lines from the right to the left side which demand continuous sacrifice at the expense burdened to the owner.
The second continuous-sacrifice demanding dagger is that of pamor penyundang desti which has an inner power with texture lines located at the dagger point in an outward direction from left to right, believed to be capable of provoking enmity at home.
Mr. Nala usually makes a dagger of 20 - 45 cm in length with a production duration of about 15 days. The dagger holder and sheet are made of a liberally chosen wood with alternatives of sandalwood or such called tiga kancu wood. “I only prepare the dagger, while its holder and sheet are made by others,” Pande Ketut Nala told Bali Travel News, adding that in 1999 orders came from special Dutch tourists visiting Bali just to learn how to make daggers. (Sana)