- Taming Sari
The Keris Taming Sari is a very famous
keris in Malay culture. It is the Malay equivalent ofKing Arthur 's "Excalibur " and was supposedly owned by the legendary Malay warriorHang Tuah . It is said to possess magical powers. The keris was a prize from theJava nese kingdom ofMajapahit to Hang Tuah after he won a fight with a warrior named Taming Sari. The keris derives its name from the original owner.According to legend, Hang Tuah, in the end, gave this
Keris to Tun Mamat to be returned toSultan Mahmud Shah 1488 -1511 when he failed to bring back the Princess fromGunung Ledang . The Sultan had sent him there to bring the mythical Princess back to Malacca to be his queen. Hang Tuah then disappeared and was never seen or heard of again. Another version of the legend has it that Hang Tuah had thrown the keris into the river, saying that he would return when the keris re-appeared. This has led some to believe that the real Taming Sari has disappeared, like the legend of the sword Excalibur.It is unique in that it is made of twenty-one different types of metal- supposedly metal leftover from the forging of the bolts of the holy
Ka'aba . It was said that Taming Sari could do Hang Tuah's fighting for him - if Hang Tuah was menaced or in any danger, the keris would leap out of its sheath, fly through the air and attack the assailant. The whole of the "sampir" and "batang" are covered in gold leaf. The keris is classified as a "keris gabus" or "keris terapang".The kris still exists today and is part of the royal regalia of
Sultan Azlan Shah , the Sultan ofPerak ,Malaysia .Before the Taming Sari became part of the Perak Royalty's regalia, it is believed to have been a hereditary article of the family of the
Laksamana (Navy Admiral) who for generations, through succession, ruled as the territorial chief of Hilir Perak.It is believed that the last territorial chief who had the famed keris in his possession was Laksamana Mohd Amin Alang Duakap. In
1876 , he was arrested alongside many otherrich aristocrats of his time for the alleged involvement in the murder of the firstBritish Resident ,James W.W. Birch . Together with Datuk Shahbandar Uda Kediti (the territorial chief of Kerian), Sultan Abdullah (the reigning Perak monarch of the time) and Menteri Paduka Ngah Ibrahim (the famous administrator of tin-rich Larut), Laksamana Mohd Amin was banished to theSeychelles .After that, the British administration in Perak seized the properties of the territorial chiefs involved and these included the Taming Sari. However, the Sultan Yussuf, who succeeded the banished Sultan Abdullah, persuaded the British not to take the keris away to
England Fact|date=August 2008 and managed to gain possession of the keris.However, some historians and a few romanticists believe that the real Taming Sari is still missing similar to the legend of Excalibur.
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