Taming Sari

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The Keris Taming Sari is a very famous keris in Malay culture. It is equivalent to King Arthur's "Excalibur" and was allegedly owned by the legendary Malay warrior Hang Tuah. The keris is said to possess magical powers. The keris is a prize from the Javanese kingdom of Majapahit (precursor of Indonesia) to Hang Tuah after winning a fight in the Kingdom with Taming Sari, and thus deriving the name from the original owner.

It is stated that Hang Tuah gave this Keris to Tun Mamat to be returned to Sultan Mahmud Shah 1488-1511 when he failed to bring back the Princess from Gunung Ledang. Hang Tuah then disappeared and never returned to the palace and Malacca.

It was special in that it was made of twenty one types of iron - supposedly metal left over from the forging of the bolts of the Ka'aba. It was said that Taming Sari could do Hang Tuah's fighting for him - if Hang Tuah were menaced or in any way endangered, the keris would leap out of its sheath all by itself, fly through the air and attack the assailant, moving in the air whichever way the assailant dodged or turned, until it hit its mark. The whole of the sampir and batang are covered in gold leaf, making it a keris gabus or keris terapang.

The kris still exists today and is part of the regalia of Sultan Azlan Shah, the Sultan of Perak, Malaysia.

Before the alleged Taming Sari became part of the Perak Royalty's regalia, the famed keris 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, Mohd Amin was arrested alongside many other rich aristocrats of his time for the alleged involvement in the murder of the first British 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), Mohd Amin was banished to the Seychelles.

After the banishment, the British administration in Perak seized the properties of the territorial chiefs involved and these included the said Taming Sari. However, the Malay ruler who succeeded the banished Sultan Abdullah, that is Sultan Yussuf, persuaded the British not to take the keris away to England (this detail has yet to be confirmed academically) and that it be handed over him.