J

span class="caption" style="width: 468px;">JP/Theresia SufaFor the sake of achieving his ambition of becoming a crafter of kujang, a traditional weapon of the Sundanese community, Wahyu Affandi Suradinata gave up his teaching profession and chose to preserve the heritage of the Pajajaran kingdom in West Java.

Wahyu, born in Bandung on Aug. 3, 1953, is now a noted craftsman forging Pajajaran styled kujang, a sickle-like blade formerly used especially by royal family members. As a sharp multipurpose weapon, kujang is used according to its types and functions.

Before being engaged in kujang crafting, Wahyu worked as a teacher for 34 years in three schools, which were vocational and technical high schools in Bogor and Sukabumi, West Java.

“As a teacher for 34 years, I received honorariums worth only Rp 600,000 (US$63) – 800,000 per month, which was very hard for my family to make ends meet. This forced us to divorce, possibly because my wife wasn’t strong enough to go on skimping and I had to let her leave me in 1995,” said Wahyu.

After the divorce, Wahyu was determined to devote more time to kujang making as a hobby, with the support of a Sundanese cultural expert from Sukabumi, Anis Jati Sunda, who gave him various books on the history of the Pajajaran kingdom.

To enrich his knowledge of the Pajajaran weapon, besides reading books, he also frequently visited museums where Pajajaran kingdom heirlooms were displayed, such as the museums of Kasepuhan in Cirebon and Geusan Ulun
in Sumedang.

In 1996, Wahyu began focusing on kujang craftwork by setting up a workshop called Paneupaan Kujang Pajajaran, which was part of his house, located on Jl. Parung Banteng, Katulampa subdistrict, Bogor.

Kujang comes in 10 types and is used by different social classes. For instance, kujang ciung (bird-like) with nine notches, is used by kings and Brahmans, with seven notches is for princes and ministers, five notches for regents, three notches for village heads and one notch for village guards.

There are also kujang jago (rooster-like) meant for warriors, kujang kuntul (egret-like) for chief ministers and communal figures, kujang bangkong (frog-like) for teachers, and kujang naga (dragon-like) for district chiefs.

Wahyu’s kujang pieces are mostly bought by collectors from Kalimantan, Central Java and East Java. The other buyers are noble class descendants from Kutai, Mentawai, Sumatra and Palembang. They are generally interested in nine notch and seven notch kujang ciung.

However, Wahyu is unprepared to comply with such customer requests because the two types of kujang during the Pajajaran era belonged to only kings, princes and the nobility. His available blades are sold at prices ranging from Rp 240,000 to Rp 990,000.

Almost daily, Wahyu is visited by customers who buy or order the Pajajaran weapon in large quantities for souvenirs. But some guests visit his workshop only to get informed of the shapes of kujang and the story behind the daggers of Pajajaran. Yet he enjoys his job and his wife, whom he married in 1997, helps him procure the materials for kujang making.

“I never thought I would be forging kujang at this age. If only I had started this work at 30, the public here, especially the local younger generation, would have been acquainted with kujang much sooner, instead of just learning about it from history books and pictures or museums,” said the father of six.

With a rising number of people ordering his kujang Wahyu decided to quit his teaching job in 2011 and concentrate on his new profession as a kujang crafter in his advancing years, which earned him the title of guru teupa or empu (master craftsman).