According to the Keris expert, The tajong is one of the more well known and yet least understood keris of the Malay Archipelago. Better known as the pekaka, pekakak or kingfisher the tajong is certainly one of the most flamboyant and dramatic keris variants in the family of keris forms. Most commonly associated with the ethnic Malay region of Pattani in Southern Thailand, the tajong and other variants are also known to have originated in the Northwestern Peninsular Malaysian state of Kelantan.
This area formed the core of the ancient empire of Langkasuka which some scholars suggest was centered somewhere near the present day city of Pattani. Since I am currently working and living in Thailand, my focus of collection is therefore on those from Southern Thailand region of the Pattani.
From the expert, The tajong sheath consists of a long, rounded batang and a boat-like sampir or cross-piece with upward curving ends. They generally vary from about a foot and a half to two and a half feet in length. Typically a floral "eye of Shiva" is incised on the cross piece either just behind or both behind and in front of the joint with the batang. The prefered material for the batang is angsana, an indigenous hardwood that typically shows a tight flame across the grain of the wood. The sampir is most commonly either kemuning or ketengga.
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