Very beautiful and rare Tiuk Pengentas from Bali. The ‘Tiuk Pengentas’ is a knife used for funerary ceremonies. Most Balinese believe in reincarnation and when a deceased person will be cremated, it will be first transported in public with a large procession. Then the priest cuts the fabric cord of the deceased from the body with the ‘Tiuk Pengentas’ which resembles cutting the person loose from earthly life, both physically as mentally. The nice details on ferule and handle which can only been made by a high qualified craftman. The wood used is sandelwood. The dimensions are 23x5x3cm. The blade has nice details and engravements on it! Strangely one side of the blade is for the half gold colored... can not decide if it is layed in or something else... rare!