SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article examines two objects of Malay royal regalia: the Perak betel-box known as the puan naga taru and the Riau emblem known as the cogan. Drawing on Hobsbawm and Ranger’s articulation of ‘invented tradition’, and on Amoroso’s of ‘traditionalism’ with reference to Malay kingship, detailed comparison of the textual and material records is adduced to argue that the physical objects themselves are likely to be much younger than the traditions underlying them. Colonial officials who documented regalia objects and collected information about them were also implicated in the traditionalising process. Nineteenth-century beliefs and practices about the potency of royal regalia are contrasted with those current in the present day, where the regalia objects are more desacralised than ever before.