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The kris or keris is an asymmetrical dagger or sword most strongly associated with the culture of Indonesia, but also indigenous to Malaysia, Southern Thailand and Brunei. It is known as kalis in the southern Philippines. The kris is famous for its distinctive wavy blade (luk), but many have straight blades as well. The numbers of luks is always odd numbered, ranged from three to thirteen waves, however there is also luks that reach 29. Kris can be divided into three parts: bilah (blade), hulu (hilt), and warangka (sheath). These parts of kris are the object of art, often carved in meticulous details and made from various materials; metal, precious rare types of wood to gold or ivory. A kris' aesthetic value covers the dhapur (the form and design of the blade, with around 150 variants), the pamor (the pattern of metal alloy decoration on the blade, with around 60 variants), and tangguh referring to the age and origin of a kris.<br/><br/> Both a weapon and spiritual object, kris are often considered to have an essence or presence, often considered to possess magical powers, with some blades possessing good luck and others possessing bad. Krises are used for display, as talismans with magical powers, weapons, sanctified heirloom (pusaka), auxiliary equipment for court soldiers, as an accessory for ceremonial dress, an indicator of social status, a symbol of heroism, etc. Legendary krisses that possess supernatural power and extraordinary ability were mentioned in traditional folktales, such as the krisses of Mpu Gandring, Taming Sari, and Setan Kober.<br/><br/> It is believed that the earliest kris prototype can be traced to Dong Son bronze culture in Vietnam circa 300 BC that spread to other parts of Southeast Asia. Another theory is that the kris was based on daggers from India. Some of the most famous renderings of a kris appear on the bas-reliefs of Borobudur (825 CE) and Prambanan temple (850 CE). However from Raffles' (1817) study of the Candi Sukuh that the kris recognized today came into existence around 1361 CE in the kingdom of Majapahit, East Java.
The Tacuinum (sometimes Taccuinum) Sanitatis is a medieval handbook on health and wellbeing, based on the Taqwim al‑sihha تقويم الصحة ('Maintenance of Health'), an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad.<br/><br/> Ibn Butlân was a Christian physician born in Baghdad and who died in 1068. He sets forth the six elements necessary to maintain daily health: food and drink, air and the environment, activity and rest, sleep and wakefulness, secretions and excretions of humours, changes or states of mind (happiness, anger, shame, etc). According to Ibn Butlân, illnesses are the result of changes in the balance of some of these elements, therefore he recommended a life in harmony with nature in order to maintain or recover one’s health.<br/><br/> Ibn Butlân also teaches us to enjoy each season of the year, the consequences of each type of climate, wind and snow. He points out the importance of spiritual wellbeing and mentions, for example, the benefits of listening to music, dancing or having a pleasant conversation.<br/><br/> Aimed at a cultured lay audience, the text exists in several variant Latin versions, the manuscripts of which are characteristically profusely illustrated. The short paragraphs of the treatise were freely translated into Latin in mid-thirteenth-century Palermo or Naples, continuing an Italo-Norman tradition as one of the prime sites for peaceable inter-cultural contact between the Islamic and European worlds.<br/><br/> Four handsomely illustrated complete late fourteenth-century manuscripts of the Taccuinum, all produced in Lombardy, survive, in Vienna, Paris, Liège and Rome, as well as scattered illustrations from others, as well as fifteenth-century codices.