Siping-siping, simping-simping, or sisimping, is a type of armor used in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. It is a short sleeveless jacket made of scale-shaped metal plates.

Description

Unlike the

kawaca Kawaca is a term for war attire mentioned in Old Javanese texts. Its name comes from the Sanskrit ''kawaca'' which means armor, cuirass, a type of chain mail, any kind of cover, corset, jacket. Description Petrus Josephus Zoetmulder, in his Old ...

which was only worn by high-ranking warriors, this battle outfit was mostly worn by infantry soldiers. It is usually defined as

scale armor Scale armour (or scale mail) is an early form of armour consisting of many individual small armour scales (plates) of various shapes attached to each other and to a backing of cloth or leather in overlapping rows. Those who proved themselves in battle mentioned in the ''Nawanatya'' (a court etiquette manual composed in the 14th century) had jackets "decorated with shell discs". Several Javanese text indicated that some are made of

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other with ...

. At first the word ''siping''-''siping'' referred to a type of sea shell and its shell. It first appeared in the Kadiri (1042–1222) texts. In Modern Javanese, the word ''simping'' still refers to a kind of oyster shell. According to the Great Indonesian Dictionary, ''simping'' is "a

scallop Scallop () is a common name that encompasses various species of marine bivalve mollusks in the taxonomic family Pectinidae, the scallops. However, the common name "scallop" is also sometimes applied to species in other closely related families ...

whose shell is round, flat and thin, one shell is red and more convex than the other shell which is white" or ''

Amusium pleuronectes ''Amusium pleuronectes'' is a species of bivalves belonging to the family Pectinidae. The species is found in Southeastern Asia and Australia. They are edible and sold at wet markets in Malaysia. In Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ...

''. The Pitt River Museum has a Javanese scale armor made of horns. It is sleeveless and designed to resemble pangolin scales.

References

{{Indonesian weapons Indonesian inventions Asian armour Body armor Military equipment of antiquity Military equipment of Indonesia

Description

See also

References