Tibet or Bhutan - khukuris?

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That International Sword site has a few things on bhutan and tibetan weapons, Harry. Lost some of my bookmarks but I think it's web address is something like www.vikingsword.com
 
I am not sure, Harry. I have never been to either place but from my association with Tibetans and Bhutanese I'd have to say the khukuri is a rarity in both places.

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Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
I don't know anything about either Tibet or Bhutan, but my wife has been studying the Hmong language and culture for a number of years now. About 10 years ago, she spent some time living with a couple of families in a Hmong village in Thailand. (I was able to visit that village with her the first time she visited, but was not able to stay there with her because I had to return to the US to work.
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)

Anyway, one of the pictures she brought back from that trip is of a Hmong woman peeling some large vegetable (a radish?) with a very large, inward curving knife, i.e., something that looks a lot like a khukuri. She is not a knife person, or otherwise very conscious of tools, so she doesn't really know anything about the knife, but I have always been curious about it.

Paul


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Paul Neubauer
prn@bsu.edu
If the odds are a million to one against something occurring, chances are 50-50 it will.
 
I've visited Thailand several times and have seen a great variety of blades there and the folks seem to know how to use them quite effectively. The village smiths favorite steel? Rusty leaf springs.

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Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
1. I remember hearing that Tibet has the khukuri (and kora also), but I don't remember where (sorry)...
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2. I do know that the Thai have a knife that looks very much like a small khukuri, whose primary function is to cut the infamous durien fruit (hence the name "durien knife") but which has other uses, I'm sure. A knifemaker I met in Bangkok used a 10in. stainless steel one to put a deep chop into the edge of a wood table.
 
I am sure that in Tibet you will see a few khukuris and certainly the Tibetans who migrated to Nepal and India during and after the Communist takeover of their country will use local khukuris. And many Nepalis visit and do commerce with Thailand so there must be some khukuris there, too.

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Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
 
From the research I have done the kukri as we know it only seems to show up in India and Nepal.

The kora has distinctive characteristics for Tibet and Nepal and the ram dao has versions for SEAsia in general. The 'eye' or 'circle' make it Neplaese.

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JP
 
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