Intresting subject & pieces guys.
I have had a few of them, They are definatly made in Nepal, possibly India as well ,but I have no idea of what they are realy called. Although I did here the term Churi on one occasion from a Nepali dealer. But sadley he seemed slighty uncertan of the exact prounoceation & just said it was a villagers knife up in the mountains.
There are many antique styles of knife in Nepal that we dont often see in the west, althought I didnt see any antique ones of these. These all seem definatly mid 20th century to me.
Darjeeling although in India has a population of mainly Nepal descent. Many areas in India have massive Gurkha {Gorkha} & Nepali populations & have done for at least 150 years. {Currently over 100,ooo Nepali citizons in thier armed forces & probaly 5x that amount of Nepali ancestry. Probably are similar situation as more people of Irish descent in America than in Ireland.}
Gurkhas have fought The Afghan tribes since about the 1840s I think {many who today are of course in Pakistan a country the British {& others} invented {same as Iraq.} by drawing a line on a map, tying together tribes who had fought for years as is they were a common people.,
Afghan style weapons turn up in Nepali collections & would certanly have got to the British hill stations & garrison towns of which Darjeeling is one.
So diffusian of ideas is possible.
Spiral
|