Hi Mark:
That looks like a very old blade, and the guard seems to be contemporary to the blade.
The style of hilt suggests Cambodian, although the disk guard is a little wider than usual.
The blade is not really a continuous curve. The last third is curved up but the rest of the blade is essentially straight. Don't think I've seen that before on a dha. And the blade is narrower than most dha. I have an old Cambodian dha that also has a vey narrow blade, so there may be some consonance with Mark's suggestion of a Cambodian origin. The vegetative decoration could reflect a ritual purpose.
I'm stumped in coming up with a precise attribution. Cambodian seems most likely, but Vietnamese or Lao are not out of the question. The single ferrule and wooden handle is also a feature of N. Thailand, but the wide disk guard puts me off a Thai origin.
Intriguing piece.
Ian.
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