Terminology sure can be confusing. I use saber as the translation for dao but knife would be another translation. This would be a zhibeidao in Chinese which would be translated as straight backed knife. In Tibetan they are often called a ke tri but recently one was called Ral Gri in a catalogue of Scott Rodell's. That is not a term I am familiar with. I have also seen the term patang. Phuntsho Rapten, a Bhutanese researcher, calls them patag perhaps an alternative form of patang. In "Arms and armor of Tibet” LaRocca manages to avoid using any specific terms for Tibetan swords perhaps due to the variability in name. I have no idea what the Yi (Moso, Lolo, Noso) call this in any of their six dialects.
A knowledgeable person has told me that Yi culture has influences from Vietnamese culture. This influence would be found along the border of the two regions, but in this case the saber comes from North Western Sichuan so I would not expect to find any Vietnamese influence, just Tibetan and a bit of Chinese culture.
These weapons are largely unknown, but the market for Chinese antiques is going further and further afield in search of things that still have reasonable prices. Recently I have been finding many pieces from various border regions particularly those with Tibetan influence. Until recently these areas were too remote, but the region is being systematically developed and the remaining antiques are finding their way to the market.
Josh
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