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Originally Posted by Dajak
Hi Willem as you can read it shows that dohung is not an weapon al this can be found in the books and that dohungs have only being used before 1850
is not true.
I have an pedang that was taken to England in 1820 , many weapons was taken to europe in that time so if they did fight a lot with dohungs there was
also taken dohungs from the battlefield never read about that.
There is no evidence for it .
That there is some arabic influence in Borneo is true read history books .
Ben
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Hi Ben,
If you should have read the book that you bougth from me ( Schwaner ) you could clearly see on page 80 of the second part,that Schwaner give an excelent explanation about the use and History of the Dohong.
Schwaner was ther between 1843-1847.
here the translation of the text:
" The shield and mandau are imported on a later date but now very common.
In history the place of the mandau was taken by the Dohong and parang.
the Dohong must have been an ancesteral weapon.
It was a broad sword about one foot length, in the shape of a lance point and had a 8 inch long ,thick and round hilt, turned from ivory-so no doubt a outland creation-. from the dohong there are only a few examples left,which are kept as heirlooms from there ancestors.
nowadays they are only used to spread the blood of there victims on their bodies and to cut of the navel-string of the newborn kids."
So its quite clear we have here a very early evidence for the use of the dohong as well as a weapon in very early pre-mandau times, and after that being used indeed as a ritual dagger because of the heirloom status of the dagger.
There are also Dohongs in the collection of Bronbeek, a collection mainly built up by stuff from the battlefield.
About the arabic influence, I don't think that the arabs did their had their influence on the Dohong but the Malay.
The turned wooden hilt final is an detail that is used in many Malay objects and also daggers, see " Spirit of wood,the art of malay woodcarving".
Also I think that seen the large migrations in Borneo about 200 years ago, where the Kajans and Ibans where pushing from the north its good possible that the dagger (or the design) has been taken with tribes who did first live in the north put where pused to move to the south.The Dohong is mainly found among the Ngadjoe and Ot danum.
The ivory hilts could also be imorted by traders from Banjarmassin.
Finally, the use of the turned hilt final is a Budistic stupa symbol.
sources: Schwaner -beschrijving van het stroomgebied van den Barito
by C.A.L.M.Schwaner 1853
farisch A.Noor and Eddin Khoo Spirit of Wood