Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Ian · 11th February 2015, 01:37 PM

Roy:

I believe this sword once appeared on the Oriental-Arms web site where Artzi described it as a "monstrous dah sword" from Thailand-Laos (see http://oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=2723). That site also related the popular story about these massive dah being wielded by trained war elephants in battle. Despite a mythical drawing on the Oriental-Arms site showing an elephant fighting with such a large sword, there is little evidence to indicate that war elephants actually wielded these swords in battle.

Another site shows a pair of these swords, with a note that they were distributed to Lanna officers, kept in the howdah and used by its occupants against mounted adversaries (see http://michaelbackmanltd.com/1600.html). Again, there is little evidence that they were used in this fashion.

So the jury is out as to what the function of these massive swords may be. Ceremonial use seems most likely to me, as a demonstration of power and wealth of rulers, or possibly as an execution method but frankly, having handled a few of these, I would prefer a well balanced regular dha for that purpose.

Ian.

Here is a picture of the pair of swords shown on the Michael Blackman site.

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11th February 2015, 01:37 PM	#9
Ian Vikingsword Staff Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: The Aussie Bush Posts: 4,031	Roy: I believe this sword once appeared on the Oriental-Arms web site where Artzi described it as a "monstrous dah sword" from Thailand-Laos (see http://oriental-arms.com/photos.php?id=2723). That site also related the popular story about these massive dah being wielded by trained war elephants in battle. Despite a mythical drawing on the Oriental-Arms site showing an elephant fighting with such a large sword, there is little evidence to indicate that war elephants actually wielded these swords in battle. Another site shows a pair of these swords, with a note that they were distributed to Lanna officers, kept in the howdah and used by its occupants against mounted adversaries (see http://michaelbackmanltd.com/1600.html). Again, there is little evidence that they were used in this fashion. So the jury is out as to what the function of these massive swords may be. Ceremonial use seems most likely to me, as a demonstration of power and wealth of rulers, or possibly as an execution method but frankly, having handled a few of these, I would prefer a well balanced regular dha for that purpose. Ian. Here is a picture of the pair of swords shown on the Michael Blackman site. ------------ Attached Images Last edited by Ian; 11th February 2015 at 01:59 PM.