Amok, The first Dha I bought is identical to yours (my son has it now and thinks it's cool), Definately made for the tourist trade, although I paid $25 for mine IN THAILAND so yours is a better deal. No historical signifigance to the design, the Thais just know that Westerners like a lot of carving so they made what they thought would sell.
Jmings, Rhys is right that this is a contemporary blade and probably very recent as I haven't seen this handle design before or this extent of design on this type of scabbard (the top design looks like an Erawan, three headed elepant, and the three four pointed stars on the bottom match a design found on the dha hwang knives carried by the northern hill tribes, kind of a mix-mash). As my son would say - "So what-they still look cool"!
Dan
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