[Iliad]

Greetings to all,
My most recent purchase is this long knife/short sword. The seller bought it at auction, the catalogue description was "Priest's knife". I used this Site's search function and found other examples of such, so I think that it probably is a Priest knife. I shall appreciate the advice of those more expert than I.

What puzzles me a little is that, prior to meeting and marrying me, lucky girl, my wife lived and worked in Thailand for about 5 years, and she says that she saw hundreds of Bhuddist monks but none were obviously carrying such (or any) weapons. So, the question arises, do priests carry weapons? If not, then why are these weapons called Priest's knives?
regards to all,
Brian