We then flew back to Kathmandu and embarked on a fact finding mission in the all the antique shops we could find (far to many).
At every opportunity I asked the shop owners and staff about the spelling of kora/Khora, and of their historical use, and they just confirmed what had been said before.
The first pic is of fighting khunda, but it was emphasized that they were also use for Sacraficing;
In this shop the owner said that the sword was the prefered weapon over the khunda and produced a couple swords for us as if to emphasize his point;
I then asked him (amongst many others) if they had specific names for the hilts below;
The shop owner just said sword hilts, which was the common theme with everyone we asked.
I did manage to pick up a very nice double handed fighting kukri whilst going around;
Ravi with the all important Nepalese traditional bow;
And a Dhal
