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Old 10th August 2007, 01:19 PM   #8
dennee
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: College Park, MD
Posts: 186
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Josh, sorry, I am just not familiar with this type, not having seen any before June--but since seeing five, I believe. In old photos of Amdowas and Horpas carrying swords, I have never seen that kind of hilt. I have seen similar chapes on Amdo swords (see, for instance, the circa 1930 photo by Griebenow in the Newark Museum, published in "Tibet: A Hidden World, 1905-1935), although photos are usually not terribly clear on that point, and hilts are often hidden by the bloused chubas worn by the subjects. But the visible hilts of such swords are of the typical trilobate type.

The scabbard of yours is not unusual in type, and the blade, of course, is standard, but having not even a vestigial guard is unusual. Even more atypical for Tibetan swords is having grip scales, the more so because they have to be pinned to or through the tang, something that I don't think one sees on any other Tibetan swords. Perhaps it's some sort of Mongol influence. I don't know.
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