Help ID'ing a spear-head/knife

[yuanzhumin]

Hello,

Well, its the first time I see such a four faced figures added on a Northern Taiwanese aboriginal knife. This is absolutely not traditional, even if the face appears not recently done.

This is an Atayal/Sediq/Truku knife, and non of them had carved human figures except the one made much later, starting mid-40s, and only to sell to outsiders in order to make money.

The design with a happy or sad and 2 other different faces is more a western concept.

[kronckew]

I suspect the butt plug was not original and was added sometime after, possibly by a favoured child pushing one of it's toys into daddy's knife & dad liked it.

or a crude early version of:

The four faces of the Buddah: https://www.novica.com/p/balinese-bu...uddhas/219486/

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by kronckew

I suspect the butt plug was not original and was added sometime after, possibly by a favoured child pushing one of it's toys into daddy's knife & dad liked it.

Agree with you. When the knife would be mine I would remove the wood plug.

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by yuanzhumin

Hello,

The design with a happy or sad and 2 other different faces is more a western concept.

See my edited post above re: the four faces of the Buddah.

[Richard G]

Yes, a significant and common Buddhist motif
try https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phra_Phrom
Regards
Richard

[shayde78]

Thank you for the comments. The plug seems intentionally made for the socket, and the faces deftly carved by someone familiar with the motif.

Also, has anyone seen such an example with a socket hilt? It has remnants of a pithy wood deep in the socket, as though it was mounted as a spear/pole arm. Thoughts?