Reference Tools for South East Asian Edged Weapons

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Hi Imas,
Its always impressive to see someone with a serious approach to learning more on a certain field of weapons, and the two references you already have are of course key. I would note that the core of knowledge here on these kinds of weapons is phenomenal, and if you use the search feature you will find important threads with tons of information.

Also, when you first pull up 'Ethnographic Sword Forum' , instead of going to forums, scroll down and you will see articles written by members here and resourced material such as plates from Kriegers outstanding Smithsonian work (1926).
The work by Ian Greaves, Mark Bowditch and Andrew Winston is amazing in thier "Swords of Continental Southeast Asia" which is among the material in these links, as well as Mark's "Dha Research Archive".
Until the work done by these gentlemen, there were virtually no resources on these weapons were available in the west, and this was seminal work entailing years of experience in handling and acquiring examples of dha.




All best regards,
Jim

Thanks for the kind words, Jim. Looking at that article now, I'm still amazed at how little we really know. My personal research, such as it was, effectively ended a few years ago as work and family conspired to consume my limited free time. Perhaps when my kids are grown and I retire...

In any event, at this point, I hope that our Thai and Burmese colleagues "on the ground" in SEA will someday publish a definitive work. In the interim, I suspect one of my co-authors may be quietly continuing his research.

Best,
Andrew