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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
Josh and Dennee,
Thank you both so much for the beautifully detailed and well explained data on terminology and differences in Bhutanese vs Tibetan attribution. It seems there has been a great deal of attention recently on Tibetan, Bhutanese and Chinese weapons and its great to see a well established base of knowledge on them.
There is not much in the way of attainable resources that go into any detail so the information is very much appreciated!!! 
All the best,
Jim |
You are very welcome. There is information out there, but it is hard to gather together and tends to reflect either a Chinese imperialist or Western Imperialist viewpoint. For example, Western linguists still use the pejorative Lolo to refer to the Yi, while the word Yi, is from a Chinese variant of barbarian. In their own language the people are called the Nosu, at least according to some things I have read though there are many other names. I suspect Nosu is most correct for the Yi living in the Sichuan area. In terms of swords, the Yi share many historical similarities to the Tibetans in language and culture. Both cultures retain Tang/Song characteristics in their weapons (see
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=4712). The southern Yi in Yunnan are quite different and considered to have Burmese influence in weapons and language. This includes the use of poison arrows. I have yet to find anything with a good provenance from the southern Yi. (Here I am lumping six separate language groups into the northern Sino-Tibetan and southern Sino-Burmese groups.)
This is a set of shuang jian that may be from a southern Yi group. It strongly resembles Ming styles with the extra large lobed pommel with a tassel hole and the big nosed, big-eyed monster face, while also resembling some Tibetan things with the lotus on the pommel. What makes me think this is not Chinese is that all Chinese monster/dragon mouth guards have the blade coming out of the mouth. This one has the handle coming out of the mouth, which while unknown in China is quite common in Vietnam. The combination of Chinese, Tibetan, and Vietnamese characteristics with the retention of Ming characteristics points to the possibility of a southern Yi origin for these shuang jian.
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...duation346.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...duation347.jpg
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...duation343.jpg
I hope this is of interest.
Josh