New book and swords: Tibetan

ariel · 6th April 2006, 02:34 AM

Today, April 5, is the opening of the exhibition in the Metropolian Museum in New York:" Warriors of the Himalayas" dedicated to the weapons of Tibet. They published a boook (a catalogue of sorts, only 300+ pages!), written mainly by Donald LaRocca. I was in NY several days ago and bought it (softcover) for $45. Amazon.com will be selling a hardcover version for $75.
Good book, with quite a lot of useful information. One piece of info: Philip Tom is referenced there as preparing a book on Chinese weapons. That should be extremely interesting!!
Tibetan swords per se are not my taste, but still one needs to know the field.
I have three and here they are: the most frequent variety, the short sword and the Bhutanese dagger (notice the difference in pommels: that is apparently how Tibetan are differentiated from Bhutanese). Both swords have faint "hairpin" construction of the blade and this is the hallmark of the genuinely old blades. How old? Well, even in the book the best they could come up with for similar swords is 17th-19th century. No signatures, no style difference over several centuries. The longest one is traditionally called Ke-tri, the dagger is Dughti, the middle one... anybody knows?

6th April 2006, 02:34 AM	#1
ariel Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 5,503	New book and swords: Tibetan Today, April 5, is the opening of the exhibition in the Metropolian Museum in New York:" Warriors of the Himalayas" dedicated to the weapons of Tibet. They published a boook (a catalogue of sorts, only 300+ pages!), written mainly by Donald LaRocca. I was in NY several days ago and bought it (softcover) for $45. Amazon.com will be selling a hardcover version for $75. Good book, with quite a lot of useful information. One piece of info: Philip Tom is referenced there as preparing a book on Chinese weapons. That should be extremely interesting!! Tibetan swords per se are not my taste, but still one needs to know the field. I have three and here they are: the most frequent variety, the short sword and the Bhutanese dagger (notice the difference in pommels: that is apparently how Tibetan are differentiated from Bhutanese). Both swords have faint "hairpin" construction of the blade and this is the hallmark of the genuinely old blades. How old? Well, even in the book the best they could come up with for similar swords is 17th-19th century. No signatures, no style difference over several centuries. The longest one is traditionally called Ke-tri, the dagger is Dughti, the middle one... anybody knows? Attached Images