[Mark]

Originally Posted by RhysMichael

About the sword above. I know we usually think of it as Kachin but has anyone ever seen pictures of it also being used by the Singpho. I think I saw a picture of that somewhere but I cannot lay my hands on it right now

Are we talking about the long one that started the thread, or the stumpy ones in the last photo? Here are "Kachin" with stumpy ones:
circa 1883 (Colquhoun, "Across Chryse"):

circa 1886 (photo by by Lt. Col. W.W. Hooper, Hulton-Deutsch Collection):

circa 1943:

And several long ones (Kachin Rangers, circa 1943-45):


Unfortunately, the sources do not specify to which "Kachin" group these dha-bearers belong. I believe (based on the clothing), that the men in the first photo are Singpho/Jingpaw, and actually their swords look rather long and could in fact be the long variety. But I am no expert on Burmese ethnic dress, however, so the attribution could be incorrect.

Egerton describes the short "Kachin" dha (the Jingpaw word for dha is "nhtu," by the way), quoting an earlier auther, Lewin: "It is a blade about 18" long, narrow at the haft, square and broad at the top, pointless and sharpened on one side only. The blade is set in a handle of wood, a bamboo root being considered the best." An Illustrated Handbook of Indian Arms, 1880, p. 88. This is a very good description of what is sometimes called a "Gaga" dao or dha. He also describes the long version: "The fighting "dao" is differently shaped. This is a long pointless sword, set in a wooden or ebony handle; it is very heavy, and a blow of almost incredible power can be given by one of these weapons." Both are distinguished from the Bama dha: "Besides the 'dao' or short sword, the common weapon is a cutlass, the blade of which is curved in continuation of the curve of the handle." p. 92.

Burton also describes the "Naga" dao in a way that clearly shows he is talking about the same weapon as the short version of the Kachin dha: "Another good specimen of the 'Turanian blade' is the formidable Dao of the Naga tribe, south-east of Assam. It is a thick, heavy backsword [i.e., single-edged], eighteen inches long, with a bevel where the point should be, worn at the waist in a half-scabbard of wood, and used for digging as well as killing." The Book of the Sword, 1884, p. 140. Burton draws the link directly between this blade and the Bama dha: "The Dah of Burma is originally the same weapon as the Naga Dao." p. 140, footnote 1. Burton could be wrong, of course - in an illustration he does show a kora instead of a Naga dao, but the illustration does not accord with his description so IMO the error is in the picture, not the text.

As for the Khamti, though they have moved far west, they are a Shan (Tai) race, not Tibeto-Burman like the "Kachin." The Shan/Kachin culture is very complex where the two overlap in territory, though, with an almost symbiotic relationship between the dry rice Kachin culture of the uplands, and the wet-rice Shan culture of the valleys, involving a lot of overlap and exchange between the two. See generally Leach, political Systems of Highland Burma, 1954. Egerton, in fact, notes that the Khamti Shan of the Naga Hills carry the short "Naga" dao, and not the curved Shan/Tai sword: "The [Khamti] men are seldom seen without the "dao" hanging in its sheath (plain or ornamented according to the condition of the wearer) by a sling made of split rattan. It is worn somewhat in frint so the that the hilt is readily grasped in the right hand." P. 85. The scabbard Egerton describes can only be that of a Kachin or "Naga" dao (which as seen in the pictures above, is worn exactly as Egerton describes it):

The Shan & Bama dha are worn differently, with a rope badric, under the left arm:


It seems that it was the Duleng Kachin who were the real swordsmiths, as blacksmithing was considered a low-status profession by the Shan (Leach, pp. 57, 233, 251). Though Egerton expressly says that the Khamti were excellent sword-smiths (p. 85), I think that this can be explained by there being Kachin blacksmiths living among the Khamti, as one of the fascinating phenomena described by Leach is that frequently Kachin and Shan will move between communities and "become" one of the other people - i.e., an upland Kachin living down in a Shan village will live as a Shan and even consider himself to be "Shan," and vice versa.