Dha or Dao?

Mark · 14th August 2006, 01:14 AM

Egerton calls these "fighting" dao, as distinguished from the shorter and heavier "dao," in the text, but referring to one illustrated (#205, Fig. 19) he just calls it a sword. There is a Jingpaw word, "nhtu," which means "sword" (according to Leach, Political Systems of Highland Burma) but I don't know if it refers to the longer or shorter version.

I'm a little up in the air at the moment about whether to call these dao or dha, but I favor dha. I have never seen where or why swords from the Naga & Kachin hills were even called "dao," for one thing. "Dha" is a Burmese word, though, so its probably not what a Jingpaw would have called his sword.

Something curious: looking at the tip of the scabbard, the two halves appear mis-matched, but not at the top.

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14th August 2006, 01:14 AM	#12
Mark Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 987	Egerton calls these "fighting" dao, as distinguished from the shorter and heavier "dao," in the text, but referring to one illustrated (#205, Fig. 19) he just calls it a sword. There is a Jingpaw word, "nhtu," which means "sword" (according to Leach, Political Systems of Highland Burma) but I don't know if it refers to the longer or shorter version. I'm a little up in the air at the moment about whether to call these dao or dha, but I favor dha. I have never seen where or why swords from the Naga & Kachin hills were even called "dao," for one thing. "Dha" is a Burmese word, though, so its probably not what a Jingpaw would have called his sword. Something curious: looking at the tip of the scabbard, the two halves appear mis-matched, but not at the top.