Dha for coments

[Mark]

Originally Posted by RhysMichael

Its always hard to work just from pictures but to me it does not look like a tourist item. It looks legit. This style of dha have simple blades. I personally have never seen one of these that did not have a rather plain blade to it. The dha I have with inlaid blades have for the most part simpler scabbards. I'm guessing this to be shan but others will know better. It looks to be one I would be happy to have in my collection from the pictures so congratulations

What he said.

This is indeed a Shan style, and the handle is one of the typical forms, so it has not been re-shaped.

Saying it is "Shan" is not a very precise geographic designator, though, as the people called Shan by the Bama (Burmese), but who refer to themselves as Tai or Tai Yuan, live in a area covering parts of Burma, Thailand, Yunnan, and Laos, and I am not sure whether this particular style is favored in a particular sub-zone of this area. They are certainly commonly found in Burma, so I think that it is safe to say that they are used at least by the Burma Shan, and it is my working assumption that this is a style favored in the western areas of Tai territory.