Manipuri Chamtun

[RobT]

Hi All,

Thank you Kronckew for posting this weapon. I had never heard of it before but now I want one. I noticed immediately how similar to a panabas the chamtun looks. The second thing that got my attention was how the blades were used with two hands to deliver rapid, alternating cutting strokes. In all three videos, only during lulls in the action were the blades held in one hand. Once combat resumed, virtually all cuts were made with two hands. The last thing that I saw took a while to register fully. In the third video (the most stylized of the three), I was taken by the ritualized poses that the combatants struck during lulls in the action. Two days after seeing the video, I realized that the poses were like those that I had seen on dha story blades. This led me to wonder if dha were (or are) commonly used two handed to deliver rapid, alternating cuts a la chamtun. I also wonder the same thing about the panabas.

Sincerely,
RobT