Vietnamese Shield

Nick Wardigo · 6th October 2006, 05:33 PM

Vandoo--

Thanks for the image. There is a shield with some similarities on page 135 of the Barbier-Mueller book. The author attributes it to the Kaseng people of Laos.

Something to keep in mind with this and the black-lacquered shield you posted is that they were used by the hill peoples of Laos (and, possibly, Vietnam). I think my shield was likely used by the Dai Viet, or the majority people of Vietnam. Its presence in Vietnamese artwork and the clearly Chinese-influenced lacquerwork corroborate this. I imagine this shield would have been used in a procession along with the ornately-decorated kiem and guom (straight-sword and saber). These other shields, while being geographically close in origin, were used by other ethnic groups with very different purposes. I don't say this to discourage your posting of other images of similar shields...on the contrary, I'm very interested in them. I only suggest that we may be doing the Western equivalent of comparing a tomahawk to an American Revolutionary War saber.

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6th October 2006, 05:33 PM	#9
Nick Wardigo Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Posts: 54	Vandoo-- Thanks for the image. There is a shield with some similarities on page 135 of the Barbier-Mueller book. The author attributes it to the Kaseng people of Laos. Something to keep in mind with this and the black-lacquered shield you posted is that they were used by the hill peoples of Laos (and, possibly, Vietnam). I think my shield was likely used by the Dai Viet, or the majority people of Vietnam. Its presence in Vietnamese artwork and the clearly Chinese-influenced lacquerwork corroborate this. I imagine this shield would have been used in a procession along with the ornately-decorated kiem and guom (straight-sword and saber). These other shields, while being geographically close in origin, were used by other ethnic groups with very different purposes. I don't say this to discourage your posting of other images of similar shields...on the contrary, I'm very interested in them. I only suggest that we may be doing the Western equivalent of comparing a tomahawk to an American Revolutionary War saber.