The Spiritual Daggers of the High Himalayas : Phurba and Kartrika .

[Rich]

Interesting article. Looking forward to the rest of it.

Here's a sample of my meager collection of artifacts.

http://home.earthlink.net/~steinpic/vajra.jpg


Rich S

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Richard Stein, PhD alchemyst@yahoo.com

The Japanese Sword Index
http://www.geocities.com/alchemyst/nihonto.htm
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[Radu Transylvanicus]

(continuation)

PHURBA (pron.: fur-baa) also known as phurpa, kila, phurbha and so on is much like a metal stake with an elaborated grip.
The phurba is the male (yang / linga) counterpart of the more rounded feminine (yin / yoni) kartrika as the duality would suggest in my personal supposition. Obviously its use would take place by thrusting not by slashing like the one before it.
In many examples kartrika and phurba become one and the same weapon fashioned in a similar manner to the medieval Eurasian halberds.
I see these daggers as being useless in combat and of no man to man martial purpose whatsoever but I am striving to find the ceremonial exact use of this daggers and to what percentage were they spiritual, symbolic or utilitarian. I find the level of craftsmanship in decorations to be absolutely fantastic with a myriad of grotesque figures sculpted in their bodies similar in shape and purpose to the Javan-Balinese Raksasa deity from the Kerises handle (hulu). Eventually, both daggers were used in shamanistic rituals to chase away evil spirits and since phurbas were also known to be made of wood, the wooden stakes against malefic spirits remains known until today but I doubt there’s much connection to the timber. Most of them still remain made of metal from silver (again silver is another material known to subdue malefic spirits), bronze or iron. Phurbas were driven in the ground in the middle of a circle by an initiated shaman only during religious ceremonies.
At least in Tibet, when they are most common, other tools are associated with these anti-malefic spiritual shamanistic cleansing processes, they are less of a weapon but still of sacrificial or exorcising purpose like kapala (drinking cup made of real skulls, overwhelmingly human ones but not only) or another set of dual yin/yang tools : the bell (ghantha) and the ,,thunderbolt tool,, (dorje or vajra who is in essence many times the handle of a phurba or a kartrika).
As a traveling mountaineer as well as a arms and armour collector I came across an unfortunate wave of mass produced Himalayan daggers of a more or less finesse and authenticity in reproduction destined for the tourist market coming from both Indian or Chinese sources and one must exert caution when examining. Still, there is plenty of more or less old authenticity around so we can plunge into a deeper study ...
P.S. Images you see here are obtained via Google.com with no claims of authenticity or age but will clearly serve the purpose of quickly illustrating my notes, I would love to have people post their own more veridic images along comments.

[Federico]

Just an interesting note, a Phurba is featured in the 1980s era movie starring Eddie Murphy, titled The Golden Child. Ironically, based on its appearance in this movie, and the lack of utilitarian use, I passed up the chance at buying one many years ago, as I figured it was just some stylized movie prop. Now after this post, I regret that decission, though I suppose there were good chances it was a mass made knock off.

[Rich]

Yes, there were lots of movie knock-offs of these.
Also, I think, from the movie the Phantom. They are
poorly cast brass with grotesque faces; not the good
refined casting and Buddhistic imagery found on
real ones.

Rich S

[Radu Transylvanicus]

The kartika chopper or ,,flying knife,, when they have the large elaborate handle with demonic faces are known as vajrakartika in northern India and dorje grigug in Tibet and Nepal.
Again, their main use seems to be what is known as the as the Sky-burial, a hard to comprehend act by the cultures of Christian based spirituality, when a dead body is carried up in the mountains and in a funeral ritual carried by a shaman the body is chopped to pieces and left for the animals, mainly vultures to devour showing nothing but absolute uncompassion for the body but great contempt for the soul of the deceased.
Some more images of how elaborate kartika can get:

[Radu Transylvanicus]

This is a set from 17th century eastearn Tibet, Kham region made of only gilt bronze and pure rock crystal blades, belonging to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. They are between eight and nine inches length (twenty to twenty three centimeters long). It is composed of the chopper (kartrika), the stake-dagger (phurba) and the phurba-vajra-khartika halberd combination (parashu). Enjoy:

[ruel]

Radu:
I am striving to find the ceremonial exact use of this daggers and to what percentage were they spiritual, symbolic or utilitarian.

The original of the purbha in Sanskrit originally referred to tent pegs, and there is no evidence of them being used as weapons in India. In Tibet they're used in exorcism, where a doll containing an evil spirit is stabbed by a purbha to cure illness or possession.

I could cite sources, but why? That would require more work than I care to do.