WHAT DID I JUST BUY?? and Happy Easter for those who celebrate it.

[ZhenjieWu]

Originally Posted by josh stout

Please tell me more about the Bao An people and their weapons if you can. http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...E5AEB600-1.jpg

Are the Bao An ethnic Tibetans, or are they a separate ethnic group, perhaps like the Yi with a Tibetan influence?
Thanks,
Josh

JOSH
The formal name of Bao An people is Bonan ethnic minority group, whose home is mainly at the foot of JiShi mountain, almost at the boundary of GanSu and QingHai province . The population of Bonan ethnic minority group is about 16,505. Their local language belong to Mongolian Austronesian. Their religion is Islam. In China, Bonan ethnic minority group is famous for their man-made knives-Bonan Dao.
I will post some typical pictures of Bonan Dao and Tibetan Dao.

ZhenJie Wu

[ZhenjieWu]

Knives of Bonan ethnic minority group

[josh stout]

Originally Posted by ZhenjieWu

JOSH
The formal name of Bao An people is Bonan ethnic minority group, whose home is mainly at the foot of JiShi mountain, almost at the boundary of GanSu and QingHai province . The population of Bonan ethnic minority group is about 16,505. Their local language belong to Mongolian Austronesian. Their religion is Islam. In China, Bonan ethnic minority group is famous for their man-made knives-Bonan Dao.
I will post some typical pictures of Bonan Dao and Tibetan Dao.

ZhenJie Wu

Well it wasn't my knife that started the discussion, but the Bonan knives you posted look just like the one I have, including the engraving of the hand on the blade of one of them. Thank you for helping to identify this distinct style. The long dao I posted is certainly of the Eastern Tibetan style and comes from the same region. I think more and more things are coming out of QingHai and the Gansu border region. It is fascinating to see the confluence of Tibetan, Mongolian, and ethnic styles. The Yi things you posted are almost certainly from approximately the same region. (the second one you posted belonged to a friend of mine, I love how small the collecting world is.) The Tibetan long dao from that region show similarities to the weapons of the other regional ethnic groups in the copper/brass work, and in the lack of a guard on many of the long dao.

(http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...rrent=01-3.jpg

and

http://s77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...ation383-1.jpg).

Others that do have a guard seem to use more bone and horn than Tibetan things from further west

(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/pekhopai/10.jpg

and see the one I already posted on this thread).

One thing I have noticed is that the folding seems more refined than the usual bold lines of Tibetan hairpin construction.

(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...duation388.jpg)

(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j65/pekhopai/07.jpg)

Notice how on this second one each dark line is actually made of many separate folds.

However, the Yi things I have seen, and the one I have, show stronger lines typical of Tibetan things from further west.

(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...duation374.jpg)

(http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j6...duation375.jpg)

I suspect that the Yi may have traded for their blades.

Thanks again for the extremely informative posts. I am beginning to get the sense of a regional style shared by several peoples each with their own characteristics. This is ethnographic weapons at its best!
Josh

[David]

I do understand how threads evolve, but i am not quite sure how we got for these little utility knives to these long pattern welded daos, so i would like to try to steer thr thread back to the original type of knife in question.
Frankly the constuction and materials used in the Bao An knives that ZhenjieWu posted seems very different from both the knife that started this thread and my own which i already linked to:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5669
...so i am inclined to believe that these knives are NOT Bao An, but perhaps Tibetan as they have also been IDed as.

[josh stout]

The Tibetan knife ZhenjieWu posted has a single line of copper on the pommel, and the pommel is no wider than the rest of the handle. This is the same style seen on Chinese, Mongolian, and Manchu utility knives. The Boan dao posted by ZhenjieWu all have flaring pommels with decorative copper/brass work. The two knives posted by other members share this characteristic pommel design, so until a similar example can be found from another culture, I will agree with ZhenjieWu that these are Boan dao.
Josh

[David]

Originally Posted by josh stout

The Tibetan knife ZhenjieWu posted has a single line of copper on the pommel, and the pommel is no wider than the rest of the handle. This is the same style seen on Chinese, Mongolian, and Manchu utility knives. The Boan dao posted by ZhenjieWu all have flaring pommels with decorative copper/brass work. The two knives posted by other members share this characteristic pommel design, so until a similar example can be found from another culture, I will agree with ZhenjieWu that these are Boan dao.
Josh

Josh, i think if you look closely at the hilt on the Tibetan knife ZhenjieWu posted i think you can just barely see that it flares out ever so slightly in much the same way as my example. The flare style on the Boan knives he posted is stylistically much different as are the materials used. If you go to my linked example and scoll down you will see another "Tibetan" knife that i posted that has a fancier sheath, but still in the same style with rayskin in the middle. Same bone handle like mine, Stuart's and ZhenjieWu's (Tibetan) examples. Same basic sheath designs, though some are fancier than other's. I still lean towards Tibetan origin based on what has been presented here.