Nepal Trip 2009 report

[sirupate]

On one of the days John was not available, we sort out the local kami, who make god rough and ready blades for the local people;






We also took the opurtunity to them about the kora/khunda question, and they said the spelling was Khudha, and re-emphasised the point about the priority of weapons that had been said before.

[sirupate]

We then flew back to Kathmandu and embarked on a fact finding mission in the all the antique shops we could find (far to many).

At every opportunity I asked the shop owners and staff about the spelling of kora/Khora, and of their historical use, and they just confirmed what had been said before.
The first pic is of fighting khunda, but it was emphasized that they were also use for Sacraficing;

In this shop the owner said that the sword was the prefered weapon over the khunda and produced a couple swords for us as if to emphasize his point;

I then asked him (amongst many others) if they had specific names for the hilts below;

The shop owner just said sword hilts, which was the common theme with everyone we asked.
I did manage to pick up a very nice double handed fighting kukri whilst going around;

Ravi with the all important Nepalese traditional bow;

And a Dhal

[sirupate]

We found this very nice Khunda in Kathmandu;

Ravi with his Grandfathers Nepal Army khukuri by his house in Kirtipur, which is about 125 years old

He then took us to Kirtipur Palace, where there is a nice old temple;

Which had some old weapons hanging from near the top, possibly dating from the siege of Kirtipur, and donated to the temple.



And then we flew back the next day, I hope you enjoyed the pics

[CharlesS]

Thanks so much for these!!