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- The Swords of Continental Southeast Asia
The Swords of Continental Southeast Asia
- By Bowditch, Mark I.
- Published 30 April 2008
- Arms and Armour
- Unrated
co-authors Ian A. Greaves, Andrew Y. Winston
“Dha” (or “dah”) is a generic term for a sword or knife of the various ethnic groups that make up what was formally Burma (now Myanmar), Siam (Thailand), Cambodia and Laos. It actually is a Burmese term that simply means "blade." The corresponding term in Thai is "daab," or "darb." We in the West tend to use it to refer to a variety of sword and dagger-length weapons that are used by a variety of people in continental Southeast Asia. Thus, what are referred to here as “dha” are those swords used by the peoples of mainland Southeast Asia, defined as present-day Burma, Thailand (exclusive of the Malay peninsula), Yunnan, Laos and Cambodia, and in places like Assam and Bengal, to the extent the foregoing peoples have settled there. They share a few essential defining features that distinguish them from other weapons/tools used in this area (and when there are exceptions we have concluded that they are due to a limited external stylistic influence), which are: (a) a grip with a round cross-section, (b) a long, generally curved, single-edged blade and (c) no cross-guard or knuckle-bow, and at most a very small disc guard. The inhabitants of the region have more specific words for particular swords and knives, for example, the Kachin word "nhtu" for swords, and the Burmese terms “dha-lweí” for swords, “dha-hmyaung” for daggers, “dha-mauk” for a general purpose knife, and “dha-ma” for heavy choppering blades.
Accounts of the Anglo-Burmese Wars in the early 19th Century refer to dha being used by the Burmese. We have found no certain reference in Western literature to the use of dha before the time of the Anglo-Burmese wars, though there are brief references in the regional literature, including an account of the Siamese Prince (later King) Naresuan (reigned 1590-1605 C.E.) climbing over a Burmese stockade during the siege of Ayutthaya "with the blunt edge of a saber in his mouth." Presumably this refers to a single-edged, curved sword, and quite possibly to a dha, meaning that the dha may have been in use at least as early as the late 16th century C.E. Descriptions of “dha” are found in the classic book by Wilbrahim Egerton (1880), and in Francis Garnier’s Further Travels in Laos and Yunnan (a report of the 1866-1868 French Mekong expedition). Several dha (swords and knives) were collected personally by Egerton from about 1855 to 1880, and in his book he described other dha in the Indian Museum collection. Even at that time, however, firearms were beginning to replace edged weapons, and Egerton noted that some groups in Burma were already relying more on firearms than traditional bows, spears, and swords for hunting and warfare. Additional examples of 19th Century dha can be found in the collection of Buttin (1933). The Egerton and Buttin Collections are some of the earliest specimens of dha available for study in the West, at least in any number. Isolated examples can be found in a number of private collections from the 19th Century (for example, the Maharajah of Mysore has three dha from the 19th Century on display in a Palace Museum) but the history of these are often poorly documented. The National Museum of Thailand has several dha in its collection attributed to the "Ayutthaya Period" of Thai history (c. 1350 – 1767 C.E.), which resemble closely dha in the collections of the authors attributed to the same period. A brief description and illustrations of dha appear also in Stone (1934), though without attribution, from Stone's personal collection now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. We are aware of one Burmese dha (catalogue no. 217) bearing a dedicatory inscription with the Burmese date 1160, corresponding to 1798 C.E. in the Western calendar.
The following account synthesizes some of the information we have assembled to date. Our information is fragmentary but we have tried to stay away from speculation and the temptation to fill in the gaps with educated guesses. What follows is not a comprehensive view, but a basic introduction to the chief types of dha, their origins, general classification, and use.
Origins of the dha
Part of the difficulty in understanding the origins and categorization of the dha is its apparent ubiquity among the people of the region. However, by considering the question in ethnographic/historical terms, without restricting oneself to current political boundaries, it becomes a little easier to answer two questions: Who “invented” the dha?” and “Where were they from?” Answering those two questions should give the answer to a third: “How did the style diffuse throughout the region in the way it did?” So, it is worth discussing a little of the history of the region, and the peoples who have come and gone across it.
The dha seems to be used predominantly by two broad ethnic groupings in Southeast Asia, the Tibeto-Burman peoples (for example, the Burman, Kachin and Karen), and the Tai-Kadai peoples (for example, the Thai, Lao and Shan). There also is some indication that a dha-like sword was used in the Khmer Empire centered in what is today Cambodia, and dha with a Cambodian provenance are known today. Relief carvings from the Khmer capital of Angkor show soldiers carrying what appear to be curved swords of various kinds, with simple, guardless hilts. Excavated swords with curved blades and long, cast bronze hilts have allegedly been found in Khmer-era sites in Cambodia (though not in controlled digs, making this attribution uncertain). There are thus at least three possible "roots" for the dha, though at present we can do no more than speculate as to which is the original source, whether it evolved independently in each, or whether it perhaps came from some other, as yet unidentified group.
The Khmer and Mon peoples had established sophisticated and powerful kingdoms in Southeast Asia before the arrival of either the Tibeto-Burmans or the Tai, the Khmer Empire centered on the city of Angkor (circa 9th century C.E.), and the Mon (Talaing) at Thaton in southeast Burma, and Dvaravati and Haripunjaya (circa 7th century C.E.) to the north (in present-day northwest Thailand). All of these were so-called “Indianized” cultures, meaning that their main influence came from India, as opposed to “Sinocized” cultures such as that of Viet Nam, which were heavily influenced by China. Due to this basic difference between the ancient cultures of Viet Nam and the rest of continental Southeast Asia, the swords of Viet Nam are excluded from this discussion, as they appear to be in large part local variations of Chinese weapons and not connected directly to the dha form used in the rest of continental Southeast Asia. Though there is the indirect evidence from Angkor and uncontrolled digs in Cambodia of the use of the dha in the Khmer Empire, there is no direct evidence that either the Khmer or the Mon as ethnic groups used a sword of the dha form in this period.
The Burmese moved into Southeast Asia from the northwest (via Assam/Darjeeling in present-day India), absorbing the Western Mon after conquering Thaton in 1057 C.E. and dominating all of the Irawady River valley, and the lower Sulawen (Salween) River valley to the east. This was the kingdom of Pagan (Bagan, Pugan). The Burmans were a less “civilized” race than the Mon, and very deliberately appropriated the trappings of the Indianized Mon civilization (literally deporting Mon intellectuals, monks, and artisans from the Western Mon capital of Thaton to help build Pagan).
The Tai moved southwards and westwards from what is today Yunnan Province in southern China, into present-day Burma, Thailand and Laos over a period of centuries, starting as early as the 10th century C.E. During this period, there was significant contact with the established Mon and Khmer, and later the Burman, both as antagonists and as allies. The Tai eventually established, in the early 13th century C.E., the Kingdoms of Sukothai and Lan Na in territory formerly controlled by the Khmer and Mon. The Mongol conquest of China, and ultimately the independent kingdoms of Yunnan in the 13th century C.E., lead to a full-scale migration of Tai peoples southward, and marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the Tai in both Burma (where the Kingdom of Pagan was divided among Shan princes, opening a long period of control by a Shan dynasty) and Thailand. Sukothai was succeeded by Ayutthaya, then Bangkok as the center of Thai power.
This very brief sketch only begins to show the complexity of the political history of Southeast Asia. At various times after its establishment, the "Burmese" kingdom was dominated by Burmans, Shan (Tai), and Mon, and of course the British after the mid-19th century. The area of the kingdom of the Thai was dominated at various times by the Mon, the Khmer, and by the Burmese for a period in the mid-18th century C.E. The picture is further complicated by the wide-spread practice of moving the inhabitants (especially artisans and craftsmen) of entire conquered regions back to the home territory of the victor. So, who "invented" the dha, and when? Perhaps it was the Khmer, as early as the 13th century C.E. (reliefs at Angkor point to this); perhaps it was the Burmans; perhaps it was the Tai who brought the style down from what is now southern China – there are good indications that the dha was in use among the Thai by at least the 16th century. The style doesn’t appear beyond these groups, so very likely one or more of them is the originator of the dha.
Principal forms of the dha
Dha are found in an almost infinite variety of forms, and in lengths from 144 cm (45 inches) or more, down to small knives of 12 or 15 cm (5 or 6 inches), and everything in between. The spectrum of dha forms, however, can be broken down into broad classes. As already mentioned, two main influences can be traced today: one from northeastern India via the Tibeto-Burman peoples, and the second from Tai groups that migrated from southern China and entered Burma and Thailand from the north and east. The influence or role of the Mon and Khmer is, as we have said, unclear, though possibly significant.
The northeastern Indian influence is represented by the dao, a sword whose blade is straight, widens from the hilt to the tip, has a square end, and a single sharpened edge. The dao is used extensively in Assam and Nagaland, and in northern Burma it was adopted mainly by the Kachin people who live along the Assam-Burma border and to the east, in the most mountainous regions of Upper Burma. Catalogue nos. 229 & 230. The Kachin have been a powerful presence in Upper Burma since the early stages of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, when the British used their services to attack the Burmese kingdom. The dao of the Kachin is purely a chopping weapon. From the dao has emerged a longer, slimmer sword version that the Kachin used for combat. This we refer to as the “Kachin” style dha. It has a straight or slightly curved blade with blunt tip and is carried in a closed scabbard in distinction to the dao which is carried in an open-faced scabbard. Catalogue no. 231. The sword of the Shan (Tai) resembles a saber, with either a curved or straight, single-edged blade; the tip is usually pointed, and the sword can be used for slashing or stabbing. See, e.g., catalogue nos. 242 and 243..
Both the Kachin and Tai styles of swords are without a hand guard. These two basic styles seem to have overlapped in Burma, particularly in Lower Burma, resulting in a wide variety of hybrid and highly decorated forms of dha. The Karen people of SE Burma and adjacent Thailand adopted the Shan style dha as did most of the peoples throughout what is today Thailand. As a result, the Shan/Thai dha/dharb is the most commonly seen dha form.
The dha of Cambodia and Laos are also similar to the Shan/Thai forms. E.g., catalogue nos. 228 & 232. These have pointed blades and handles that vary widely in length. Cambodian dha often have blackened hilts and scabbards. The blades of Cambodian dha are a little different from typical Shan blades in that the Cambodian blade is usually straight from the tip to about 6-8 inches in front of the hilt where it often angles abruptly up and this same angle is followed through to the hilt which has an “uptilted” appearance. Catalogue no.263 .
Another dha variant is attributed to the Montagnard tribes in mountainous regions of Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos. This dha generally has a very long handle with a small disk guard, and the blade is hatchet-pointed, being wider towards the tip than at the hilt. The hilt of these swords may be bare bamboo or wrapped with rattan, and the wooden scabbard is usually wound with unplaited rattan. Catalogue nos. 264, 265 and 266.
Accounts of the Anglo-Burmese Wars in the early 19th Century refer to dha being used by the Burmese. We have found no certain reference in Western literature to the use of dha before the time of the Anglo-Burmese wars, though there are brief references in the regional literature, including an account of the Siamese Prince (later King) Naresuan (reigned 1590-1605 C.E.) climbing over a Burmese stockade during the siege of Ayutthaya "with the blunt edge of a saber in his mouth." Presumably this refers to a single-edged, curved sword, and quite possibly to a dha, meaning that the dha may have been in use at least as early as the late 16th century C.E. Descriptions of “dha” are found in the classic book by Wilbrahim Egerton (1880), and in Francis Garnier’s Further Travels in Laos and Yunnan (a report of the 1866-1868 French Mekong expedition). Several dha (swords and knives) were collected personally by Egerton from about 1855 to 1880, and in his book he described other dha in the Indian Museum collection. Even at that time, however, firearms were beginning to replace edged weapons, and Egerton noted that some groups in Burma were already relying more on firearms than traditional bows, spears, and swords for hunting and warfare. Additional examples of 19th Century dha can be found in the collection of Buttin (1933). The Egerton and Buttin Collections are some of the earliest specimens of dha available for study in the West, at least in any number. Isolated examples can be found in a number of private collections from the 19th Century (for example, the Maharajah of Mysore has three dha from the 19th Century on display in a Palace Museum) but the history of these are often poorly documented. The National Museum of Thailand has several dha in its collection attributed to the "Ayutthaya Period" of Thai history (c. 1350 – 1767 C.E.), which resemble closely dha in the collections of the authors attributed to the same period. A brief description and illustrations of dha appear also in Stone (1934), though without attribution, from Stone's personal collection now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. We are aware of one Burmese dha (catalogue no. 217) bearing a dedicatory inscription with the Burmese date 1160, corresponding to 1798 C.E. in the Western calendar.
The following account synthesizes some of the information we have assembled to date. Our information is fragmentary but we have tried to stay away from speculation and the temptation to fill in the gaps with educated guesses. What follows is not a comprehensive view, but a basic introduction to the chief types of dha, their origins, general classification, and use.
Origins of the dha
Part of the difficulty in understanding the origins and categorization of the dha is its apparent ubiquity among the people of the region. However, by considering the question in ethnographic/historical terms, without restricting oneself to current political boundaries, it becomes a little easier to answer two questions: Who “invented” the dha?” and “Where were they from?” Answering those two questions should give the answer to a third: “How did the style diffuse throughout the region in the way it did?” So, it is worth discussing a little of the history of the region, and the peoples who have come and gone across it.
The dha seems to be used predominantly by two broad ethnic groupings in Southeast Asia, the Tibeto-Burman peoples (for example, the Burman, Kachin and Karen), and the Tai-Kadai peoples (for example, the Thai, Lao and Shan). There also is some indication that a dha-like sword was used in the Khmer Empire centered in what is today Cambodia, and dha with a Cambodian provenance are known today. Relief carvings from the Khmer capital of Angkor show soldiers carrying what appear to be curved swords of various kinds, with simple, guardless hilts. Excavated swords with curved blades and long, cast bronze hilts have allegedly been found in Khmer-era sites in Cambodia (though not in controlled digs, making this attribution uncertain). There are thus at least three possible "roots" for the dha, though at present we can do no more than speculate as to which is the original source, whether it evolved independently in each, or whether it perhaps came from some other, as yet unidentified group.
The Khmer and Mon peoples had established sophisticated and powerful kingdoms in Southeast Asia before the arrival of either the Tibeto-Burmans or the Tai, the Khmer Empire centered on the city of Angkor (circa 9th century C.E.), and the Mon (Talaing) at Thaton in southeast Burma, and Dvaravati and Haripunjaya (circa 7th century C.E.) to the north (in present-day northwest Thailand). All of these were so-called “Indianized” cultures, meaning that their main influence came from India, as opposed to “Sinocized” cultures such as that of Viet Nam, which were heavily influenced by China. Due to this basic difference between the ancient cultures of Viet Nam and the rest of continental Southeast Asia, the swords of Viet Nam are excluded from this discussion, as they appear to be in large part local variations of Chinese weapons and not connected directly to the dha form used in the rest of continental Southeast Asia. Though there is the indirect evidence from Angkor and uncontrolled digs in Cambodia of the use of the dha in the Khmer Empire, there is no direct evidence that either the Khmer or the Mon as ethnic groups used a sword of the dha form in this period.
The Burmese moved into Southeast Asia from the northwest (via Assam/Darjeeling in present-day India), absorbing the Western Mon after conquering Thaton in 1057 C.E. and dominating all of the Irawady River valley, and the lower Sulawen (Salween) River valley to the east. This was the kingdom of Pagan (Bagan, Pugan). The Burmans were a less “civilized” race than the Mon, and very deliberately appropriated the trappings of the Indianized Mon civilization (literally deporting Mon intellectuals, monks, and artisans from the Western Mon capital of Thaton to help build Pagan).
The Tai moved southwards and westwards from what is today Yunnan Province in southern China, into present-day Burma, Thailand and Laos over a period of centuries, starting as early as the 10th century C.E. During this period, there was significant contact with the established Mon and Khmer, and later the Burman, both as antagonists and as allies. The Tai eventually established, in the early 13th century C.E., the Kingdoms of Sukothai and Lan Na in territory formerly controlled by the Khmer and Mon. The Mongol conquest of China, and ultimately the independent kingdoms of Yunnan in the 13th century C.E., lead to a full-scale migration of Tai peoples southward, and marked the beginning of the ascendancy of the Tai in both Burma (where the Kingdom of Pagan was divided among Shan princes, opening a long period of control by a Shan dynasty) and Thailand. Sukothai was succeeded by Ayutthaya, then Bangkok as the center of Thai power.
This very brief sketch only begins to show the complexity of the political history of Southeast Asia. At various times after its establishment, the "Burmese" kingdom was dominated by Burmans, Shan (Tai), and Mon, and of course the British after the mid-19th century. The area of the kingdom of the Thai was dominated at various times by the Mon, the Khmer, and by the Burmese for a period in the mid-18th century C.E. The picture is further complicated by the wide-spread practice of moving the inhabitants (especially artisans and craftsmen) of entire conquered regions back to the home territory of the victor. So, who "invented" the dha, and when? Perhaps it was the Khmer, as early as the 13th century C.E. (reliefs at Angkor point to this); perhaps it was the Burmans; perhaps it was the Tai who brought the style down from what is now southern China – there are good indications that the dha was in use among the Thai by at least the 16th century. The style doesn’t appear beyond these groups, so very likely one or more of them is the originator of the dha.
Principal forms of the dha
Dha are found in an almost infinite variety of forms, and in lengths from 144 cm (45 inches) or more, down to small knives of 12 or 15 cm (5 or 6 inches), and everything in between. The spectrum of dha forms, however, can be broken down into broad classes. As already mentioned, two main influences can be traced today: one from northeastern India via the Tibeto-Burman peoples, and the second from Tai groups that migrated from southern China and entered Burma and Thailand from the north and east. The influence or role of the Mon and Khmer is, as we have said, unclear, though possibly significant.
The northeastern Indian influence is represented by the dao, a sword whose blade is straight, widens from the hilt to the tip, has a square end, and a single sharpened edge. The dao is used extensively in Assam and Nagaland, and in northern Burma it was adopted mainly by the Kachin people who live along the Assam-Burma border and to the east, in the most mountainous regions of Upper Burma. Catalogue nos. 229 & 230. The Kachin have been a powerful presence in Upper Burma since the early stages of the Anglo-Burmese Wars, when the British used their services to attack the Burmese kingdom. The dao of the Kachin is purely a chopping weapon. From the dao has emerged a longer, slimmer sword version that the Kachin used for combat. This we refer to as the “Kachin” style dha. It has a straight or slightly curved blade with blunt tip and is carried in a closed scabbard in distinction to the dao which is carried in an open-faced scabbard. Catalogue no. 231. The sword of the Shan (Tai) resembles a saber, with either a curved or straight, single-edged blade; the tip is usually pointed, and the sword can be used for slashing or stabbing. See, e.g., catalogue nos. 242 and 243..
Both the Kachin and Tai styles of swords are without a hand guard. These two basic styles seem to have overlapped in Burma, particularly in Lower Burma, resulting in a wide variety of hybrid and highly decorated forms of dha. The Karen people of SE Burma and adjacent Thailand adopted the Shan style dha as did most of the peoples throughout what is today Thailand. As a result, the Shan/Thai dha/dharb is the most commonly seen dha form.
The dha of Cambodia and Laos are also similar to the Shan/Thai forms. E.g., catalogue nos. 228 & 232. These have pointed blades and handles that vary widely in length. Cambodian dha often have blackened hilts and scabbards. The blades of Cambodian dha are a little different from typical Shan blades in that the Cambodian blade is usually straight from the tip to about 6-8 inches in front of the hilt where it often angles abruptly up and this same angle is followed through to the hilt which has an “uptilted” appearance. Catalogue no.263 .
Another dha variant is attributed to the Montagnard tribes in mountainous regions of Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos. This dha generally has a very long handle with a small disk guard, and the blade is hatchet-pointed, being wider towards the tip than at the hilt. The hilt of these swords may be bare bamboo or wrapped with rattan, and the wooden scabbard is usually wound with unplaited rattan. Catalogue nos. 264, 265 and 266.