- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Sword [.1] with straight single edged blade and wooden hilt, in an open wooden sheath [.2] [SM 19/11/2007]
- Long description
- Sword [.1] with straight single edged blade and wooden hilt, in an open wooden sheath [.2]. The sword blade has two fullers on each surface. The hilt has a wooden guard and a grip that is octagonal in section. The sheath is made from a single piece of wood, with two iron bands to hold the sword in place and a small leather loop attached through two holes near the sheath mouth. [SM 19/11/2007]
- Cultural groups
- Lepcha
- Person
- Field collector Unknown Collector
- PRM source The Council of Cheltenham Ladies College
- PRM source Cheltenham Ladies College
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1940
- Date collected
- By 1940
- Acquisition information
- Loaned: 1940
- Materials and processes
- Material Iron Metal, Material Wood Plant, Material Animal Leather Skin, Process Forged (Metal), Process Carved, Process Bound, Process Grooved, Process Perforated, Process Knotted
- Dimensions
- Length: max 558 mm, Length: max 600 mm, Width: max 46 mm, Width: max 55 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1940.7.0380.1 Accession number: 1940.7.0380.2
- Research and responses
The Lepcha (pop.50,000) are the indigenous people of Sikkim, broadly of Tibetan cultural origin. This is manifested in the substantially Tibetan form of this relatively unelaborated sword and scabbard. Warfare was generally uncommon among the Buddhist-Animist Lepcha, and generally practiced with bow and arrow. High quality Lepcha shortswords bear overlain decorative work in silver and brass, as well as cabochons of semi-precious stone – again, substantially Tibetan in form. More modest pieces exhibit simple brass bands holding the blade into the one-sided scabbard. Buddhist symbols can be found on swords from Nepal, Sikkim and West Bengal (Egerton, 1896: 100). Small lotus-flower rivets connote the individual’s potential to realise enlightenment and decrease karma, irrespective of the conditions of their birth – as the lotus produces a flower from waterlogged mud. Research Conducted for DCF Cutting Edge 2006/2007 [AM].
1940.7.0380.1
Sword [.1] with straight single edged blade and wooden hilt, in an open wooden sheath [.2] [SM 19/11/2007]
1940.7.0380.1
Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
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