National Museum Bangkok

[wilked aka Khun Deng]

This only the first gallery, Mike has more to post. I've heard the sheilds referred to by many names most commonly though the square one was called "lo" and the small round one a "kaen" but as I said I've heard a variety of terms - all unfamiliar words for my limited vocab. The museum and the palace arms room have a huge collection of polearms of infinate variety but we had only so much time. I think Mike got some shots at Vimanmeg mansion also, but I talked to the people there when I took the tour and they said all their weapons came from the Grand Palace. One thing they did have that the others didn't was an entire rack of old blades, just the blades with no handle or scabbard. Most were of the same profile as the one below with extremely long thin tangs about 6". Some had two fullers, some single, some with none, but all had the same profile sans the normal belly swell and much more flexible than most of the dha I've handled. I'll post this sword later in detail but here's a shot of what I'm talking about. Oops haven't loaded those pics yet I'll edit this later and insert.