Shopping for Khukuris - Friday March 5

The weekend of March 5-6, Amy and Kirsten went to Bandipur, while Caitlin and I stayed back in Laxmi as we had been invited to our headmaster's house. In the end he cancelled as he was too busy, but we had a nice weekend all the same. We went up to Gorkha on Friday afternoon, and spent the night.
Friday afternoon we went shopping for khukuri knives with Dinesh, a teacher at Julia and Ed's school. A khukuri is the traditional Gurkha weapon, carried into battle by Gurkha soldiers. Gurkhas are soldiers from the Gorkha region, who fought alongside Prithvi Narayan Shah to unite all of Nepal in the late 18th century. Incidentally, its also the name of a brand of rum.
A khukuri knife is long and slightly curved, and wider (towards the inside of the curve) at the tip than at the base. The shaft is quite thick, and is sharp on one side, the inside of the curve. Near the handle is a notch, to allow blood to drip away without going on the hand of the wielder. Those we saw had engravings on the shaft; it either said 'Gurkha army', was a geometric style design, or had a picture of a bird. These were primarily ornamental knives, battle ones wouldn't have intricate designs. One of Hari's knives has a engraving of a peacock, with the front and back of the bird on respective sides of the blade.
Khukuri knives range in size from 2-3 inches to two feet (the longest I've seen, there could be larger). The cases can be either plain or quite ornamental, with gold coloured designs and Nepali coins. The plain ones tended to be black, with perhaps a pin attached.
Looking at the selection (which became progressively wider as more and more knives just kept appearing from somewhere) was a lot of fun. There were all different sizes to choose from, with both wooden and bone handles. The combination of choosing size, handle, sheath and engraving meant you could make a knife fairly customized.
Khukuris are still used today. Animal sacrifices are done using them, and they are an important part of the history and culture of the region. One day at school, Druba, one of the English teachers, brought one out to show us. He just pulled it from his bag like it was the most natural thing in the world!
Oh, and Chris, Happy 19th a few weeks early.