RARE! Authentic Nepalese Khukuri made from Yak Bone

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History of the Khukuri: The khukuri, the national knife of Nepal, is an ancient blade-form: khukuris of five hundred years or more hang from the walls of Nepal's National Museum, dating back to the Malla period. Some have suggested that khukuri design is linked to the ancient Greek kopis knife and that the form was introduced into the Indian subcontinent by Alexander's Macedonian army, which invaded north-west India in the 4th-century B.C. If so, then the khukuri is perhaps also linked to the ancient Egyptian kopesh blade, likely the model for the Greek kopis, as well as to the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian seax. However, it is also possible that the khukuri is simply a design native to the hills of the Himalayas, perhaps originating from an agricultural tool (as which it continues to serve to the present day). This seems to be the view of Lord Egerton of Tatton, who writes: '[the Gurkhas'] national weapon is the Kukri , originally a kind of bill-hook, for cutting through small wood in the dense low jungles of the Teraí and the Himalayans' (pg. 100). The Nepalese also use a larger knife, or sword, called a kora, which also has an inner cutting edge like the khukuri. The blades of koras show an expansion near the point, weighting the tip to provide a more powerful downward blow. Koras are generally ceremonial, and as Egerton remarks, 'those who use it skilfully are enabled to cut a sheep in two at a single blow'. **** The Gurkhas, more than anything else, have brought the khukuri to the attention of the world. For centuries this blade-form lay dormant in the world, being kept alive only in India and Nepal. And then the Gurkhas appeared on the world scene a couple of hundred years ago and brought with them their traditional weapon, the khukuri. Because the Gurkhas were probably the best mercenary force the world has ever seen--and may ever see--part of their fame became the fame of the khukuri. The word 'Gurkha' originates from King Prithvi Narayan Shah's 'Gorkhali' army (from the area of Gorkha, Nepal-northwest of Kathmandu), with whose help the King united Nepal into a single country between 1768-9 A.D. Nepal's present King, HM King Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev, descends from Prithvi Naryan Shah.Gorkha was feudal hill village in what is now western Nepal, however the 'Gorkhali' under Prithwi Narayan Shah and his successors grew so powerful that they overran the whole of the hill country from the Kashmir border in the west to kingdom of Bhutan in the east. Eventually, as a result of boundary disputes and repeated raids by Gurkha columns into British East India Company territory, the British Governor General declared war on Nepal in 1814. After two long and bloody campaigns a Peace Treaty was signed at Sugauli in 1816. During the war a deep feeling of mutual respect and admiration developed between the British and the Gurkhas, both sides being much impressed by the bravery, courage and decency of the other. Six hundred Gorkhas at Dehra Dun successfully held the fort of Kalanga against an English force of about 3500 under General Gillespie until the battering train was brought from Delhi; at the stockade at Tamta, the Gorkhas fought effectively with koras, described by the opposing British as being 'like the Highlanders of old, after discharging their matchlocks, rush[ing] in fierce through disorderly masses upon their opponents' (Mill, pg. 25). In the extremely bitter defence of the hill fortress of Kalung... read more

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