[Dan Tucker]

with the sticky about broadening myArmoury.com's spectrum of discussion to more non-European subjects in mind, and more importantly my own blossoming love affair with Indonesian (and Chinese) arms, as well as the fact that Apocalypse Now is my favorite movie after all, I decided to ask the guyzos here at myArmoury.com what they know of south-east Asian weapons and armor (seeing as I know so little). did they really wear much armor? did they just use various dhas, dao, bolos, parangs, etc. or did they have any polearms, ranged weapons, etc. did they use any cavalry? even if you know no more than I do about this, please share ideas and opinions about this fascinating area of the study ancient arms.
thanks
Dan Tucker

[Felix Wang]

I see no reason for them not to have used the whole range of weapons; as the cultural influences of SE Asia were broadly Indian and Chinese - and both of those lands used a wide range of weapons - much of the same would be true in SE Asia. The use of cavalry might have been somewhat limited, but they could operate there - the Mongols conquered Burma in about 1270. Even now, there is an Indonesian Island (Banda?, Sunda?) where annual "ceremonial religious" cavalry battles are fought. The inhabitants of different parts of the island meet and charge about on horseback, hurling (unsharpened) javelins at each other. Of course, an unsharpened javelin is not a good thing to be struck with...

[Dan Tucker]

that's very interesting....I'll definitely have to look into this more. I wondered about the types of weapons they used simply because the only indonesian arms I've heard about are all kinds of daggers and machete-like knives, as well as the dha. thanks a lot for the insight.

[Andrew Winston]

Hi Dan. Your question is probably fit for dozens of threads. The weapons of the Malay peninsula and oceanic SEA (Indonesia and the Phillipines) are not my thing. However, I can tell you the sword culture of these areas is rich and varied. Kampilan, Kris and Barung (Moro swords), in particular, enjoy a formidible and deserved reputation crystalized during the Spanish-American war.

I do love the weapons of mainland SEA and, true to form, I can't pass up an opportunity to talk about them. While not indigenous to Indonesia, the dha is found in varied forms across mainland SEA, with most attibuted to Burma and Thailand. The evolution of the form itself in Burma and Thailand probably migrated down with various ethnic groups from Assam and southern Yunan, China on the west, and from China through the Indochina peninsula to the east. Probable sword "ancestors" can be seen in the sword-dao of the Naga hilltribes and, of course, in the Chinese dao.

Ayutthaya period (14th-18th century) Thai art depicts the use of nearly every concievable military/arms system available at the time, including fighters mounted on both horse- and elephant-back, armor (not full plate, in my experience), pole-arms, swords (both single edged dha and double edged blades), and cannon. The cannon, I believe were introduced by Portugese mercenaries, and were probably not common. The wars between Burma and Siam were epic.