Late-Qing “Bo Ri Ji” Waist Saber Overall Picture I

This is a waist saber of the Bao’an ethnic minority living in the northwest of China, a group developed out of mingling of multiple ethnic peoples. In the year 1227 during Genghis Khan’s military expedition to the east of China, he deployed a number of soldiers and craftsmen from the Central Asia in the Tongren area of Qinghai province. Then ensued the emergence of the Bao’an ethnicity based on the mingling of these people with the local Mongol, Han, Hui and Tibetan ethnic groups. As a group formed during war, the Bao’an people have been good at making weapons. The waist sabers they casted have not only been used as weapons, but also been applied in barter, in exchange for sheep, oxen or other daily necessities with nomadic groups.
As a variety of the Bao’an waist sabers, this “Bo Ri Ji” one, with a round pommel and cross-guard, is embellished with exquisite hand-forged floral patterns on its edge. It is also equipped with a cylinder-shaped leather scabbard.