THE GORKHA FIGHTING ART

By N. Therese Edwards

For centuries, the Gorkha warriors of Nepal have been renowned for their fierce fighting style and their equally fierce khukari knife. An old Nepalese saying holds that once a Gorkha has unsheathed his blade, he cannot replace it until it has encountered blood. If there was no enemy whose blood needed to be drawn, the soldier would slice the skin on his hand or body to stain his weapon before returning it to its scabbard.

That ferocity was further exemplified by several battles that took place during the Falklands War. The Argentineans reportedly dropped their rifles and abandoned their mortars as soon as the Gorkha infantry, which fought on the side of the British, deployed their khukari (also spelled kukri and kukiri).

Many Westerners are familiar with the Gorkha soldiers, but few know much about the fighting style that fueled their fury. That's why Shuny Bee has devoted himself to preserving their ancient art and propagating it throughout the modern world.

He says the term "Gorkha" comes from two Nepalese roots: Go means "cow," and rakh means "protector." Because they are mostly Hindus, they regarded themselves as the "protectors of cows," he says. Some English dictionaries define the term, which the Brits write as "Gurkha," as soldiers from the mountains of Nepal who served the British or Indian army.

The khukari dates back at least to 1780, when the Nepalese used it for hunting and utility purposes, says Bee, a 25-year veteran of the martial arts with a fifth-degree black belt in taekwondo. As a weapon of war, the knife saw combat in the early 1800s when England attacked Nepal. That marked the first time the outside world saw the effectiveness of the Gorkha fighting style-a fact which was frequently acknowledged by the British.

The British were so impressed with the ferocity of the combat that occurred during a border dispute with India between 1815 and 1816 that they drafted a treaty to recruit men from Nepal into their military. During World War I and World War II, thousands of Gorkhas fought the Germans, Italians and Japanese and later the Chinese during the Indo-China war of 1962 and the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965-1970. Their contribution to those conflicts brought close-quarters combat-and the khukari knife-onto the world stage.

As a boy growing up in Nepal, Bee was inspired by the way the Gorkhas demonstrated their knife skills while performing on the king's birthday. Soon afterward, he started learning how to wield the weapon, acquiring the basics from a neighbor who had served with the British. When he arrived in America, he realized the value of his country's fighting arts and delved further into the way of the khukari. During subsequent visits to Nepal, he interacted with members of the Royal Nepal Army, the Indian Gorkha soldiers, the British Gorkha soldiers and common citizens who have used the weapon for years. He discovered that there was no uniformity in their style, so after completing a detailed study of the techniques and movements of each source, he systematized the knowledge and bolstered it with some forms and techniques of his own.

The primary weapon of Bee's style is the khukari. Because it was born out of necessity in Nepal's environmental extremes, it comes in a variety of shapes-some of which are as long as 30 inches. Throughout the 1800s, Nepalese guards would use the huge weapons to protect the palaces. Most versions of the knife, however, are much shorter and lighter. They are the ones that are preferred for close-quarters combat.

"As a martial arts weapon, the khukari is basically used for three purposes: to disarm, to disable and to kill," Bee says. Up close, it can be used to disarm an enemy using the butt end of the handle or the blunt side of the blade. To disable an opponent, it can be used to slash or stab the body. When killing is required, more force is applied to lethal targets, he says.

Mastering the khukari requires learning a set of specialized steps and techniques unique to the knife. At the higher levels, deception and distraction enable users to gain the upper hand in battle. As in the duels that occasionally took place in the American Old West, speed is the best friend of the khukari artist. The person who is fastest on the draw, Bee insists, will usually emerge victorious.

This article is found in Black Belt / September 2004, Vol. 42 NO. 9 Page 24.