Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Traditional Crafts
Apart from the following, other Myanmar crafts you may come across are paper para-
sols, silver- and metal-ware, and wood carvings.
Kammawa & Parabaik
Kammawa
(from the Pali
kammavacha
) are narrow, rectangular slats painted with ex-
tracts from the Pali Vinaya (the Pitaka, concerned with monastic discipline); specifically,
these are extracts to do with clerical affairs. The core of a
kammawa
page may be a thin
slat of wood, lacquered cloth, thatched cane or thin brass, which is then layered with red,
black and gold lacquer to form the script and decorations.
The
parabaik
(Buddhist palm-leaf manuscript) is a similarly horizontal 'book', this
time folded accordion-style, like a road map. The pages are made of heavy paper covered
with black ink on which the letters are engraved.
The bronze Mahamuni Buddha, in Mandalay's Mahamuni Paya, may date back to the
1st century AD and is Myanmar's most famous Buddhist sculpture.
Lacquerware
The earliest lacquerware found in Myanmar can be dated to the 11th century and sported
a very Chinese style. The techniques used today are known as
yun,
the old Bamar word
for the people of Chiang Mai, from where the techniques were imported in the 16th cen-
tury (along with some captured artisans) by King Bayinnaung. An older style of applying
gold or silver to a black background dates back to, perhaps, the Pyay era (5th to 9th cen-
turies) and is kept alive by artisans in Kyaukka, near Monywa.
Many lacquerware shops include workshops, where you can see the lengthy process
involved in making the bowls, trays and other objects. The craftsperson first weaves a
frame (the best-quality wares have a bamboo frame tied together with horse or donkey
hairs; lesser pieces are made wholly from bamboo). The lacquer is then coated over the
framework and allowed to dry. After several days it is sanded down with ash from rice
husks and another coating of lacquer is applied. A high-quality item may have seven to
15 layers altogether.
The lacquerware is engraved and painted, then polished to remove the paint from
everywhere except from within the engravings. Multicoloured lacquerware is produced
by repeated engraving, painting and polishing. From start to finish it can take up to five
or six months to produce a high-quality piece of lacquerware, which may have as many
