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Myanmar Art, Burmese Crafts & Buddhist
Objects
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We are focused on individual and small group trips throughout the country, tell us what you want via contact. |
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There is a wide spectrum
such as murals, Buddha
statues, marble, bronze,
brass, jade, paintings, wood
carvings and more. This can be considered somehow as
a treasures and a pleasures. The
variety of styles and forms
is amazing and
is often related to
religion since various
objects are for decorative
purposes and
worshipping. Another
interesting fact is how deep
is this integrated into the
everyday life of the people.
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Precious jewelry composition,
beautiful paintings, mostly with a religious
theme in various pagodas in form of
marble sculptures. Gold
plated
Buddha statues
and images, relief objects depicting famous
jakata stories and so on, there is a wide
selection.
The relation to art
is a bit different as we know it elsewhere
since Myanmar's don't make a difference
between arts and crafts.
Here are more arts
and crafts
in various
directions, Burmese art
has
mostly Buddhist
theme, lacquer is a
typical different
direction rather
useful items, lesser
artworks although
they are sometimes
very beautiful it show a
different direction since it is rather profane
where the purpose and a beautiful design has
priority.
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This is tableware, furniture and
sometimes pure beauty objects, lacquer ware is
very decorative and its natural, its not
plastic but has similar properties and is
commonly used every day,
read more.
Contemporary
objects are again often Buddha oriented but
there are plenty of abstract paintings and
forms of various types, all is very colorful and decorative.
Plenty objects
are created every day by a artists, they are
very busy and exhibitions sometimes even hits Singapore, USA
and Europe but there is no industry as
we have it in the
West and money to be
made is slim. Anyway
they are very productive and the whole scene
is slowly shifting into abstract creations
with strong colors. There is also a bigger
production in the commercial direction
mainly with Buddha statues in marble, brass
and bronze casting, this is mainly done at
Mandalay around the Mahamuni pagoda complex. |
Burmese art
painting |
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Myanmar art
in a temple at
Bagan |
Usually a murals and fresco tell
a story, this story is rendered in one picture with
many scenes divided by floral boundaries, some space is
left to write explanations. The main themes are jataka
stories very often blended with scenes of the daily life
of that time,
more.
Other variant
are marvelous woodcarvings
and a very special form is so called 'precious
stones painting' where the usual painted
colors are substituted by gemstones, lacquer
art is another for of arts and crafts
probably one of the best known
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Myanmar art
depicted as a Buddha
mural. |
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E.g. woodcarving,
a carver has the same status as an artist
painter, a silversmith the same as an
architect or a creator of a beautiful marble
sculpture. The idea behind is always the
same, objects for religious purposes and
decorative
items for the house and elsewhere, designs
also have always the beauty of the object in
mind.
Motifs from
the real world and imagination plus
supernatural often come together, gods, Nats
, mythological creatures and Buddhist art
paintings or drawings are pulled together,
the best example are the jakata stories
which are
very popular motifs in temples.
Artists
always try to find a good balance of all
common used parameters that includes floral
patterns, read
more. |
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Burmese art
clearly show
the influence Buddhism in the country. It
can be seen in
many galleries in Yangon, Mandalay
and other places exhibitions
sometimes reach a international audiences in
Singapore via private galleries but anyway
the infrastructure still needs lots of
improvement and should be open to a wider
audience. Maybe by government supported
exhibitions in Asia and elsewhere since contemporary artwork has something
to tell and this is not only religion. |
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Crafts
and traditional artwork has often religious
components included, they show
theology and show
that local artists are able to produce
paintings and other subjects on high
quality. Woodcarvings
can be found in the
handicraft section.
Words such as
the Orient, the East etc. are loaded with
exotic imaginations of indigenous
identities. This is particular evident in
terms of culture which can be
experienced by traveling to the country or
just have a look for
Thailand in
various art shops and
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Myanmar art |
Burma art painting |
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Modern Burma painting |
galleries in
Bangkok
or
Singapore
for
Buddha Statues
and Buddhist paintings.
The desire to see and maybe own something
different, beautiful and exotic from far
away is for sure a driving motive.
Its real
exotic and very decorative since Buddhism,
sometimes Hinduism and
Chinese
culture are clearly evident in the pictures. |
Contemporary art Painting |
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Myanmar art sculptures made from
brass, bronze, wooden, marble and jade
statues. One of the most
attractive souvenirs bringing back from Myanmar
or Burma are Buddha images and Buddha statues
created from various materials, among them,
woodcarvings, brass items, bronze sculptures,
marble creations, Jade Buddhas, silverworks,
silk material and more, that is Myanmar art.
Typical Burmese art
among other is bronze and brass casting various items
are made, there are religious images, bells,
some musical instruments and of course
household items. The most attractive artwork
is probably done by creating brass and
bronze Buddha statues and images plus silver
creations for religious purposes and
decorative items. The country has a
substantial gold manufacturing “cottage
industry” producing gold leaves to decorate
Buddha statues and of course for jewelry.
A typical quarter
where all this is made is around the Mahamuni
temple in Mandalay. Inside small workshops
craftsmen work with chisels, carving Buddhas and
dancing Hindu Gods plus other fantastic figures
such as dragons. The very lively and intricately
detailed objects, images and figures are based
on Buddhist and Hindu motifs with fixed forms and
rules developed over more than thousand year of
artistic tradition.
Searching for "bronzes" a general term for metal sculptures
which looks like bronze since different
craftsmen use different metal mixtures they are
used to work with. Also brass is heavily used in
various compositions, created in “lost wax
technique”.
The shops where the Buddhist art items are made usually are
family business where one generation passes the
little secrets to the next generation, lots of
skills and training is needed to be
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Myanmar brass art
Buddha sculpture
Bronze and brass
casting |
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Creating brass and
bronze
Buddha art |
creative. Bronze and brass
and marble is the preferred
material for them, items are
made for decoration or
worship in temples, pagodas
and other Buddhist shrines
where fruit and flower
offerings are placed around
the figures,
marble Buddha sculpture
are popular.
A image is first
created in wax, after dipped into clay, when the
clay has hardened, the wax is melted flows out
and is collected to be used again, more.
Creating brass and
bronze Buddha’s
is fine
craftsmanship done since hundreds of
years in the country. Since ancient
time artists create this metal
figures and it needs highly skilled
people to handle design, metallurgy
and casting. Mandalay in Myanmar is
a center of arts and crafts with a
high
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Brass Buddha Statue,
Myanmar
brass art.
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level of knowledge and quality. Bronze
Buddha’s are cast from molds and the
mold is created from a model of the
final product. Hot molten metal is poured
into the mold and after cooling the
final touches with create a great
work of art. At sand casting a
replica of the object is created,
sand and clay are fixed around to
make the mold. The molten bronze is
poured into the mold, cool and
harden, bronze is an alloy of copper
and tin. After the rough brass
Buddha statue is polished and
ground to become Myanmar art. Another casting method is the lost
wax method, the wax sculpture is
then heated, wax melts and runs out
and the space is filled with molten
bronze, this process produces the
best sculpture since everything has
fine details afterwards.
Metals
have been used for weapons,
agricultural use and for artwork and
crafts, mainly
bronze, brass, silver and gold. All
this has a long history when going
on a war path (often to Thailand)
one of the purposes was always to
take captives skilled in various
metalwork's and settle them
around the capital.
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Bronze Art,
casting and Buddha sculptures.
Brass Buddha
Art |
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Blacksmithing in the country has
traditionally been an highly
regarded work this is also expressed in the
fact that the most powerful household Nat is
the Mahagiri nat a blacksmith who was killed
long time ago.
Mixing
metals was somehow regarded as alchemy and
over the centuries people tried again and
again to turn lead into silver and brass
into gold and the old Pyu were known for
their excellent iron swords, axes, spears,
arrowheads and more.
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Marble Buddha
Sculpture |
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Mural paintings
was often used in the past inside temple and
pagodas are. Famous wall
paintings in the
Pagodas and Temples of
Bagan in
central
Myanmar. Frescoes or mural paintings adorn many
of Bagan's monuments. Among other temples with the best
preserved frescoes are the Patothamya, Nagayon,
Abeyadana and Nanpaya. The technique to create
this mural paintings is, first to smoothen
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Traditional
art,
Myanmar
artist,
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the wall to be painted with
a mixture of lime, vegetable and animal material, after
it will let dry for a few days. Now the
master painter draws the outline with chalk or ink,
after this he will apply colors with the help
of his assistants. Those colors are composed of
compounds made from vegetables, animals (mainly fat) and
locally available minerals.
This Myanmar paintings have no perspective, instead lines of many
variations are drawn and pigments with strong colors are
used to create lively and expressive pictures. The gaps between the
lines are filled with floral and geometric patterns
or just some creative inspiration of the artist.
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Mural
painting |
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Bagan Temple
Interior |
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In an Old Bagan
Palace |
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Temple Wall Paining |
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Temple Wall Paining |
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Temple Wall Paining |
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Buddhist paintings,
driven by a deep ethical
impulse, they let the viewer have a glimpse into
local artistic value and reflecting
the culture.
More on Buddhist art.
Figurative forms are also mainly around the Buddha
theme, all kind of material like brass, bronze,
marble, granite, wood etc. is used to create
Buddha art, images and sculptures, they come
in many styles, sizes,
simple crafted or with objects attached and
maybe painted with simple colors and or gold
paint.
At the
Bogyoke Aung San market
in Yangon are plenty of galleries having all
this on display including fine silver ware made from solid silver not plated stuff,
see the silver art items at the
Myanmar Art Pictures
page. |
Burmese art
paintings,
Buddhist
art |
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Jade Art
Es very
special form
is Jade art,
its amazing
what
creative
items are
carved or
rather
drilled out
of this
extremely
tough stone.
Items are
created from
a few
centimeter
in size up
to around 2
meters for
for a huge
standing
jade Buddha
also this
easily can
reach a over
hundred
thousand $
price tag
people are
buying the
items as a
great
decorative
items and to
show that
they have
money. Most
people
buying jade
items ar
Chinese
people,
more. |
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Burma art and
Oriental Art Bogyoke
Market |
Oriental art
in general
is very decorative and a true "eye
catcher" in every house, different
countries in Asia produce different
art, such as Chinese Pop and
Malaysia Batik paintings,
more
Very popular
is traditional art such as
statues of mythical beings, paintings with a countryside theme like oxcart,
bullock cart on dusty roads, sailing ships on the
Ayeyarwady river and all variation of pagodas and
monasteries Buddhist Painting are true art, the painting
at right side
is from an exhibition in the Governors
Residence Hotel in
Yangon. Here is true Asian art by any means
with all the components and values
someone expects for Asia.
Buddhist art
Myanmar
usually has good quality and the
local artists do a real good job.
The quality of paintings is
excellent and a real showcase of
Buddhist paintings, read
more |
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Burma art
contemporary
painting |
Myanmar art
often centers on
Buddha portraits and Buddha marble
sculptures in a very new fashion way,
naturally there are some abstract art
attempts, its difficult to say something
since everyone interprets his own ideas into
it.
There are plenty of unique painting
creations of beautiful flower
composition art, maybe
with some lotus flowers, orchids, native
landscape and quite a lot of
Chinese art painting themes.
Great Myanmar art photography, sometimes is
shown in the entrance to the pagodas. The
entrance walkways to temples and pagodas have
lots of small shops left and right, trying
to sell all kind of religious items, you easily can find pieces of
beauty.
If you are in
Bagan have a look at the entrance to the Ananda
temple one famous Myanmar
Photographer Mr. Bagan Maung Maung will show you
plenty of stunning photos he made, real
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beautiful
compositions, you wont find
this elsewhere. Myanmar
Artists are very creative to
create beautiful items made
out of solid silver and
other not plated materials.
A continuous demand for
Buddha figures and
statues is almost sure, most are
donated to monasteries, temples and pagodas. Many
Burma art shops
selling cottage
industries items producing are located near pagodas
and temples.
Silver art is a long-standing tradition in creating outstanding
silver items with distinctive art pattern reminds very much on antique silver.
Silversmith are doing a excellent job, if
one has some special request to make some
silver items it can be done, for a
surprisingly reasonable
price, more. |
Burma art
silver
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Is a very special version of
artwork and handicrafts.
Lacquer is perhaps the most
distinctive and traditional of all and the most
widely produced and used for the real worlds applied art.
Lacquer art was long a favorite of royalty for storing documents
and precious jewelries. You can find beautiful
lacquer art from Thailand with a little
bit more artistic flavor here,
more.
Little is
known of how the making of lacquer art - Lackarbeiten -started
in Myanmar Burma Birma, although some believe that it may have
been introduced fromThe creation of lacquer
items is usually in the so called "cottage industries"
typical for lacquer is Bagan. Other are centered around
the creation of all kind of religious objects or
decorative items.
They make beautiful Myanmar art marble Buddha
images, Buddha statues from alabaster, wood and
sometimes granite. Common households employed lacquer art
for everyday use such as keeping betel nuts and leaves or as soup bowls.
Monks use a black lacquer ware bowl known as thabeik when asking for alms.
Lacquer art - Lackarbeiten - from Myanmar Burma Birma was so highly
treasured that Myanmar's kings often presented lacquer objects as gifts to foreign
emissaries.
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Myanmar art
lacquer
Myanmar art
lacquer |
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China's Yunnan province. What is certain is that lacquer
ware is a traditional Myanmar craft that dates as far back as the 13th
century.
How Myanmar artwork of the past was made.
Valued for its artistic beauty and practical
qualities ' it is light and watertight, for example ' lacquer ware has
many applications. One can find lacquer ware ash trays, bowls, water jars,
vases, salvers for temple offerings, cups, jewellery boxes based on an
ancient design that double as pillows, traditional betel boxes, plates,
storage chests, tables and chairs.
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