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Myanmar or
Burmese Handicraft
of good quality
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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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Distinctive
woodcarving is one of the traditional works, others are
arts and crafts in gold, silver and iron; bronze, brass
and copper casting; relief work in stucco; turnery; drawing and painting;
lacquer ware; sculpting in stone or marble and lapidary work. Traditional skills are
carefully preserved in families and passed down from generation to
generation. |
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Carved wooden figures found in the stupas and shrines of the Bagan period,
1057-1287, suggest local carvers
raised the standards of the woodcarving
skills introduced from India in the 9th
and 10th Century.
Traditional
designs include the kanoke pan depicting intricate lotus buds, blossoms and
stems; scrollwork with a floral arabesque; chu or stylized figures
resembling lions with flowing manes; keinnaya and keinnayi, mythical male
and female birds with human heads and torso; beloo or ogre; and galon or
garuda, the mythical king of birds.
Carved wooden figures and bas-relief works are usually found on the covered
stairways or zaungdans of pagodas, in monasteries in highly embellished teak
panels and in many religious buildings and residences.
Even household
furniture, fixtures and utensils are decorated with wood carvings.
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Today there is a
tremendous diversity in Myanmar handicraft.
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There are
Buddha images, altars
and other religious figures, nats or
spirits; elephant, oxen, buffalo, tiger,
bullock cart and peacocks as souvenirs
for tourists; chinthes and other objects of legends. Orders can be placed also
for
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custom made items.
This andicrafts
are really beautiful made
from marble,
creating woodcarvings,
jewelries with all kind of
local gemstones plus other arts and
crafts, there are many variants.
Especially the Bogyoke
market in Yangon carry a
wide range including ethnic
and regional crafts with usually excellent
quality.
Cottage industries such as lacquer
workshops at Bagan produce useful
handicrafts, marble and jade
carver at Mandalay and
Yangon create beautiful
objects. |
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This
items in general
are very
affordable, there are quite
sophisticated creations and other very
amateurish because not having the money to
invest in good tools. Lots of exotic
items are available in
particular jewelry using ruby, jade and
other precious and semi precious stones, be
very vigilant when buying any jewelry or
gemstones, in particular ruby gemstones and
imperial jade because you don't have the
qualification to look through, means hire a
consultant for some hours.
In any case the positive surprise is, very
consumer friendly prices.
Aside of the usual ruby gemstones and jade items are
plenty of goods from China with a very low
price tag. There are other shopping items
such as beautiful ceramics, very attractive
are silk and lacquer items. |
Lacquer works at Bagan |
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One of the
major design is made using teak wood by
hand and basic carving tools. This are true pieces of
art, it wont matter if it is a Buddha
statue, a mirror frame or just a beautiful
elephant.
Since ages, this
was considered as a traditional art which as passed on within
the families.
Even daily used
items such as rolling pins, ladles,
walking sticks and combs are made from this
material.
Craftsmen also produce
other items such as furniture, toys, book
stands, jewel boxes, decorative panels,
wooden screens, window frames, spoons,
bowls, trays, vases, masks, idols, photo
frames, key hangers, beads from teak wood |
Woodcarvings
at a showroom |
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Mirror Frame Carved from
Wood Rectangle
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Mirror Frame Carved from
Wood Round
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Wood is cheaper
- in Myanmar- and softer than other
materials but can be difficult to handle. |
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carvers carefully select wood with the
right degree of hardness, grain and hue for
each object. Myanmar carvers
prefer to work with rosewood, ironwood,
teak, tamalan (Dalbergia oliveri), hpaw (Adina
cordifolia) and yamanay (Gmelina arborea).
Other
varieties of handicrafts are marionettes, gold,
silver, iron, bronze, brass casting, copper casting, tapestry,
relief,
stucco, turnery, drawing, painting jewelry,
gemstone paintings. |
Gemstone Painting
A
very special Myanmar Art and
handicraft is gemstone painting,
which means all "painting" is done
by a mosaic of different gemstones.
This are usually pieces of jade,
ruby and ruby dust plus other semi
precious stones. As you can see at
the artwork above it looks like a
painting but the elements are as you
see at the left pictures. This is
somehow in the tradition of French
impressionist and expressionist
paintings but in a very traditional
technique. Anyway it shows very good
the creativity of local handicraft
and art creators. |
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Buddhist painting
of monks |
Monks walking with the bowl |
Casted brass sculpture |
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Jade Bangles in different colors, |
bracelet and rough stones and |
small jade elephant |
Lacquer elephant with gold paints |
and a shop in Yangon |
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Paintings, jade ware, antiques and reproduction, Ivory, pearls, marble carvings,
gem painting, puppets, other souvenir items, souvenirs
This group of smiling artisans is
located close to the
Shwedagon pagoda.
Traditional handicraft
skills are carefully preserved in
families and passed down from generation
to generation. Most of the artisans are
simultaneously at
home and at work
in their
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Lacquer
plate round |
lacquer ware;
silver ware, sculpting, stone,
marble, lapidary work, lacquer ware, tapestries, wood carving,
sandal wood, textile,
mother of pearl, tribal art.
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Handicraft artisans and woodcarving
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silver ware. |
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