ARTS & ARCHITECTURE345if no respect for the what the original would have looked like. In Bagan,
for example, all zedii would have been traditionally covered with white or
painted stucco, not left as the bare brick structures they are today.
Other Buildings
Although so little remains of the old wooden architectural skills, there
are still many excellent wooden buildings to be seen. The people of
Myanmar continue to use teak with great skill, and a fi ne country home
can be a very pleasing structure indeed.
While many buildings erected during the British colonial period have
been demolished or are facing the wrecking ball, those that survive are of-
ten well worth seeking out. They range from the rustic wood-and-plaster
Tudor villas of Pyin Oo Lwin to the thick-walled, brick-and-plaster, colon-
naded mansions and shop houses of Yangon, Mawlamyine and Myeik.
An interesting example of a fusion of Myanmar and European styles is
the City Hall building in Yangon. Until recently scant attention was paid
to preserving colonial architecture – for political as well as economic rea-
sons. In March 2011, The Irrawaddyy reported that fi ve major colonial-era
buildings in Yangon (the former Prime Minister’s Offi ce, and the former
Ministries of Energy; Hotels and Tourism; Immigration and Population;
and Commerce) would be preserved in an eff ort to attract more tourists.
One Yangon colonial-era building that has already been nicely spruced
up through private donations and overseas grants is the Moseah Yeshua
Synagogue.
Sculpture & Painting
Early Myanmar art was always a part of the religious architecture –
paints were for the walls of temples, sculpture to be placed inside them.
Many pieces, formerly in paya or kyaung, have been sold or stolen and,
unfortunately, you’ll easily fi nd more Myanmar religious sculpture for
sale or on display overseas than in Myanmar.
In the aftermath of the 1988 demonstrations, the government forbade
‘selfi sh’ or ‘mad art’ that didn’t have clear pro-government themes. One
artist, Sitt Nyein Aye, spent two months in custody for sketching the
ruins of the former student union, which Ne Win had blown up in 1962.
Most contemporary Myanmar artists now play safe with predictable
tourist-oriented works. The government’s posters – anti-AIDS, antidrugs,
pro-traffi c safety, or just pro-government! – are occasionally interesting
pieces of propaganda artwork, but you shouldn't expect any of the So-
cialist Realist élan of the former Soviet Union, Vietnam or North Korea.
Traditional Craf ts
Apart from the following, other Myanmar crafts you may come across
are paper parasols, silver and metalware, and wood carvings. For tips on
shopping for traditional crafts, see p 27.
Kammawa & Parabaik
Kammawaa (from the Pali kammavacha) are narrow, rectangular slats
painted with extracts from the Pali Vinaya (the Pitaka) concerned with
monastic discipline; specifi cally, extracts to do with clerical aff airs. The
core of a kammawaa 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.
Theparabaikk(Buddhist palm-leaf manuscript) is a similarly horizon-
tal ‘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 Bud-
dha, in Manda-
lay’s Mahamuni
Paya, may date
back to the 1st
century AD and is
Myanmar’s most
famous Buddhist
sculpture.Old Myanmar
Paintings in the
Collection of U
Win is one of the
illustrated pub-
lications of the
Thavibu Gallery
(www.thavibu.
com) specialising
in Burmese art.Amazing
Wood
Structures
» Shwenandaw
Kyaung, Mandalay» (^) U Bein’s Bridge,
Amarapura
» (^) Bagaya Kyaung,
Inwa
» (^) Youqson
Kyaung, Salay
» (^) Pakhanngeh
Kyaung, Pakokku