Burmese Days : Handwerk und Kunsthandwerk

The tourist route from Yangon over Bagan to Mandalay and up to Inle Lake leads to many artisans' workshops: lotus and silk spinners, weavers, silver smiths, a blacksmith's workshop,  lacquerware producers and others. These are pictures of craftspeople on Inle Lake and Bagan where we watched not only the making of  local products but also a small cheroot-"factory". Artisans of Burma

                                                                               Producing Thanaka paste
Many women and children in Myanmar have their faces painted with a white paste, mostly patches on the cheeks, often done rather crudely. Thanaka paste is used by nearly everybody as a general cosmetic. It has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory ingredients and can also be used as sun screen. It is produced by grinding the bark from the Thanaka tree (Hesperethusa crenulata) mixed with water.

                                                  Thanaka market stalls

                                                           Boy with Thanaka paste applied to his face

Beautiful lacquerware products were used in Burma households for all purposes until plastic was introduced.
As nice as it may look, lacquer needs turpentine for dilution of the substance gained from the lacquer trees and the men apply the lacquer with their bare hands (and clean them afterwards with cooking oil and ... Diesel!).

                                Lady spinning silk imported from China

                                                          Lady drawing a delicate silk thread from lotus stems


                                                         Cheroot cigars are produced and smoked mostly by women .

 cheroot smoker 

the blacksmith's shop

More here ....