Bagan To Mount Popa Taung Kalot

Burma  Map | Home Page 5 of 5 | Page Up
           
The Art of Lacquer Ware

Came to Burma via Yunnan in China in the 1st century A.D.  Raw lacquer is tapped from the thitsie trees. We saw two types being made

The first and more expensive option, uses a bamboo and horse hair frame for items requiring greater flexibility and durability

The second uses a wooden base.  The basic structure is coated with a layer of lacquer and clay, then put in a cool place to dry
            

Three or four days later the item is sealed with a  paste of lacquer and ash, the fineness of the ash determining the final quality of the finished lacquer ware

The ash may come from sawdust, paddy husk or even cow dung.  When dry the object is polished

Over time it is given several coats of lacquer and is black in colour.  Cheaper items will then be painted or decorated with gold leaf

Expensive items are decorated by means of inlay, engraving, painting and polishing.  Red, yellow, blue, and gold are the most frequently used colours.   Multi coloured ware takes about six months to complete and involves a dozen or more stages to manufacture

                      

                 Men's work, harvesting the coconuts              

Road Trip To Mount Popa

En route most drivers will stop at a coconut plantation where palms are tapped for sap and palm whiskey and jaggery candy is made.  We bought so much candy in fancy little baskets we had to give it away when we got back to Motherland 2

Women's work grinding the palm sees into oil

                

        Womens work, making jaggery toffee                                              

Mens work, distilling the whiskey

Popa Taung Kalot (Pedestel Hill) Monastery and Shrine

 Sits on a 2500 year old volcanic plug almost 5000' above the fertile Myibgyan  Plain, the 'real' Mount Popa is a volcanic mountain a mile to the  North East

A long way up the covered stairway

  

A 777 step covered walkway once maintained by a hermit monk, shelters visitors from the sun for the 25 minute climb.  We did not encounter the Yeti, hermit monks in tall hats that the guide books refer to 
Monkeys swarmed all over the street and temple steps

The views across the plain are fantastic on a clear day, even this day it was pretty impressive.  Eventually we reached the top most shrine
Burma  Map | Home Page 5 of 5 | Page Up