Burmese glaze

source : The observer

The British Museum offers a taste of a lost world, says Sue Arnold

Sunday June 11, 2000

When my niece Aye Aye Mo was studying at Mandalay University, she asked me shyly if I would like to see her room. It was on the second floor of the women's accommodation block, windowless with a concrete floor, and just big enough to hold two beds (she shared with a school friend) and two narrow bedside tables. Nothing else. Light and air, from the central courtyard, filtered in through the 3ft gap between the ceiling and the wall that partitioned Aye Aye Mo's room from the corridor.

The only ornament, indeed the only object apart from clothes and furniture that I can remember from the visit, was a deep round lacquer box, about the size of a biscuit tin, with a pointed lid. This was her junk box where she kept make-up, jewellery, wooden hair combs and photographs of her family back in the Shan States.

It was a wonderful box, but then Burmese lacquer work is a wonderful craft. Its crimson, yellow and dark green pattern glowed richly in that sparse little room, reminding me of all the wealth and warmth that was synonymous with Burma and its people in the old days, the good days. Musing on this, I visited the new exhibition of Burmese lacquer at the British Museum, the first exhibition of any kind to come out of Burma since 1850. What makes it so special, apart from the magnificent artefacts, is that it provides a rare glimpse of a country which, through political isolation, has all but disappeared from the world map.

In the days when tourists did visit Burma - and there were never many at the best of times, thanks to the primitive infrastructure, shabby hotels and terrible roads - you could guarantee their souvenirs included something lacquer. Perhaps it was a le phet jar bought from craftsmen in Pagan, or a tiered tiffin carrier from the floating market on Inlay Lake, or a last-minute set of coasters from the Rangoon airport shop.To visit Burma and come back lacquerless was as unthinkable as returning from Spain minus castanets.

Lacquer, as this exhibition beautifully demonstrates, has been used in every facet of Burmese life - domestic, religious, artistic, and ceremonial since the twelfth century at least. At its most basic, it serves as a protective waterproof heat resistant coating for tableware; at its most ornate, painted, polished, gilded and mirrored, it decorates royal thrones and Buddhist shrines. Unique examples of both, together with ancient manuscripts, magnificently carved screens and statuary are all here.

There is a tourist boycott of Burma now, as its brutal military regime keeps the country's elected leader, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Sang Suu Kyi, under house arrest. And last month the ethical travel pressure group, Tourist Concern, and the Burma Campaign UK, launched a boycott of Lonely Planet guides because publisher Tony Wheeler refused to withdraw a book on Burma. If you are heeding Aung Sang Suu Kyi's heartfelt advice to stay away, until democracy is restored, a visit to this small, tranquil, exotic and curiously moving exhibition will serve as a satisfying hors d'oeuvre for the real banquet ahead.

Visions from the Golden Land: Burma and the Art of Lacquer is at the British Museum until 13 August.