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Sorry for my photo arrangement, have no idea how to post this photo, because of four directions.

Object types-drum

Materials-bronze
Techniques- stamped
Production place- Made in Burma
Place (findspot)-Found/Acquired Burma
Date-18thC-19thC
Schools /Styles-Shan States Style

Department: Asia

Registration number: 1947,1014.1

Dry lacquer sculpture of the Buddha

Object- Dry Lacquer Buddha sculpture

Place-Rangoon, Burma (Myanmar)
Period-Late 18th or early 19th century AD

Dimension- Height: 1.800 m (sculpture)

Asia OA 1826.2-11.1 (sculpture);

Asia OA 1995.5-13.1 (throne)

Gift of Capt. Frederick Marryat

Current Location- British Museum,

LondonRoom 33: Asia

Buddhism has been present in Burma from the fifth century AD. Seated, standing and lying images of the Buddha were made in stone, metal, wood and lacquer for worship in temples. This large Buddha image is seated in the lotus position with the legs crossed and the left hand placed in his lap. In the fingers of his right hand is a myrobalan, a small fruit with medicinal properties. Legend tells how the Buddha received this fruit from the god Indra shortly after attaining enlightenment. Images of the Buddha as a healer holding the myrobalan are unusual outside Myanmar.

This image has been made using the dry lacquer technique. The approximate outline of the finished sculpture is made from clay. Over this is laid strips of cloth which have been imopregnated with lacquer sap. This is then covered with further layers of lacquer sap and lacquer putty (sap mixed with sawdust), with final details finished separately and then attached. Once the layers of lacquer are set, the clay core can be removed. Lacquer has been used to make Buddha images and other objects for many centuries in Burma and continues to this day.

The wooden and lacquered throne is a modern replacement for the lost original; it was commissioned by the Museum in Mandalay in 1995.

Object- Gilt-Wood Buddha

Period- 18th AD or Earlier

Place- Irrawaddy Delta, Burma

Dimension- N.A

Current Location- British Museum

Museum ID- Asia OA 1872,7-1.1

Enlightenment: Art

Burma, probably from the region of the Irrawaddy Delta, 18th century AD or earlier

This figure of the Buddha shows him in a popular Burmese form, seated cross-legged on the backs of three elephants. The sculpture is made of wood that has been lacquered and gilded. He is depicted with his hands in the bhumisparsamudra position - his right hand touches the earth, calling on the Earth Goddess to witness the fact that he is able to achieve Enlightenment. This is the moment of triumph in the Buddha story, which explains its frequent use in Buddhist cultures, especially in Burma and Thailand.

The figure appears in James Stephanoff's painting An Assemblage of Works of Art, from the Earliest Period to the Time of Phydias. This is a nineteenth-century European view of the hierarchy of art, 'progressing' from South and Southeast Asian sculpture and that of the ancient Mayas at the bottom to the 'perfection' of classical Greek art at the top. Stephanoff placed the Buddha in his lowest, most primitive zone, next to reliefs of ancient Mayan civilizations that were being discovered in Central America. This reflected the belief at that time that the Mayan civilization had developed after contact between Central America and one of the ancient 'oriental' civilizations - China, India or Egypt. The historian Johann Winckelmann (1717-68) and others regarded Asian and Egyptian cultures as 'the cradle of civilization'. But they also believed that the art of these cultures was 'symbolic and primitive' in its representation of the human figure in comparison with what they saw as the sophisticated ideal reached by Greek artists.

Gift of the Bridge family

M. Caygill and J. Cherry (eds), A.W. Franks, nineteenth-centur (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)

The chief (standing right) and one of the other village leaders show off their ceremonial dress. The other Naga man has one of the red seed headdresses, as shown earlier post.
Tangkhul Tribe
Place - Lahe , Burma.
credit: Mark A.Johnson

Classic Naga face
with
a fantastic headdress
made with red seeds.
Tangkhul Tribe
Place- Lahe, Burma.
credit: Mark A.Johnson

Great necklaces!!
Shells,
bronze bells,
plaques,
beads,
brass heads,
and tiger teeth.
Nokaw tribe
Lahe , Burma.

credit; Mark A.Jhonson

Beautiful tattoos,
earplugs made with horn,
wood and shell hair plank,
nice hat with boar tusks.
Lower Konyak or Wancho tribe
Place- Lahe, Burma,


credit : Mark A. Johnson, who is the best in tribal art collector, researcher and dealer for SEA tribal art.

Weaved Rattan attached with monkey skull, decorated with boar tusks on each side and feather on top.

Kylyo-Kengyu Tribe,

Silver ingot

Burma (Myanmar),

18th century AD

Diameter:
57.000 mm Weight: 101.500 g

Current Location-British Museum, London

CM 1892-10-8-11

Gift of Major R.C. Temple




Flower money

During the 18th century the monetary system in Burma was based on weighed amounts of silver. The currency was made by merchants under licence from the king. The most common form of silver ingot was a disc with flowery patterns across its upper surface. This pattern was formed by the cooling process used after the ingots were cast: the silversmith blew on each disc through a straw and the pattern only formed if the silver was of sufficient purity. In this way the flowery pattern was a mark of pure silver. The silver flower ingots were not made to be of a particular weight, but were used in payments according to their weight. If the ingot was too large, it was simply cut to size. If too small, extra pieces of silver were cut from another ingot. J. Williams (ed.), Money: a history (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)