Ten Flowers

There are 10 Myanmar traditional arts which are metaphorically called “Ten Flowers”.

• Panbe (The art of the blacksmith)
• Panbu (The art of sculpture)
• Pantain(The art of gold and silver smith)
• Patin(The art of bronze casting)
• Pantaut(The art of making floral designs using masonry)
• Panyan(The art of bricklaying and masonry)
• Pantamault(The art of sculpting with stone)
• Panpoot(The art of turning designs on the lathe)
• Panchi(The art of painting)
• Panyun(The art of making lacquer ware)

Wood Carving (Panbu)

The art of Sculptures made of wood which produces figures, floral designs and the figures of human beings, animals produced by artisan can see in Mandalay City.

Tapestry

Tapestries are decorations of one cloth on another, designs on velvet or cotton cloth with glass beads and shining sequins stitched on jackets, hats, handbags with colorful dancers, peacocks, elephants, mythical animals of Myanmar Culture and famous Jataka stories are depicted on large wall hangings, all are popular souvenirs for tourists.

Silversmith

In Myanmar, one of the famous traditional art and handicraft is the Silversmith. All of this silversmith can see in Mandalay and especially in Sagaing. Silverwares are usually adorned with figures from religious stories and folklores and floral designs such as silver bowl, jar, kettle, necklace, armlet and rings are the product of silversmith.

Gold Leaf

Since the time of Myanmar monarchs, Gold Leaf cottage industry has existed and gold leaf is mostly used for offering to pagodas. In making gold leaf, firstly refined pieces of gold are to be liquefied and turned them into thin and flat gold sheet pieces and then put these into two layers of bamboo paper like sandwiches filling. Second stage of pounding, totally about 1hour, is completed when after coconut timer sink 9 times. The final stage is moving gold foil into bigger size of bamboo paper and pounding for about 5 hours or 90 sink of coconut timer, gold leaf making is finished. The traditional way of gold leaf making is very interesting for not only tourists but also Myanmar people.

Pottery

Pottery is the earliest craft fashioned from the hands of man. Pots were used to store or cook food, burial urns, gold and jewelry, that were usually buried in the ground for safe keeping. Potshards have been found in ancient sites of Myanmar such as Beitahno, Sri Khestra (Thayekhittya) and Tagaung which are the centres of Pyu civilization, Bagan and Mrauk U. The main pottery places of Myanmar are Nwe Nyein Village near Kyauk Myaung and much older but less prolific pottery work is at Twante town near Yangon. Another well known pottery side is at Kyauk Taing Village on Inle Lake. The fascinating fact of hand-made pottery is that pots are still produced in more or less traditional methods.

Lacquer ware (Pan Yun)

Lacquer ware in Bagan, for the framework, bamboo, wood and hairs of horsetails are used. It is painted with lacquer coat after coat and dried in an underground cellar. With a fine iron stylus, designs are incised on the surface of the objects and incised areas are filled with colors-red, yellow, green and blue. This type of lacquer ware is decorative and religious uses.