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BySylvia Fraser-Lu

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“Speaking personally, you can have my gun, but you’ll take my book when you pry my cold, dead fingers off of the binding.” -Stephen King

Synopsis

Craftsmen have always held an honoured place in Burmese society and have taken great pride in their creative abilities. In pre-colonial Burma, all sections of the population - from royalty to the monkhood to the common folk - used finely crafted objects in their everyday lives. Prehistoric and Historic evidence indicates that the inhabitants of Burma have been fashioning objects of beauty and utility for over 2,000 years. Buddhism over the centuries has been the prime inspiration formuch of Burma's artistic endeavour. This, in combination with a thriving body of pre-Buddhist animistic beliefs, a rich oral and vernacular literature, and a love of detailed surface embellishment, have culminated in the production of distinctive works of art. In this work, the author introduces the reader to the scope and beauty of Burmese crafts by exploring the historical background, the foundations of Burma's artistic traditions, and the temple and pagoda arts of brick, stucco, sculpture, and painting, before embarking on a systematic survey of the development and evolution of Burma's major crafts, such as bronze and ironwork, wooden architecture, wood-carving, gold, silver, and jewellery, ceramics, lacquer, textiles and costume, books, paper, baskets, mats, and umbrellas. The author has lived and worked in Asia as a writer and educator for over twenty-five years and has written numerous articles and books about Asian arts and crafts.