Textiles in Burman Culture

by Sylvia Fraser-Lu

Winner of 2022 R.L. Shep Ethnic Textiles Book Award

This pioneering substantive work traces the history and evolution of the textiles of Myanmar (Burma) made and used by the Burman (Bama) ethnic majority who comprise approximately seventy percent of the population. Textiles for royalty, the religion, and commoners—along with fibers, dyes, and weaving techniques, have all been described in layman language. The importance of textiles in the life cycle, literature, and politics has also been included along with changes and innovation brought about through trade and conflict with neighboring states, British colonization, post-war isolation, and more recent “open door” policies. In addition to visiting the major textile centers, the author has ventured into the more remote areas of the Burman heartland to garner information on lesser known textiles from the Yaw, Shwebo, Kyaukse, and Pyay (Prome) districts. She has also traveled to Mon, Rakhine and Shan States to include textiles made by minorities for the Burman market.

The text is profusely illustrated with on-site and archival photographs of weavers and heirloom textiles as well as with numerous diagrams and sketches. This publication will be an important reference not only for textile scholars and art historians, but also for those with an interest in Burman culture.

About the Author

Sylvia Fraser-Lu spent many years as an educator in East and Southeast Asia. Her interest in Asian arts and crafts led to a writing career. She contributed articles for Arts of Asia and Oriental Art in the 1970s and early 1980s. She is the author of several books on Burma, including Burmese Lacquerware (1985 and 2000), Burmese Crafts: Past and Present (1994), and Splendour in Wood: The Buddhist Monasteries of Burma (2001). She also co-curated and co-edited the first stateside exhibition and catalog on Buddhist Art of Myanmar (2015) at the Asia Society in New York.