Mangoda Co.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in the region of Southeast Asia renowned for its enduring cultural heritage. With its history stretching over 750,000 years, Myanmar has some of the world’s finest artisans. Often employed by the Royal and the religious, these local artisans portray a breathing and changing tale of Burmese history through a carefully calibrated process of creation - not with machines but with their hands alone. The art of lacquerware includes as one of the Myanmar traditional handicrafts and had been known to exist since the Bagan period (11th – 13th A.D.). Since then, Bagan has been frequented by the King and was heralded as a land of paramount religious influence, its prospering helped to make local lacquerware an esteemed souvenir and the artistry a much envied technical heritage. The lacquerware production starts with a wickerwork of woven strips of finely cut bamboo, horse hair, wood, some mixture of lacquer resin with clay, wood sawdust, and deceased animals’ bone ash. These are carefully built up and polished with the ash of fossil wood. The designs are then elaborately etched or painted by hand. Myanmar traditional lacquerware drawing styles are derived from the Jataka stories of Buddha. Read more at: www.mangoda.co/the-production-process. Here at Mangoda, we aim to tell the beautiful stories behind those handicrafts. We believe that the incredible skill, effort, and culture we witnessed behind the making of each tea cup, vase or display item deserve an appreciative audience. Make your purchase, keep the heritage. —Brent and Phyo, from the summer heat in Mandalay