MYANMAR has a long and rich tradition of glazed ceramics
that has tended to be overlooked by international scientists. This has been
despite scholarly treatises published by eminent Myanmar experts such as U
Taw Sein Ko and Dr Than Tun and the writings of a few foreign specialists
such as John Guy, who wrote in Ceramic Traditions of South East Asia
(published in 1989 by Oxford University Press) that Myanmar was "not
traditionally associated with glazed ceramic production and yet there is
evidence, both archeological and textual, of a tradition existing in Burma
(Myanmar) from at least the ninth century." Art historians of Southeast
Asian ceramics have largely ignored Myanmar, which was by default relegated
to the status of a mere recipient of ceramic ware originating in China,
India and Thailand. However, historical references to Myanmar glazed
ceramics can be traced to impeccable foreign sources, including the Man
Shu, a chronicle published during China’s Tang Dynasty (618-907). A
reference to Srikshetra, near present-day Pyay, which was the capital of the
Pyu kingdom between the third and seventh centuries AD, records that it was
surrounded by a circular wall "built of greenish glazed tiles" and that its
people engaged in the barter of earthenware as well as glazed ware. Stadtner
in his 1999 book The Art of Burma: New Studies records that more than
1000 tin opicified (made more beautiful by making them opaque) lead glazed
plaques were inlaid at the Shwegugyi pagoda complex in 1476 by King
Dhammaceti (1472-92). The complex is at present-day Innwa, Tada-U Township,
Kyaukse District, Mandalay Division Similarly Frazer-Lu in her 1994 book
Burmese Crafts: Past and Present (Oxford University Press) noted that
the 18th century Kadothein Shrine in Laung-gyet District, Mrauk-U Township,
Sittwe District, Rakhine State, was paved with brown, blue and glazed tiles.
The British envoy Henry Yule in his1858 publication, A Narrative of the
Mission sent by the Governor-General of India to the Court of Ava in 1855,
noted the glazed sandstone decoration on the basement of the Mahatuhlut
Bonkyaw Monastery, in Amarapura Township, Mandalay District, Mandalay
Division. In addition to the historical records mentioned above, compelling
archaeological evidence in the form of religious edifices that are still
standing, every one of them with lithic inscriptions recording their date of
construction, provide evidence of ancient Myanmar glazed ceramic ware. Among
these, prominent examples are selected and presented below: The 9th century
Ngakwenadaung pagoda at Bagan whose upper parts are inlaid and decorated by
glazed bricks can still be viewed today. Glazed plaques were also discovered
in the 10th century Kyaikpun Pagoda near Bago, as recorded by R.C. Temple in
his 1894 work, Notes on Antiquities in Rammannadesa (The Talaing Country
of Burma.) Descriptions of 22 religious edifices at Bagan dating from
the 10th to the 13th centuries, referred to the use of glazed bricks,
plaques and tiles, indicating that Myanmar craftsmen had mastered the art of
applying glazing, not only to earthenware but to sandstone and metal
surfaces as well. A glazed earthenware pot was also found at Bagan in the
relic chamber of a stupa built by King Anawrahta (1044-1077), the founder of
the first Myanmar empire. Four other 17th century religious edifices in
Bagan also have glazed decorations. Despite this historical and
archeological evidence, the international scientific establishment continued
to ignore Myanmar’s ceramic traditions and histories of East Asian and
Southeast Asian ceramics continued to leave Myanmar’s contributions a
ceramic blank page. The situation changed in 1984 after what is known as
Green-and-White ceramic ware was found during an illegal excavation near the
Thai town of Mae Sot, which is on the border with Myanmar. Chemical analysis
revealed that the Green-and-White ware from Mae Sot used tin white and tin
green glazes, which had previously been unknown in Southeast Asia. The
question of whether the Green-and-White ware originated in Thailand or
Myanmar was settled in favour of Myanmar because the clay, the glaze and the
shape and style of the Mae Sot finds differ entirely from any known Thai
ceramic ware. Chemical analysis also revealed that the lead isotope ratios
of the glaze used in the white-glazed ceramic ware with green decorations
agree with those of lead ores from Myanmar and those of the glaze from
Buddhist temples at Bago and Bagan. The isotope ratios of the Thai lead
deposits do not match those of the lead glaze on the Green-and-White ceramic
wares. Thus Myanmar lead ore seems to have been used for the glaze and
experts have suggested that the white-glazed ceramic wares with green
decoration was produced somewhere in Myanmar. Gakuji Hasabe of the Machida
City Museum in Japan states: "From these studies, it is nearly certain that
Green-and-White ware and plain white and green wares are from Myanmar, but
their kiln sites remain to be discovered. Once such a kiln is excavated, the
date of production, stylistic evolution, total output, and purpose of
Green-and-White ware will be revealed." This absence of kiln sites for
Green-and-White ware remained the last stumbling block for final acceptance
of a Myanmar origin of such glazed ceramic ware. This led to a concerted
effort by the Archeology Department of the Myanmar Ministry of Culture and
the Myanmar Ceramic Society to locate kiln-sites that show indications of
having produced glazed ceramic ware in the form of manufacturing aids and
tools such as supports, shards and broken pieces of ceramic ware. The search
was orchestrated by the current president of the Myanmar Ceramic Society, Dr
Myo Thant Tyn (who holds a PhD in chemical engineering from Britain) and is
recounted in a report published in Orientations magazine titled
Ancient Celadon in Myanmar: A New Ceramics Discovery (Vol. 32, No. 4).
Hundreds of possible ancient kiln sites for the production of glazed ceramic
ware have so far been located. The kilns are concentrated in several
areas, including at Lagumbyee, an old Pyu city on the Yangon-Bago Highway,
where more than 100 ancient kilns were discovered; at Twante, about 20 miles
southwest of Yangon where hundreds of kiln sites have been located; at
Myaung Mya Old City, the third largest kiln site in Myanmar; at Nga-Pu-Taw
(some 16 miles southwest of Myaung Mya Old City) where Don Hein and Dr Myo
Thant Tyn discovered seven sites; at Bagan; at Sagaing; at Don-za-yit Myo
Haung on the east bank of the Sittaung River; at Innwa (Ava) where Don Hein
found three up-draft kilns and one old kiln site; and at Mrauk-U where Don
Hein also found ground cross-draft kilns near Shwe Kya Thein monastery.
Except at two sites, one at Bagan and the other at Lagunbyee, excavations
have not yet been carried out. With the quickening of interest in
traditional Myanmar ceramics that has been aroused by the latest research on
Green-and-White ware by foreign scholars coupled with the finding of ancient
ceramic kiln sites by Tyn, Hein and others, the field is wide open for
excavations by international scholars with adequate funding and state of the
art archeological excavation techniques. The prospects are bright and call
for an optimistic outlook, a view shared by many international academics
including Frazer-Lu, who wrote in 1994 that "there is an urgent need for
archaeologists and ceramic historians to investigate thoroughly the
activities of all known, both past and present, to gauge the scope and
sequence of Myanmar’s unique ceramic traditions, and to assess their role in
the history of the region". As Mr Gakuji Hasabe has aptly said: "I hope that
people will discover this unknown realm of Myanmar ceramic ware and enjoy
its beauty to the utmost."
(N.B. The author would like to express his sincere thanks to Dr. Myo Thant
Tyn, chairman of the Myanmar Ceramics Society, for his help with
documentation and the more technical aspects of this article.)