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Tribal textiles and weavings produced by the Chin, Naga, Kachin andKayin can also be very beautiful, especially antique pieces. Among traditionalhand-woven silk longyis, laun-taya acheik, woven on hundredspools, are the most prized.Dance & TheatreMyanmar’s truly indigenous dance forms are those that pay homage tothe nat (spirit being). Most classical dance styles, meanwhile, arrivedfrom Thailand. Today the dances most obviously taken from Thailandare known as yodaya zat (Ayuthaya theatre), as taught to the people ofMyanmar by Thai theatrical artists taken captive in the 18th century.The most Myanmar of dances feature solo performances by femaledancers who wear strikingly colourful dresses with long white trains,which they kick into the air with their heels – quite a feat, given therestrictive length of the train.An all-night zat pwe involves a re-creation of an ancient legend orBuddhist Jataka (life story of the Buddha), while the yamazat pick a talefrom the Indian epic Ramayana. In Mandalay, yamazat performers evenhave their own shrine.Myanmar classical dancing emphasises pose rather than movementand solo rather than ensemble performances. In contrast the less common,but livelier, yein pwe features singing and dancing performed by achorus or ensemble.Most popular of all is the a-nyeint pwe, a traditional pwe somewhatakin to early American vaudeville, the most famous exponents of whichare Mandalay’s Moustache Brothers.M arionette TheatreYouq-the pwe (Myanmar marionette theatre) presents colourful puppetsup to 3.5ft high in a spectacle that many aesthetes consider themost expressive of all the Myanmar arts. Developed during the Konbaungperiod, it was so influential that it became the forerunner tozat pwe as later performed by actors rather than marionettes. As withdance-drama, the genre’s ‘golden age’ began with the Mandalay kingdomsof the late 18th century and ran through to the advent of cinemain the 1930s.The people of Myanmar have great respect for an expert puppeteer.Some marionettes may be manipulated by a dozen or more strings. Themarionette master’s standard repertoire requires a troupe of 28 puppetsincluding Thagyamin (king of the gods); a Myanmar king, queen, princeand princess; a regent; two court pages; an old man and an old woman; avillain; a hermit; four ministers; two clowns; one good and one evil nat; aBrahmin astrologer; two ogres; a zawgyi (alchemist); a horse; a monkey;a makara a (mythical sea serpent); and an elephant.It’s rare to see marionette theatre outside tourist venues in Yangon,Mandalay or Bagan.MusicMuch of classical Myanmar music, played loud the way the nat like it,features strongly in any pwe. Its repetitive, even harsh, harmonies canbe hard on Western ears at first; Myanmar scales are not ‘tempered’, asWestern scales have been since Bach. Traditional Myanmar music is primarilytwo dimensional, in the sense that rhythm and melody providemuch of the musical structure, while repetition is a key element. Subtleshifts in rhythm and tonality provide the modulation usually supplied bythe harmonic dimension in Western music.Classicaldance-drama isperformed nightlyat Mandalay’sMintha Theaterand occasionallyat the NationalTheatre inYangon.The Illusion ofLife: BurmeseMarionettes byMa Thanegi givesreaders a glimpseof the ‘wit, spiritand style’ of thistraditional Burmeseperformanceart.347ARTS & ARCHITECTURE