The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

BURMA *
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of the older Indian tradition from which it
stems.
The setting of the last chapter in the artistic
history of Burma is that romanticized in Kipling's
Road to Mandalay, the fantastic architecture
of wooden palaces and gilded pagodas
in the capital of Mandalay, founded in 1857.
The palace structures are supported by whole
forests of gigantic teak pillars and crowned by
multiple roofs and spires decorated with the
most lavish inlay of gold and lacquer. The
towers rise in storeyed slenderness, the sensation
of soaring elegance and attenuation enhanced
by the wavering flame-shaped acroteria
that make these structures appear like something
out of a fairy-land of architectural fancy. The
multiple overlapping roofs are perhaps an indication
of an ultimate relationship to the primitive
northern Cambodian wooden architecture
from which this same device was adapted to the
stone sanctuaries of Angkor.
Just as these buildings, for all their elaborateness,
are the ultimate descendants of old Indian
palace architecture, the typically Burmese technique
of lacquer decoration goes back at least to
the period of florescence at Pagan in the thirteenth
century. Actually, this final phase of
Burmese culture, because, rather than in spite
of, its provinciality, reveals a truly indigenous
expressiveness in the native genius for exuberant
wood-carving and inlay that has the vigour and
imagination of what might be described as a
sophisticated folk art, no longer consciously
dependent on any outside traditions.
For centuries Burmese craftsmen have been
famous for work in lacquer as well as silks and
embroideries, mostly the work of hill tribes. 8
The most spectacular examples of the minor
arts in Burma are part of the royal regalia, exhibited
for many years in the Victoria and Albert
375. Gold stupa from Burma.
London, Victoria and Albert Museum (formerly)
376. Amber duck from Burma.
London, Victoria and Albert Museum (formerly)