Myanmar Ceramics

In the western part of Mainland Southeast Asia, there had been glazing skills in Myanmar as early as the Pyu city-states (BCE 200-1050), evidenced by the production of green glazed ceramic building components. By the Pagan Dynasty (849-1369), the ceramic industry and the environment had become closely aligned with each other. Apart from supplying for the construction of large-scale buildings such as pagodas, kilns in Myanmar gradually developed their unique techniques and styles, and their works emerged, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, as one of the most popular ceramic wares in Southeast Asia in the contemporary market. What is particularly noteworthy is that Myanmar was the only country in Southeast Asia that used tin as a melter in the firing process, resulting in the non-transparent and opaque quality of its white and green glaze. Added with the geometrical patterns commonly seen on these white glazed and green overglazed works, Myanmarese ceramics register the influence from Islamic ceramic culture in the Middle East. The mobility and circularity of Myanmarese ceramics is reflected in their prevalence throughout Southeast Asia and the Malay Archipelago, as well as in the fact that some of their works have been found in Japan and in Penghu Islands in the Taiwan Strait. One of their other highly appealing wares is celadon, which was influenced by the celadon of Longquan Kiln in China and was exported around the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.