S & E Asia 98 - Myanmar 38: Mandalay 8 - Silver & gold work and Myanmar wine
Apr 11, 2022 10:12:58 #
Joe, I always look forward to your fine photography of places I will probably never get to visit! However, I have to wonder where all the gold that is processed in leaf form and used to decorate architecture and statuary comes from and whether the gold is mined in an environmentally friendly manner (I think I already know the answer). I make this comment as someone who spent my entire career working to protect our environment.
Apr 11, 2022 10:53:46 #
Apr 11, 2022 10:54:48 #
Apr 11, 2022 10:55:08 #
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Apr 11, 2022 10:57:51 #
junglejim1949 wrote:
What an interesting series. You certainly capture the fire and manual craftsmanship of the people.
Thank you Jim, it was very interesting to see some people in action creating these items!
Apr 11, 2022 11:01:11 #
roder10 wrote:
Your images of the gold leaf process is so informative and interesting. I had no idea of the time intensive process this must take. Makes one appreciate the final product. Oh, the wine bottle is beautiful.
Thank you Rowedean, yes it was very interesting to see the gold leaf process in ongoing action, and also afterwards during my research to get to know and understand the whole process - that's when I frequently learn the most about the things I have seen. I also found the label on the wine bottle to be quite artistic and pleasing.
Apr 11, 2022 11:16:21 #
FL Streetrodder wrote:
Joe, I always look forward to your fine photography of places I will probably never get to visit! However, I have to wonder where all the gold that is processed in leaf form and used to decorate architecture and statuary comes from and whether the gold is mined in an environmentally friendly manner (I think I already know the answer). I make this comment as someone who spent my entire career working to protect our environment.
Thank you Streetrodder for your comments and concerned thoughts. I have to admit that I had not given this topic any consideration, so I just tried to google for information. As you implied in parenthesis, the result does not look favorable, I guess mining in generally does not get a good press and this very much seems to be the case here. There a multiple references to a growing problem, while once the gold mining apparently was done small scale more like a family business with less detrimental impact on the environment, it now seems to be, with the involvement of the military junta, moving into large scale and quite destructive operations. I attach one link I perused (you have to click on the main topics to get at the information), see below:
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/special/goldmine/
Apr 11, 2022 12:06:06 #
Apr 11, 2022 12:08:51 #
Apr 11, 2022 12:39:04 #
Apr 11, 2022 12:51:21 #
Susan yamakawa wrote:
Was this gold leaf used on the pagodas ect.
Not really Susan, this ultra-thin gold leaf would not work well on a large structure, these gold leaves are used mainly to gild objects like wooden statues, etc. They are extensively used even nowadays in some pagodas in Myanmar, where people come and add extra gold to Buddha statues, as we will see in a couple of days (upcoming post #101).
The pagoda and other structure surfaces are covered with small, more substantial plates that are fastened to the structure, like I showed in image #4 in post #94. For your ease of reference, I attach a photo that shows clearly the gold-covering in small square plates around the image.
4 - Golden evidence of power: I am not sure what this image portrays (ogre?), but it clearly is covered in gold, this is a good example to see how the individual gold plates are placed on the wall and then attached with fasteners
(Download)
Apr 11, 2022 17:56:21 #
Apr 11, 2022 18:16:52 #
bob4pix wrote:
Really enjoyed the set, thanks. Certainly learned a lot.
Thank you Bob for looking in on my travelogue and your kind comment. Glad you learned something new - I still do practically each time I add a post here in my research on the topic as well as also in the interaction with my viewers, and I am glad, it keeps me on my toes! I think this is the first time I noticed receiving a comment from you on one of my travelogues - so I'd like to welcome you to the tour and encourage you to look in again as the tour continues, or also look back at some of the previous posts. I will be posting for another couple of weeks and then will take a long break, as we are supposed to take off at the end of the month, and then continue again in June/July with this tour. Thanks and welcome again!
Apr 11, 2022 21:07:55 #
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