You will see bamboo growing everywhere in Myanmar. Bamboo is very useful for people and almost all parts of the bamboo are of use, one way or the other. The bamboo is a genealogy of the grass plant, and is known to be grass specie, which resembles a tree. There are over 200 varieties of bamboo growing in Myanmar and they are an important natural resource for mankind.
Early in the monsoon season, people consume the delicate bamboo shoots that grow at the base of the bamboo trees, called “Mhyit” as food. If you bisect the bamboo stem you can make articles used by people and make all kinds of baskets to put your food in and take away.

Now, we will present to you, out of the over 200 species of bamboo growing in Myanmar, the bamboo named War Yar and Wa Phyu and how they are used for weaving baskets. To weave a quality basket, a bamboo has to be at least one year or older.
So, when you have gathered your quality bamboo, the first thing to do is to smooth out the rough ends and split it in two. Then we split the bamboo to the sizes we want to make into thin bamboo strips, which in turn will be weaved into baskets. To counter wastage, it is advised to bask the bamboo strips in the sun or heat them in the raining season.

When we start weaving the baskets, we start from the basket-bottom, which is known as “ A-Che-Tee”. There are many ways to weave baskets. The basket-bottom can be weaved in 2 designs, square or circle-shape. When you get the desired thickness for the basket bottom, you then erect the four sides of the bamboo strips you are weaving to have the form of the basket and when the desired height of the basket has been weaved, we go on to weave the rim of the basket. And to make the basket sturdy and strong, we use pointed bamboo strips to fix the bamboo strips together and later on, tie up the brim of the basket in order to make it strong and durable.

We just presented to you how to weave a basket with bamboo. You can weave any kind of basket based on this technique. While there are many kinds of bamboo baskets, the wide-mouthed shallow basket, grain-measured basket and large basket with wide interstices are the most popular.
Within the compound of rural village houses you will find bamboo grown by the owners of the houses, because they provide shade and many household furniture and other utensils.
Myanmar rural life and bamboo goes hand in hand, since ancient times. And you can bet that it will still be in our culture in the future, too.