The musical instruments and the melodious sounds of Myanma traditional orchestra highlights Myanma’s pride in its own culture and also reflects the remarkable work of Myanma arts and crafts. As Myanma orchestra depicts a combined art of genuine Myanma music and Myanma handicraft, it is highly treasured by the Myanmar people. The Myanma orchestra which is composed of the drums, double-headed drum, big drum, short drums, gong- circle, gong set, oboe, cymbals, bamboo clapper with timing bells will entertain you to all kinds of emotional feelings, like pleasantness, heart-pounding mood, sorrow and happiness. Moreover, you will be able to observe decorative arts such as painting, woodcarving and embedded glass mosaic. Myanma orchestra is artistically composed in the shape of a drum-circle, decorated with embedded and gilded glass mosaic, a gong circle, a decorated sheet which covers solo drum, decorated wood planks, an image of a mythical animal, combing the features of 5 different animals and bars where you can hang gongs sets. All parts of the Myanmar orchestra consisting of the colour gold and glittering is very grand to look at.
All the items used to decorate the Myanma orchestra are made of Yamane wood. Firstly, the wood planks that are to be used are smooth-out with a carpenter’s plane. Next, by using a saw, the upper part of each wood plank is cut into a triangular shape, which is called Thin-Bone-Gaung so that a double-headed drum can be hang. After that, the wood planks are placed in the mortises of the wood-frame. To get one big wood-plank (in Myanmar Pan-bya), 3 small planks with Thin-Bone-Gaung are joined. Then, ready-made floral designs are temporarily stick on the Pan-bya and carved according to the floral shape by using an electric-saw. To get a totally smooth wood plank, final touches are made by using various size of files and braces. The Pyinsa Rupa or Mythical creature’s head, legs and body are artistically crafted in detail separately. In every orchestra, there are at least one or two of these creatures crafted in.

The Pyinsa Rupa denotes five principal beauties which combine the most striking features of five different animals: the head of the lion, the antlers, ears and legs of the deer, the body and tail of the gudgeon of Nga Gyin fish, the wings of the Hintha bird and the tusk and the trunk of the elephant. Thus, the Pyinsa Rupa has the features of a land, winged and sea-creature. It is a very beautiful and intricate Myanmar work of art. Next, we need to have the ThaYoo, which is a kind of glue-like substance obtained from the pounding and mixing together teak saw dust and lacquer. To gild on the glass mosaic, we have to firstly spread a little lacquer on the wooden planks and then paint on a coat of Tha Yoo so that they will fit together nicely. This procedure is called ThaYoo-Htay-Gyin in the Myanmar language. Then the wooden planks are put in the underground cellar for a day. After the slab has been dried, another coat of paint has to be evenly applied. While the coating is still wet, you have to put in the multi-coloured glass mosaics according to the designs you have made on the wooden planks and later on let the planks dry for a whole day.
Now, its time to take the lacquer and pound it thoroughly with a traditional ingredient. Then the mixture is laid on a wooden block, made especially for twisting rope. This rope is then inserted into the wooden slab where the multi-coloured glass mosaics are embedded in order to get all sorts of floral designs. After letting the wooden slabs dry for 4 to 5 days, you have to put on lacquer so that you can gild. You need to wait for another 3 days before you have applied another coating of lacquer for the gilding. This lacquer has a reddish brown colour and is most suitable for gilding. After waiting for 3 days in the underground cellar, it is ready for gilding. When gilding you must be careful not to leave any space and gild leaves all over the wooden slabs. Be sure to use a cotton swab to lightly rub the gilded surface so that they will shine brightly. This procedure is called (Gon-Thit-Chin) or rubbing on with a cotton swab.

After this procedure is finished, you have to take off the excess gold from the glass-mosaic with knife. This is a very painstaking job, which takes patience and skill. Okay, now you have a beautiful golden coloured wooden slab embedded with dazzling multi-coloured glass mosaic. The diamond, emerald, ruby and the sapphire orchestras were all used in ancient days at the Royal Court of our Myanmar kings and we based our products on them, retaining its origin and tradition, but using more modernized techniques. Our products are not only beautiful and graceful to look at but durable at the same time. We sell our products all round the country and they are also being sent abroad by the Ministry of Culture as gifts to the People’s Republic of China, and France is also another country where our products are being introduced. We are very happy to see that people from other countries have started to take interest in our art and crafts.
To conclude up, the Myanmar traditional orchestra, (HsaingWaing) stands proudly in the world today as being one of the instruments of Myanma traditional music. The (HsaingWaing), without any mechanical or electronic aid like in modern musical instruments, can play both classical and modern music. And this itself, is capable of astonishing all foreigners.