The craft of lacquer ware making is among the ten traditional arts and crafts. Bagan Lacquerware College teaching its students to uphold the craft of lacquer ware making and to develop and modernize the techniques so that the craft of lacquer ware will last forever. There are six basic subjects. They are bamboo carving, bamboo carving painted with lacquer. Lacquer ware decorated with stylus painting, woodcarving, lacquer ware with gold leaf and lacquer ware decorated with ashes of bone.

U Maung Cho, Assistant Lecturer of Lacquer Ware College explained about lacquer ware decorated with stylus painting. It is a kind of art, painted on plain lacquer ware with various sizes of stylus, according to designs. Stylus painting is the final step. Beautiful designs and matching colours are decorated on black lacquer ware.

This is one of Buddha’s life stories named “PhwarDawMuKhan” painting. First, we make lines with small sizes of stylus, and then we paint in these lines with colour. It is called traditional stylus painting. After the 20th century, ancient wall paintings are now used as lacquer ware designs. The lacquer ware designs from the Bagan period up to now portray the living standard of civilization, through all these centuries.

Our college teaches not only lacquer ware techniques, but also modern lacquer ware technology. Modern stylus drawings are drawn from nature scenes. Many small stylus are used to colour the block plane will disappear. The modern painting is drawn by natural colour.

The first traditional painting we have shown you is mainly line drawings. Modern painting is based on traditional painting. We choose the subject composition we prefer, then, add on the line perspective and colour perspective we desire, and draw as much as we can to depict nature.
This painting is a scene of bullock carts caravan in the Bagan era. The other is lace type design lacquer ware. It is a 3-dimension form. It is based on traditional stylus drawing. The more creative it is, the more beautiful the design will be. The stylus drawing on lacquer ware is a very intricate art. We present this programme to let the audience understand the lacquer ware industry, which is creating more fantastic designs nowadays.